Agnes Gilmore was born at Kilfinnan, near Tighnabruaich, Argyll, Scotland, in January 1886, the daughter of Hugh and Marion Mitchell Gilmore (née Stewart). Her father was
a farmer, who died when she was aged only five months, and her mother brought Agnes, and her older brother, Hugh, to live with her maternal uncle at Ardoch Farm, Eaglesham, Renfrewshire.
On the 8th March 1911, she married Andrew Semple in Eaglesham. Her husband was a joiner, who had been a neighbour of Agnes, and had been residing and working in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, since 1905. He returned to Scotland to marry Agnes, and ten days after their marriage, the couple travelled to Canada where they took up residence at 119. Yorkville Avenue, Toronto.
In late 1914 or early 1915, their son, John, was born in Toronto, and shortly afterwards,
Agnes Semple decided to return to Scotland for a holiday and take her infant son with her. As a result, at the end of April 1915, mother and son travelled to New York and boarded the Lusitania as second class passengers, at the Cunard berth at Pier 54. The liner had been scheduled to leave New York at 10.00 a.m. but her sailing was then postponed until the early afternoon of that day so that she could load cargo and embark passengers and crew from the Anchor Lines ship the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop.
Then, six days out of New York, in the early afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, and sank within 20 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about twelve to fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
Unfortunately, both mother and son lost their lives as a result of this action and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. Agnes Semple was aged 29 years.
1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, 1911 Census of Canada, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.