Catherine R. Dougall was born in Pretoria, Natal Province, South Africa in 1892, the daughter of John and Catherina Dougall (née Marias). The family home was in 228. Park Lane, Pretoria, Natal Province, South Africa. Her father had been born in Scotland, while her mother was South African. Her cousin Miss M.T. Dougall lived at ‘Woodlea House’, Bonnybridge, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Catherine Dougall was a student of agriculture, and from 1910; she had studied at The West of Scotland Agricultural College and Dairy School at Kilmarnock. After returning home, she had then been specially selected, with others, by the South African government, to undergo a special course in agricultural education at Cornell University in the United States of America and at Macdonald College, in Quebec, Canada. It was hoped that she would eventually return to Pretoria and put her new found skills to use.
In the spring of 1915, she had been living in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and decided to travel once more to Kilmarnock to holiday with her cousin in Bonnybridge. As a consequence, she booked saloon passage on the Lusitania, (with return ticket number 46156), which sailed from Pier 54 in New York harbour just after mid-day, on 1st May 1915. When she had boarded, on the morning of that day, she was allocated room A15, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Edward Bond, who came from Anfield, a district of Liverpool.
When the liner was torpedoed and sunk, by the German submarine U-20, just six days later, and only hours away from her Liverpool destination, Catherine Dougall was one of nearly 200 saloon passengers who perished.
On Monday 10th May 1915, Miss M.T. Dougall in Bonnybridge received a cable from her uncle in Pretoria, seeking information - alive or dead - about his daughter. Consequently, that same evening, she set out for Queenstown, and it was probably she who put an advertisement in the southern Irish newspaper The Cork Examiner, later that week, in an attempt to aid the recovery and identification of her body. Under the title £25 REWARD and a photograph of Miss Dougall, appeared the following: -
MISS CATHERINE DOUGALL
Missing in the "Lusitania" Disaster
Upon identification being established, a reward of £25 will be paid to any Fisherman who finds the body of Miss C. Dougall, a saloon passenger on the S.S. Lusitania, and brings such body to the Police at Queenstown. Application should be made to the Police at Queenstown.
PARTICULARS
Tall, about 5 feet 10 inches. Aged 23 years. Thin body, sallow skin, loosely built, long legs, long shaped hands, very large dark eyes, long eyelashes, well curved eyebrows, very dark brown hair, thick, and unusually waved, and parted in centre. Hollow neck. Long thin face. Probably wearing very nice and named underclothing, and may have on jewellery. Usually wore Sorosis boots.
Special Jewellery: - Set of Pink South African Stones set in gold ; Gold Brooch formed of miniature miner's tools, pick, shovel and pail; and small piece of gold. Other jewellery, pendant brooches and pearls.
Despite such a thorough description no-one ever discovered any trace of Catherine Dougall, at the time or since and as a result, she has no known grave. She was aged 23 years.
The Cork Examiner for 20th May 1915 commented on her brilliant studentship by saying: -
Miss Dougall ..... was undoubtedly upon the threshold of a very brilliant career, and withal, one of the highest public usefulness to South Africa's future. She was ..... selected ..... to undergo a special course of agricultural education ..... with a view to subsequent dissemination of the latest scientific information and guidance upon the most up-to-date methods and their adaptation to South African conditions and circumstances. .... and it was while returning thence, that her life, so full of promise as well as achievement, has been sacrificed to the "frightfulness" of the German submarine piracy.
Bedroom Steward Bond who had been responsible for Catherine Dougall in room A15, did survive the sinking, however, and having been rescued from the sea, and landed at Queenstown, he eventually made it back to his Anfield home.
New York County Marriage Records 1907 – 1936, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1956, Cunard Records, Cork Examiner, Kilmarnock Herald, Kilmarnock Standard, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/170, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1916, Graham Maddocks, Peter Wood, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.