Archibald “Archie” Hume was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, on the 22nd June 1875, the son of David and Jane Hume (née Archer). His father was a school master who had married Lucy Harriet Clarke in 1848 and the couple had ten children before his wife died in 1870. In 1871, he married Jane Archer, and they had three children, of whom Archie was the youngest.
In 1879, his father died, leaving his widowed mother to raise her children alone. Archie began his working life as a clerk in an accountant’s office, but at some stage joined the Mercantile Marine. He was unmarried.
He engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool and was on board when she departed for New York on the morning of the 17th April 1915. His monthly rate of pay was £6.
He was killed when the ship was sunk on her return voyage to Liverpool, and his body was not recovered and identified afterwards. As a consequence, he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Tower Hill, London. He was aged 39 years.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 18th January 2024.