Cann Cooper Land was born in Crewe, Cheshire, England, on the 20th October 1887, the second son of Alfred Charles Cooper and Elizabeth Land (née Evans), later of 29, Cheshire Street, Market Drayton, Shropshire. He was the third eldest of nine children and his father was employed as a railway guard.
In 1915, he lived at 34, Harewood Street, Anfield, Liverpool, Lancashire. In an article written after the loss of the Lusitania, The Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel said of him that: -
..... he was always familiarly known as “Charlie Jones“.
He was a professional seaman in the British Mercantile Marine and had first served on the Lusitania in 1911. On the 12th April 1915, at the Cunard offices in Water Street, Liverpool, he engaged once more as Second Butcher in the Stewards’ Department on board the vessel, under the name of Charles Jones, for reasons best known to himself. His monthly rate of pay in this rank was £7-0s.-0d. He reported for duty five days later at 7 a.m. on the 17th April, for what became the liner’s last ever voyage out of the River Mersey, en route for New York.
Having arrived safely there on the 24th April, he had his last sight of that city on the early afternoon of the 1st May 1915 as the steamer began her return journey to Liverpool and he lost his life just six days later after she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, only hours away from the safety of her home port. He was aged 27 years, although when he engaged, he gave his age as 25!
Cann Land’s body was not recovered and identified after the sinking and a result he has no known grave, and as a consequence, his name is embossed on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing, at Tower Hill, in London.
In August 1915, his family was given the balance of wages owing to him for his service on the Lusitania from the 17th April until the 8th May 1915, 24 hours after she had gone down.
At the time of Cann Land’s death, his younger brother Harry was serving in the British Army in the 17th Lancers. As far as can be ascertained, he survived the war.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Cheshire Diocese of Chester Parish Baptisms 1538 – 1911, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The Staffordshire Weekly Sentinel, 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 – 15th February 2024.