Minnie Mason was my great-grandmother and she was by all accounts ‘a tough cookie’. She was born Mary Joseph [sic] Devereux on 24 May 1872, in Johnstown, Waterford, the daughter of a merchant, James Devereux. She joined the Mercantile Marine about 1896 as a stewardess and worked on the cross-channel ferries until her death in 1927. Through her work she met and married Joseph Mason, a ship’s steward from Liverpool. They had one daughter, Evelyn Mary, who was born in Liverpool on 15 July 1900. The baby was taken back to Waterford and placed in the care of Minnie’s sister Johanna while both parents resumed their jobs on the ferries. Sometime around 1912, Joseph Mason disappeared. It was rumoured that he had been on the Titanic but other stories suggested he had gone to the United States. Minnie continued to work on the cross-channel ferries during WW1 despite the danger from German U-Boats active in the Irish Sea and St George’s Channel. When the war was over she was awarded the British War Medal with clasp and the Mercantile Marine medal. In 1927, as her ship was docking at Rosslare Harbour she suffered a stroke and died, aged 55 years. Her funeral was attended by the indoor and outdoor staff of the Great Western Steam Shipping Company. She is buried in Ballygunner cemetery in Waterford.
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