Annie Maria Booth Watson was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on the 28th April 1880, the daughter of James and Elizabeth Watson (née Jeayes). Her father was a tailor, and the family home was at Cox Street, Coventry. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to 85. Scholefield Street, Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire.
Annie found employment as a domestic servant, and became engaged to be married to Joseph William Frankum, who was a carpenter, living in Monk Sherborne, Hampshire. The Frankum family had lived in Aston for a number of years, and presumably they met during this period.
On the 11th May 1905, Joseph Frankum boarded the Canada at Liverpool, and disembarked in Quebec, Canada, eleven days later. From there he travelled to London, Ontario, where he found work. Once he became established in his new surroundings, he sent word to Annie, and when she duly arrived in London, the couple were married on the 3rd August 1906.
On the 20th May 1907, their son – William Joseph was born in London, Ontario; however, he died of cholera on the 15th September of the same year, having lived for only four months.
The couple next moved to Detroit, Michigan, in the United States of America, where their son, Francis J., was born in 1908. They must have been very unsettled during this period of their lives, because they returned to London, Ontario, where their next child, Frederick George, was born in 1910. They had returned to Detroit by 1914, as their last child, Winifrid Annie was born there in July of that year.
By 1915, her mother-in-law was living at 55. Webster Street, Aston, Birmingham, and Annie’s parents were also still living there.. Perhaps because the war seriously affected the manufacturing industries in the United States, at least at first, in early 1915, the family decided to return to Aston and left Detroit for New York having booked a sailing as third class passengers on the May sailing of the
Lusitania.
As a result, the family booked third class passage on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York and having left Detroit some time in April, boarded the liner there on the morning of 1st May 1915, (and were no doubt escorted to their accommodation in room H17), in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. This was then delayed and it was not until just after noon that the liner left her berth at Pier 54 and began what was to become her last ever crossing of the Atlantic.
When the ship was sunk, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May 1915, by the German submarine
U-20, the family was divided in death, for Annie Frankum and her children Frederick and Winifred were all killed, only her husband Joseph and her son Francis survived.
Joseph Frankum later told his account of his loss in The Birmingham Daily Post in the edition of Monday 10th May 1915. He said: -
At the time of the disaster, we were sitting down forward having a cup of tea. As soon as the explosion occurred I gripped my two boys while my wife took charge of the little girl. We made our way along the deck. In the hurry I dropped my little boy who dropped about 6ft., but I picked him up again, and we made our way towards one of the lifeboats. Then leaving my wife and children alongside a boat, I went downstairs to get lifebelts. When I got on deck, I found that my wife and children had not got places.
We clung to one another as the ship went down. I stuck to my wife and children as long as I could but as we sank, we were separated. After a great struggle I came to the surface. I could find no traces of my wife nor any of my children. Seeing an overturned lifeboat nearby, I struck out, and climbed on the keel. .....
We were picked up and brought to Queenstown. I thought I had lost all my family, but judge of my surprise when I came across my eldest boy, seven years of age, in the hotel this morning. He and my wife and the other children had got into a boat which turned turtle. However, the boy clung to the boat and was rescued.
Annie Frankum's body was never found and identified afterwards and consequently, she has no known grave. She was aged 35 years.
Her husband later filed a claim which was considered after the war by the Mixed Claims Commission. As Joseph Frankum was a citizen of Great Britain, and therefore no American citizen suffered loss, injury, or damage, as a result of Annie’s death, no award was made.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Warwickshire England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1910, Ontario Canada Marriages 1826 – 1937, Ontario Canada Births 1858 – 1913, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Detroit Border Crossings and Passenger and Crew Lists 1905 – 1963, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2188, Birmingham Daily Gazette, Birmingham Daily Post, Coventry Standard, 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.