Ada Manby was born in the family home at Hoo Hall, Hoo, Suffolk, England, on the 3rd November 1878, the daughter of Henry Wake and Martha Mandy (née Symonds). She was the twelfth of fourteen known children in the family, and her father was a farmer, who in 1881 was farming 506 acres and employing 22 men and 5 boys! The family later moved to the Manor House, Burgh, Suffolk.
On completion of her education, she became a typist and secretary, and in 1909, was employed by Dr. Martin Ekenberg, a Swedish-born engineer and scientist, who in that year had been arrested in London to face extradition to his native Sweden on charges of attempted murder by sending bombs through the postal service. It was alleged that between 1904 and 1909, he sent four letter and parcel bombs to Sweden, which resulted in injuries, some severe, to the recipients or postal workers. Dr. Ekenberg is credited with being the first person to assemble and post a letter bomb, although he never admitted to the crimes, and he died suddenly in London in 1910, shortly after an English Court had decided he should be extradited.
In May 1913, Ada and her sister, Irene, had gone to Montreal, Canada, where they worked or studied at the Müller Institute of Physical Culture in the city. Then, in March 1915, her sister, Irene, who was a nurse, left Montreal to “do her bit” for the war effort, and volunteer as a nurse in France. Ada, not wishing to remain in Canada without her sister, decided to return to her widowed mother in England.
As a consequence, she booked as a second cabin passenger on the Lusitania and joined the vessel at New York before she left her moorings at Pier 54 at mid-day, on 1st May 1915.
Exactly six days later, when the liner was torpedoed and sunk, Miss Manby managed to survive, probably by securing a place in one of the lifeboats which was successfully launched. After being rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, she eventually made it back to Suffolk.
Later, she applied for financial help to The Lusitania Relief Fund, in respect of the fact that she had lost all her possessions in the sinking. This fund had been set up by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other members of the business community to offer financial assistance to second and third class passengers or the relatives of those who had lost their lives, and who had suffered loss as a result of the sinking. It was considered that saloon passengers would not need such a facility.
It is not known, however, if the administrators of the fund looked upon Miss Manby’s claim with sympathy!
To recover from her ordeal, Ada went to stay with her brother, Herbert Manby, at his home - Dennington Lodge, Framlingham, Suffolk.
Ada never married and continued to work as a secretary. For many years, she resided at her home - The Haven-at-Last, Midgham Green, Newbury, Berkshire, but after she retired, she moved to Hillside, Monk Sherborne, Basingstoke, Hampshire, which was where she lived when she died on the 12th March 1949, aged 71 years. She left her estate of £7,279-0s.-11d. (£7,279.04½p) to her sister, Irene Manby, who like Ada, had never married.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, London Daily News, The Gazette, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.