Cora Rose Gower was born in Tottenham, London, on the 30th December 1879, the daughter of William Edward and Laura Jane Gower (née Spaul). She was the youngest of three children, and her family home was at 7. Junction Villas, Kentish Town, and later 2. Ambrose Villas, Tottenham. Her father was a manager at an iron works.
At some point, she immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where one of her older sisters, Violet, was living, but subsequently returned to her home in London.
On the 16th November 1907, she married Charles Aylmer Luttrell Yeatman in Hove, Sussex. Her husband worked as a clerk and the couple established their home at 23, Hereford House, Stamford Bridge, Middlesex. They had no children.
By 1911, her husband was a commercial traveller and manager, employed by Eyre & Spottiswoode, a firm of London printers, and in December 1914, she had accompanied him on a business trip to New York City, in the United States of America. Their intention was to visit her sister, who was now Mrs. Violet Henderson, in Montreal. Her sister had been widowed in October 1914, and had decided to permanently return to England with her young son, Harris, known as “Huntley”.
For their return, the Yeatman’s booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania and Violet Henderson and her son decided to take the opportunity to return with them. The party boarded the vessel on the morning of 1st May 1915 for her May sailing. This was delayed until the afternoon and the couple would have had their last ever sight of the city as the liner edged her way out of the harbour and into the North River, just after mid-day.
Six days later, the Yeatman’s were dead, killed after the liner was torpedoed and sunk, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. Both of their bodies were recovered, however, and taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up in Queenstown. Cora Yeatman’s remains were given the reference number 131, until identified by her brother-in-law Fraser Yeatman, who had come from Staffordshire to perform this unhappy task. Her sister is likely to have confirmed Fraser Yeatman’s identification. Cora Yeatman was aged 35 years.
Her body was then buried in a private grave, along with that of her husband, in Section D, Row 9, Grave 47 in The Old Church Cemetery just outside the town. Their remains still lie there today although the location of the grave has since been re-designated 1630. As there is no headstone on the tomb, no trace of their final resting place is obvious any more.
Violet Henderson, whose address was recorded as being of The Underfeed Stoke Co., of Deansgate, Manchester, Lancashire, England, received property recovered from Cora Yeatman’s body whilst in Queenstown.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, East Sussex England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1936, London England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1921, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Probate 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.