William Mayes

William Mayes ¹ was born at 73 Vulcan Street in Belfast, Ireland on 30 January 1883.² Hailing from a Presbyterian family, he was the son of Arthur Mayes, a coal porter, and Mary Morgan.

William appears on the 1901 census living with his by then widowed father and his brother Arthur at 18 Scotch Row in east Belfast, the home address of his married sister Emma Barr and her family. William was then described, like his father, as a coal porter. 

Mayes’ ship prior to Titanic had been the Olympic. He joined Titanic at Belfast for the delivery trip to Southampton where he then disembarked.

Although still in service as a fireman with the merchant fleet, Mayes volunteered for service in May 1917 with the Royal Engineers. With a far from exemplary record, he was discharged from service and eventually returned to sea. 

On 23 June 1919 William Mayes was married in Belfast’s St Anne’s Church to widow Susannah Hutton, née Cousins. He spent the next few years living at 32 Fox Street, Belfast but later his health declined and he was committed to a sanitorium where he died on 3 May 1926. He is buried with his widow Susannah—who died in 1946—in Dundonald Cemetery (plot E2 77).