Image from the IWM’s collection of Women’s War Work portraits: “Henrietta Mellett, Canadian Army Medical Corps”.
October 10th 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Leinster in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. There were 564 casualties including Marion o/w Henrietta Mellett (39) from Swinford Co. Mayo. She was a daughter of PJ Mellett. Marion was a member of the Canadian Army Medical Corps attached to the 15th Canadian General Hospital and was travelling back to Canada when the ship was torpedoed and sank.
Her death notice in the Irish Times said that she was ‘murdered by the huns’.
She is buried in grave AG2410 in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin. She is commemorated in the Mayo Peace Park in Castlebar with the 1000’s of others who perished in the great wars of the past.
On a footnote, her uncle Joseph A Mellett was scheduled to travel with her but received a last minute telegram asking that he return to Swinford immediately. Most coincidentally, he also received a similar telegram on his way to board The Lusitania. Although he cheated death twice, he himself was called to his eternal reward in 1931 when he was just 65.