Archibald Ernest Parsons was born in Bishop’s Stortford, Herefordshire, England, on the 3rd April 1885, the son of George and Gertrude Emma Parsons (née Mills). His father was a solicitor’s clerk, and Archibald was the third eldest of eight children.
On completing his education, Archibald Parsons was employed as a statistician for an insurance company, and in 1909, he married Gladys Frederica Turner in Fulham, London. Their only child, Albert Archibald, was born in 1910. in 1915, the family home was at 73, Downs Road, Hackney Downs, London, Middlesex, England.
On the 9th December 1914, Mr. Parsons arrived in New York, in the United States of America, from Liverpool, on board the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s ship Orduña. He travelled to a maternal uncle in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but it is not known if he travelled there for a holiday, or if he had an intention to find work and permanently stay there.
Whatever his intentions were, he decided to return to London, and for this purpose, he booked a second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool on the morning of 1st May 1915. Having arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour in time for this sailing, Archibald Parsons had to wait until the early afternoon before the liner actually left her berth and slipped out into the North River. This was because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for service as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from her destination. Archibald Parsons was killed as a result of this action. He was aged 30 years.
His body was recovered from the sea not long afterwards, however, and having been landed at Queenstown, it was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there, and given the reference number 106. From documents recovered from it, it was thought to be that of Archibald Parsons, but there was no conclusive evidence. Thus it was photographed in its coffin for future reference and because of the need for a fairly speedy burial of all the recovered dead, for obvious hygienic reasons in the rising heat of May! On 10th May 1915, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, two miles north of the town in Mass Grave B, 1st Row Upper Tier, where it lies today. Most of the victims of the sinking were buried on that day following a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard offices at Lynch’s Quay on the waterfront in Queenstown.
Not long after this, a Mrs. F. Clayton of 43, New Walk, Leicester, Leicestershire, who was probably a close relative, requested a copy of the photograph taken of the body thought to be his and on 30th May, she wrote back conclusively identifying it as that of Archibald Parsons.
On 31st August 1915, property recovered from the body was sent to Parsons’ widow at the London address. It consisted of an English gold wedding ring, a silver knife, an English bi-metal bracelet, a nickel plated nail trimmer, two $1 bills, a gold half sovereign, a bunch of keys, a pencil, a stud and a dog licence made out in the name of
Archibald Ernest Parsons!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England & Wales Christening Index 1530 – 1980, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.