Bertha Martin was born in Cleehill, Shropshire, England, on the 4th March 1885, the daughter of John and Sarah Martin (née Carloss). Her father was described as a stationary engine driver, and Bertha was the second eldest of nine children in the family. She had an older step-sister from her father’s first marriage, which ended with the death of his first wife.
After completing her formal education, Bertha trained as a dressmaker, before entering domestic service as a maid. In 1912, in Bayton, Worcestershire, she married George Arthur Prescott, a professional soldier, serving with the Worcestershire Regiment.
Her husband had joined the British Army in 1907, serving in Ireland, before returning to England, where he presumably met Bertha. Not long after their marriage, he was posted to Egypt, serving in Alexandria and Cairo; therefore the couple did not spend too much time together during their married life and had no children.
In April 1913, she had travelled to Canada with her parents, to visit one of her brothers, and resided at 34. Hillsview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
In the spring of 1915, however, she decided to return to England, possibly because her husband had been sent back to England from the Western Front in November 1914, suffering from frostbite, and he wished t be nearer to him. Thus, leaving Toronto in late April, she travelled to New York, where she had booked a second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York harbour for Liverpool on 1st May 1915.
Having boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city, on the morning of that date, she then had to wait until just after mid-day before the Lusitania actually began what was to be her last Atlantic crossing. This was because she had to load cargo and embark passengers and crew from the S.S. Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of April by the British Admiralty.
Then six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the ‘Greyhound of the Seas’ was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, off The Old Head of Kinsale, in southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from home!
Bertha Prescott was killed as a result of this action and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 30 years at the time.
Her husband survived the War, having transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and serving in various military barracks in England until being demobilised in 1919. He married for a second time in 1921, and had a family of three children.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.