Alexander Herbert Buxton Ferrier was born in Knockmaroon, near the Phoenix Park, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland, on the 22nd October 1883, the son of Ernest William Buxton and Mary Ferrier (née Blood). His father was described as a ‘gentleman’, and the family resided at The Rookery, Newcastle, County Wicklow. He was the eldest of two children.
Along with his younger brother, he was educated at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire, England, and then, in 1905, he enlisted in the British Army as a second lieutenant with the Royal Army Service Corps. While serving in the army, he studied at Trinity College in Dublin.
On the 4th May 1911, he arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on board the Southwark, having sailed from Liverpool, and proceeded overland to Penticton, British Columbia, where he became a rancher and fruit farmer.
On the 3rd April 1913, he married Beata Elizabeth Mary Hayter Stevens in Penticton, British Columbia. Their daughter, Sheila, was born on the 14th April 1914.
Having previously served in the British Army, Alexander Ferrier decided in the spring of 1915, to return to Great Britain and apply for a commission and do his ‘bit’ for ‘God and Country’. Consequently, he booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania for himself and his family and having left Penticton at the end of April 1915, they joined the liner at Pier 54 in New York harbour, on the morning of 1st May!
When the ship was sunk, six days later and in sight of the coast of southern Ireland, only Elizabeth Ferrier survived, Hubert and their infant daughter were both killed. He was aged 31 years.
Although Sheila’s body was recovered from the sea and later buried in one of the mass graves in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, his body was never recovered and identified. He is commemorated, however, on a memorial stone, now broken, at the head of the mass grave where his daughter's body lies, in front of the cemetery wall.
The inscription on the stone states: -
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
HUBERT BUXTON FERRIER
DROWNED MAY 7TH 1915
ALSO TO SHEILA A. FERRIER
BORN APRIL 14TH 1914
DIED MAY 7TH 1915
_______ . _______
"THE BABY WEPT
AND GOD DID TAKE HER FROM
HER MOTHER'S ARMS
FROM PRESENT ILLS & FUTURE
UNKNOWN WOES
AND BABY SLEPT."
The inscription on the memorial stone is obviously incorrect, and with the passage of time it will probably never be known who was responsible for this error.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of Ireland, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, The Chronicle, White Star Journal, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv DE92/2/181, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.