Archibald Lyons was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1886, the son of Archibald and Ann Lyons. Nothing is known of his family or early life.
He married Mary Wilkinson in Liverpool on the 4th June 1914 and set up home at 38, Claudia Street, Walton, Liverpool. At the end of 1914, the couple had a son whom they named Archibald after his father and grandfather.
Archibald was a professional seaman in the Mercantile Marine and engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool on the 12th April 1915, at a monthly wage of £6-0s.-0d. and joined the vessel at on the morning of the 17th April, before she left on her final trans-Atlantic crossing to New York.
He was killed, three weeks later when the vessel was and sunk and his body was not recovered from the sea and identified afterwards. He was aged 30 years.
As he has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing, at Tower Hill, London.
Further tragedy was to befall Mary Lyons a few months after she lost her husband when her beloved son died in October 1915. He did not live long enough to celebrate his first birthday.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Marriages 1538 – 1973, 1901 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 – 10th March 2024.