Current Information:

Born-Somers Town

Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Ireland

On 10th October, 1918, the Royal Mail Steamer Leinster left Kingstown, near Dublin bound for Holyhead. As well as carrying mail she also had on board 771 passengers, many of them service personnel, returning from postings in Ireland. An hour after leaving port and off the Kish Bank, she was hit by two torpedoes fired by the German submarine UB-123 and swiftly sank. A number of Royal Naval ships moved in to pick up survivors, but the sea was rough after a recent storm and as they struggled in the rough sea, in lifeboats or clinging to life-rafts and wreckage, many perished. The official death toll was 501 which made it the greatest ever loss of life in the Irish Sea. Among those who lost their lives was James Bowen, serving with the Lancashire Hussars.