Beata Elizabeth Mary Hayter Stevens was born in Nainital, Bengal, India, on the 11th September 1882, the daughter of George Buckley and Ada Emma Stevens (née Vivian). At the time of her birth, her father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army; however, he died at sea on board the Hispania on the 22nd April 1883, reportedly of an abscess of the liver, and her mother then married a man named George Bingham, resulting in the family moving to Rochester, Kent, England.
Elizabeth became a gardener, and also kept poultry, and on the 2nd May 1912, she arrived in Quebec, Canada, on board the
Lake Manitoba, having sailed from Liverpool, and proceeded overland to Penticton, British Columbia, with the intention of engaging in farming.
On the 3rd April 1913, she married Alexander Herbert Buxton Ferrier in Penticton. Her husband was a rancher and fruit farmer, and their daughter, Sheila Mary Vivian, was born on the 14th April 1914.
Her husband, who had previously served in the British Army, decided to return to Great Britain and apply for a commission because of the war in Europe. As a result, he booked second cabin passage for the three of them and they joined the
Lusitania at her berth in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915 and sailed out into the North River in the early afternoon of the same day.
The liner was scheduled to leave the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in the city at 10.00 a.m., but this sailing was delayed until 12.27 p.m., as she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of the previous month. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the
Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. Of the three family members, only Elizabeth. Ferrier survived - her husband and daughter were both killed.
Having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, she was taken to hospital suffering from exposure and shock.
In the meantime, she may have performed the unenviable task of identifying the corpse of her daughter whose body was recovered from the sea and was laid out in one of the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown. She also may well have been present at her funeral in The Old Church Cemetery, just outside the town, on 10th May 1915, in one of the three mass graves, although technically, she was still in hospital at this stage.
On 11th May, she was discharged from hospital and was accommodated at The Queens Hotel until she recovered sufficiently well to travel to Dundrum, near Dublin, in County Dublin and the home of her father-in-law. She later moved on to Fort Clarence House, Rochester, Kent, which was her original home.
The Queens Hotel survives to this day and is still one of the town’s premier venues, but is now renamed The Commodore Hotel.
Elizabeth Ferrier never remarried and died on the 17th June 1947, aged 63 years. Her address at the time of her death was The Priory, Roehampton, Surrey.
British India Office Births and Baptisms, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, The Chronicle, White Star Journal, Probate Records, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/181, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.