Arthur Lemuel MacGregor was born on the 29th July 1885 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of Samuel and Betsy MacGregor (née Kendrick). His father was an insurance agent, and Arthur was the youngest of six children. In 1895, the family moved to the Channel Isles, and established their home at 2. St. Saviour’s Hall, St. Saviour, Jersey.
Arthur was educated firstly at a private school at Beaumont and then entered Victoria College, Jersey, in January 1904, leaving in Midsummer 1905. Whilst there, he gained his football colours for two years.
Arthur became a foreign exchange broker, and in 1906, he immigrated to New York City in the United States of America, where he was employed as a foreign exchange clerk in Farmers’ Bank. Following his success in this area of finance, he set up as a broker in his own right.
He returned to Jersey in 1907 and 1908, to visit his family there, and when he returned to New York City in August 1908, he was accompanied by his widowed mother, who had decided to live with him in New York City. By 1915, they were residing at 226. Central Park West
From 1910 to 1914, mother and son had returned annually to Jersey for holidays and to visit relatives, especially Arthur’s sister, Mrs. Amy Parlett and her family, and then in April 1915, Amy Parlett and her daughter, Enid, came to visit them in New York City.
When it was time for Amy and Enid Parlett to return to their home in Jersey, Arthur and his mother decided to accompany them. It proved a fateful decision for the family, for they booked as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania, leaving New York on 1st May 1915.
When the liner was sunk, all four were killed and none of their bodies were ever found and identified afterwards. Arthur MacGregor was aged 29 years.
Administration of his estate was granted on 28th December 1915, to a Mrs. Helen Cook, wife of George Edward Cook, who was his sister. He left effects to the value of £120-0s-0d.
Probate records show his second forename as Semuel but this is probably a simple transcribing error.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Channel Islands Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Hal Giblin, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.