Mr. Leonard Hanson Sloane, Junior Assistant Purser

Leonard Hanson Sloane (1892 – 1915), 23, was a British subject and junior assistant purser aboard the last voyage of the Lusitania. Sloane was lost when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 on 7 May 1915. His body was either not recovered or not identified.

Biography


Leonard Hanson Sloane was born in Aughton, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, in 1892, the son of William James Hanson and Ella Waldron Sloane. The family home was at 17 Greenbank Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool.

He was employed as one of three junior assistant pursers in the Deck Department on board the Lusitania.  He re-engaged on 14 May 1915, at Liverpool, at a monthly wage of £6 for what would be the liner’s final voyage and reported for duty on the morning of 17 May, before she left the River Mersey for the final time.

When the ship was sunk, he and both the other two junior assistant pursers, George Beesley and Alfred Harrod, were killed, along with the Purser, James McCubbin, and one of the assistant pursers, Arthur Burden. Only the other assistant purser, William Harkness, and the Second Purser Percy Draper, survived from the Pursers’ Section. Leonard Sloane was aged 23 years when he was killed.

His body was not recovered and identified afterwards and he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.

Links of interest


Leonard Hanson Sloane at the Merseyside Maritime Museum

Contributors
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Ellie Moffat, UK

References
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths

1901 Census of England and Wales

1911 Census of England and Wales

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Cunard Records

PRO BT 100/345

PRO BT 334

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