Bridget “Bessie” Hare was born at her family home on the Dublin Road, Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, on the 18th January 1884, the daughter of William and Ellen Hare (née Gannon). She was one of fifteen children, and her father was an egg merchant. Sometime after 1901, she had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in New York City, where she took up a position as a dressmaker. She was unmarried. Her brother Daniel lived at 204, West 78th Street, New York and she lived with him. A number of her other siblings also lived in the Unites States of America by this time.
In the spring of 1915, she learned that her father, William Hare, was seriously ill and she decided to return home to Ireland to visit him. Accordingly, she booked a second cabin ticket on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool. Her brother, Daniel, had intended to travel with her, but for some reason had deferred his passage and had instead booked passage on the
Transylvania, which was scheduled to sail from New York on the 7th May.
Arriving at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure, Bessie Hare had to wait until the early afternoon for the
Lusitania to sail. This was because the Anchor Lines vessel Cameronia
had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty at the end of April for war service as a troop ship and the
Lusitania had to delay her sailing to embark passengers, crew and cargo from her. Bessie Hare would have had her last glimpse of her adopted city just after mid-day as the liner slipped out into the North River and the Atlantic Ocean.
She would then have had just six days to live, as she was killed on the afternoon of the 7th May after the steamer was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20. At the time she was struck, she was passing The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and was only hours away from her home port. Bessie Hare was aged 31 years when she died, although she gave her age on boarding the liner as being 27 years!
Her body was recovered from the sea afterwards, however; and having been landed at Queenstown was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there, where it was given the reference number 95.
Shortly afterwards, her brother Mr. William Hare of Dublin Street, Tuam, County Galway, Ireland and her sister Mrs. Julia Stewart, both travelled independently to Queenstown where William positively identified his sister’s corpse. It was then buried on 13th May 1915 in The Old Church Cemetery, just north of the town, in a private grave which was numbered Row 19, Grave No 12 (now re-designated Grave 662, in Section B of the cemetery). Mr. Hare also took charge of property taken from the corpse, which had been identified as hers by his sister, Mrs. Stewart.
On 19th May 1915, the Cunard office in Queenstown received a cable which originated in New York, probably from her brother Daniel, which simply stated:-
WHO CLAIMED BURIED REMAINS BESSIE HARE?
The company’s representatives were able to reply that it was her brother William, who had almost certainly supervised her burial as well.
In December 1915, unsuccessful attempts were made by Bessie’s family to have her remains exhumed and buried in her native town of Tuam, however; by March 1916, their efforts had proved fruitful and on the 26th March 1916, she was interred in Tuam New Cemetery in Section D, Eastern B Vault.
In 1924, William Hare, Bessie’s brother, wrote to the U.S. State Department seeking to claim compensation for her loss. As she was not a U.S. citizen, the would not entertain his claim, and so they referred him to the Cunard Steam Ship Co. Ltd., who in turn, referred him to the British Foreign Office. As they did not respond to him, he sought the assistance of the Irish Department of External Affairs, but by 1925, with no sign of any compensation being forthcoming, the family abandoned their case.
Ireland Civil Registration Birth Index 1864 – 1958, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, Cunard Records, New York Times, Brooklyn Daily Times, Brooklyn Citizen, White Star Journal, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Galway County Council, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.