Patrick Markey was born at Mount Pleasant, Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, on the 4th January 1885, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Markey (née Murphy). His father was a labourer, and Patrick was the eldest of nine children in the family.
Having completed his education, Patrick Markey became a farm servant and agricultural labourer before he emigrated to Liverpool, Lancashire, England. In 1915, he resided at 12. Blackstone Street, Liverpool.
It is likely that he found work as a labourer in Liverpool, and when work on land was scarce, he turned his attention to the sea and the steam ships operating out of the port of Liverpool.
He engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania on the 12th April 1915 at Liverpool at a monthly wage of £6-0s.-0d. He was on board when the liner left port on the 17th April for the last time and having successfully reached New York, he was still onboard when she set out on her return voyage on the 1st May. He
was killed when the Lusitania was sunk by the German submarine U-20 while off the southern coast of his native Ireland on the 7th May. He was aged 30 years.
His body was never found and identified afterwards and as a result, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Irish Catholic Parish Records 1655 – 1915, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Grave Commission, Dundalk Examiner and Louth Advertiser, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 17th October 2024.