Personal information

Stephen Joseph Rice left Ireland for Canada in 1923 and lived in the US from 1924-1940. In the mid-1930s, he was living in San Francisco, but by the outbreak of war in 1939, he had an address in Lower Manhattan, New York, and was making a living as a “livestock attendant” on ships transporting animals between both sides of the Atlantic. In June 1940 he survived the sinking of Ville de Namur, was rescued and brought to Bordeaux and eventually made his way to Paris. Rice spent the next four and a half years in France (three of them without any papers). He found occasional work but mostly lived off charitable handouts from the Service d’Aide aux Etrangers (SSAE), the Red Cross and — somewhat belatedly — an allowance from the Irish state channeled through the Irish Legation in Vichy, after he was issued a new Irish passport in December 1943. During this time, he mostly lived in hostels, including Paris hostels run by the Salvation Army. He made it back to London in late December 1944.

Do you have additional information on this person?
If you wish to add information to this person the following would be helpful (if missing): nationality, name, dob, place of birth, service (merchant marine, ...), rank or job on board specific ship. We have place for a photo as well if provided. You can send the information here.