Miss Anna “Annie” Doyle

Annie Doyle, 32, was a native of Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. She had been working in New York City, New York, as a domestic servant. Annie was lost in the Lusitania sinking. She was the daughter of Thomas Doyle and Mary Doyle (nee Duffy). She also had a brother, Patrick, who was fighting on the Western Front. Within an hour of learning of his daughter’s passing, Thomas also learned that his son had been admitted to army hospital, suffering from exposure to poison gas.

Biography


Anne “Annie” Doyle was born in Killaskillen, County Meath, Ireland, on the 13 January 1883, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Doyle (nee Duffy).  Her father was a blacksmith and coach smith by trade. Thomas and Mary had married in Mullingar, County Westmeath, on the 23rd of November 1879, it being Mary’s hometown. Their first-born, Patrick, was born in that town on the 10th of October 1880. At some point between 1880 and 1883 the young family had moved to the neighbouring county of Meath, where Thomas was originally from. It was here that Anne was born. They seem to have moved back to Mullingar shortly thereafter, for, tragically, Mary Doyle passed away after a three month long illness on the 11th of December 1885 at the age of 27. Thomas was now left on his own to rear two young motherless children – five and two. Unable to cope, he passed them into the care of his late wife’s parents, John and Anne Duffy. Thomas himself appears to have left Mullingar and taken up residence in the town of Ballinasloe, County Galway, for it was here that he married a local woman, Ellen Doyle, on 27th of September 1894. He and his second wife went on to have three children of their own – Mary, Thomas and Ellen.

Meanwhile, back in Mullingar, Patrick and Anne remained in the good care of their grandparents and then later their uncles and aunts. A family photo, taken circa 1890, show Patrick and Anne to have been well-dressed and well-nourished children, albeit with sullen expressions. The experience of losing their mother and being left in the care of their grandparents while their father moved away to start a second family can only be imagined.

Annie and her brother Patrick, circa 1890. Photo courtesy Richard Coplen.Annie and her brother Patrick, circa 1890.

Thomas and his second family appeared to have moved back to live in Mullingar between 1897 and 1899, when his second child was born in the town. Thomas continued to work as a coach smith at this time, where he worked at P.J. Carey’s, Harbour Street. The children of his first marriage were now entering their late teenage years. Whether there was a fractious relationship between them and their father is unknown but, on the 26th of October 1900, Patrick had signed-up as a recruit with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, a job which would take him abroad for many years. Within a year he was serving with the British army in South Africa during the Boer War. Then, during the peacetime years between 1902 and 1908, he was variably posted at British army garrisons in Malta, Cyprus and Egypt.

Patrick returned to civilian life as a reservist between 1908 and 1912. During that time, he lived in his hometown of Mullingar, working as a labourer and residing at his uncle Michael’s household on Harbour Street. His father, Thomas, continued to live with his second family just a five minute walk away, on Blackhall Street. He was actually employed by one P.J. Carey’s coach-building establishment on Harbour Street, the same street that Patrick lived on. Whether father and son were on good terms is unknown but it is likely they were for Patrick repeatedly named his father as next-of-kin in his army documents. Patrick would later return to active military service in April 1912.

Upon Patrick’s initial enlistment in 1900, his younger sister, Anne, appears to have followed suit in leaving Mullingar for she doesn’t appear in the town in the 1901 Census. It would appear that she moved to Dublin along with some members of the Duffy family and whilst there, took up the position of shop assistant. She next appears on the 29th of March 1906 when she is recorded boarding the White Star Liner Baltic at Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork, as a third class passenger. Together with her Mullingar cousin, Anne Duffy, she had taken the decision to seek her fortunes in the United States. On the passenger list the girls record themselves as both being 23 years old, with Doyle’s occupation recorded as a shop assistant and Duffy recorded as a dressmaker. The Baltic’s captain on this voyage was none other than E.J. Smith, of Titanic fame.

When Baltic docked in New York a week later, on 6th of April 1906, the girls were landed at Ellis Island for processing. The records there tell us that Anne Doyle’s last address was Dublin, Ireland. Her intended address in the United States was with her aunt, Kate McEvoy, a domestic servant of the Gilford family, living at 473 Lexington Avenue, New York. Anne Doyle is recorded as having $35 in her pocket whereas her cousin, Anne Duffy, had $45. Anne Duffy’s last address is recorded as being Mullingar, County Westmeath.

The girls were permitted entry into the United States. What happened to them after this remains a mystery. The family story is that Anne Doyle found a job working as a nurse or nanny to the children of a wealthy New York family.

Nine years later, Annie was still practicing her profession as a nurse or nanny in New York and decided to return home to Ireland. Whether this was just intended to be a visit or a permanent return to Ireland is unknown. Annie bought a third class ticket for herself from New York to Liverpool on Lusitania and joined the vessel at Pier 54, on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. The ship’s departure was delayed until 12:30 p.m. by the transference of passengers, some crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia that the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.

Six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20.  At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from her Liverpool destination. Annie Doyle was killed in the disaster.  As her body was never recovered and identified afterwards, she has no known grave.  She was aged 32 years.

Within an hour of hearing about the sinking, her father also learned that his son, Patrick, serving with the British Army on the Western Front, had been hospitalised having suffered injuries in a poison gas attack on 4 May.

Following Annie’s death, her parents applied for help from The Lusitania Relief Fund set up by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen to give aid to those survivors or relatives of the dead from second or third class, who were experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the sinking.  It was thought at the time that saloon class passengers did not need this help. The awards committee made them a single payment of a mere £5-0s-0d., in respect of their daughter’s loss.  At that time they were living in County Kerry.

The war was to claim Annie’s brother also, as 7275 Private Patrick Doyle, 1st Bn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers, having survived a poison gas attack on the 4 May 1915, died at a casualty clearing station near Dozinghem, Belgium, of shrapnel wounds to his right thigh and forearm on the 4 October 1917. He was 36 years of age and just six days short of his 37th birthday. He was subsequently interred in Dozinghem Military Cemetery. Thus ended the lives of two young and tragic siblings, victims of a global conflict which was unprecedented in its barbarity and destruction.

Contributors:
Richard Coplen, Ireland
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Senan Molony, Ireland

References:
Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy, pgs. 30-31. Mercier Press, 2004.

19 thoughts on “Miss Anna “Annie” Doyle”

  1. Annie and Patrick Doyle were my Great Aunt and Uncle, their sister Mary (from my Great grandfather’s second marriage) was my maternal grandmother. I knew fragments of this story but nothing like this amount of detail. Thanks for all this information.

    • Hi Anne, I was involved in researching Anna & Patrick’s story & am also related from the Duffy side of the family. I am happy with most of the details except for the comment that they were living in Kerry when the payment was issued from the Relief Fund. I had thought that they lived in Mullingar for a long time after the Lusitania sinking. Can you confirm if they were living in Kerry?

      • I am not sure where the Kerry information came from but my Grandmother Mary Doyle, her brother and sister Tom and Nell (Ellen) lived all of their lives in Mullingar.

          • Hi Sean sadly all of my mother’s family bar one died quite young so we don’t have many people to ask but my sister has just arrived for a visit and she remembers our mother saying that the family did receive a payment but it was many years later and Great grandfather had by then himself passed on. My sister thinks it might have even been when our mother was a child in around the late 1930s.

  2. Delighted to see this up in time for the centenary. I was keen to tell the story of Annie and Samuel McClemmond, the two Westmeath passengers aboard. Anne, are you living in Mullingar now?

  3. Hi Richard, thanks for all your hard work on this..I don’t live in Mullingar but we visited our relatives frequently up until the late 1990s and spent a lot of our childhood visiting my mum’s family. But sadly my branch of the Doyle family are all gone now. I have one Aunt left on that side but she has lived in the UK for over sixty years. I’ll see if she remembers anything else.

    • I have to say that equal credit is due to Sean for his information and the photograph (which his mother provided). I’m so glad that between the two of us we have been able to tell Annie’s story.

  4. Well thanks so much Sean…the photo is amazing. Would you believe I can see a resemblance in great uncle Patrick to my own uncle, also called Pat who was his nephew!

    • Hi Annie – that’s brilliant about the resemblance to your uncle Pat. Great to see both Anna & Patrick being remembered.
      Thanks again Richard for all your help & advice.

  5. Hi all. I was very disappointed to see that Annie Doyle was omitted from the list of Irish passengers in the supplement to the Irish Independent last Saturday commemorating the Lusitania. Was any other passenger left out of the list do we know? It seems a shame they go it wrong when so many people at the Lusitania Resource have gone to ao much trouble to research so carefully.

  6. Hi Anne and Sean, yes I noticed that too but I see they left a lot more names out. Between this site and Senan Molony’s book, I would suggest that there was at least two to three times the number of Irish people aboard than those listed in the supplement. Whoever was doing the research for it just appeared to list all surnames that sounded Irish to them. I think a lot of confusion lies in the fact that the Irish passengers and crew would have had their nationalities listed as British given the fact that Ireland was wholly part of the UK at that time. A large article on Anne and Patrick which I have written is to be published in our local newspaper – the Westmeath Examiner this Tuesday. I’ll also be attending all of the centenary events down in Cork between Wednesday and Sunday this week so I will be sure that Anne is remembered where possible.

    • Hi Richard, I got the paper this morning and must congratulate you on the piece, great job. I’m
      delighted that both Anna & Patrick are being remembered after all this time.

  7. Hi Sean,

    Wow, you beat me to it! I didn’t realise it would be on sale already. Must grab myself a copy!

    Thanks again to you and your mother for allowing me to use the photo. It adds poignancy being able to put a face to the name. I’ll be sure to light a candle for Annie at the centenary mass in Cobh as well.

  8. Hi Sean and Richard. I bought three copies of the Westmeath Examiner in Galway this morning and one will shortly be in the post bound for the UK to my aunt. She doesn’t have a computer so is really excited about seeing her aunt and uncle remembered like this. Thanks again to you both from all of my side of the family.

    • You’re very welcome Anne. I’m just proud to have played a part in remembering the two of them – theirs is a tragic story which deserved to be told. I’ll be sure to remember them at the centenary events in Cobh.

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