Cyril John George Wallace was born in Portsea Island, Hampshire, England, on 9th October 1895, the eldest son of Quartermaster Sergeant John Joseph and Mrs. Marie Wallace (née Deane). The family home was at ‘Amberleigh’, Swansfield Park Road, Alnwick, Northumberland. His father was a regular British Army officer serving, in 1915, as a major with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, The Northumberland Fusiliers. Cyril was one of ten children in the family; however, by 1911, only six were still living.
Cyril Wallace was educated at The Duke’s Grammar School, Alnwick, and in 1911, he went to Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, and completed his education at Springfield College there. Afterwards, he obtained a position in The Indian Motor Works, in Springfield, and was working there when the Great War broke out.
By the spring of 1915, however, he decided that he ought to return home and enlist in the Army, preferably as an officer, bearing in mind his father‘s status. As a consequence, he booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania and leaving Massachusetts by rail, joined the liner in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the liner was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 and as she was going down, Wallace managed to get into lifeboat No. 22. His experience in it is described by Des Hickey and Gus Smith in their book Seven Days to Disaster: -
One man took out his mouth organ and began to play. Cyril Wallace, on his way to Northumberland to join the Army, had bought the mouth organ in Cleveland and could manage even the bass notes. Belle realised he was playing to cheer up the other survivors, but somebody asked, “Don't you think you should stop playing? Otherwise we won't hear any cries for help?” Wallace replaced the instrument in his pocket.
Belle was Belle Naisch a second cabin passenger from Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A., who survived the sinking.
The occupants of the lifeboat were eventually picked up by the fishing vessel Julia and landed at Queenstown, from where Cyril Wallace was able to telegraph his father the good news of his survival! It is also known that he gave up his lifebelt to an elderly lady, before the ship sank, thereby helping to save her life! Cunard also gave him a rail and boat ticket to Leeds, in Yorkshire, and £0-7s-0d., (£0.35p.), travelling expenses for the journey to help him get home to Alnwick.
While on board the Lusitania he was friendly with Mrs. Jennie Fyfe and Robert D. Gray and wrote to the Cunard Steamship Company, on his return home, seeking addresses for them. Another passenger who survived, Henry Birchall, wrote looking for Cyril’s address, stating that he was a great friend of his.
On his return home, he applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for financial help. This fund had been set up immediately after the liner had gone down, by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local business dignitaries to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those who had perished, who had come upon hard times as a result of the sinking. In August 1915, the awards committee declined to make any award to him, as he was not apparently in need of help.
On the 4th August, Cyril Wallace wrote to another second class survivor, Mrs. Jeanie Fyfe: -
“Amberleigh”,
Alnwick,
Co. Northumberland,
England.
August 4/’15
Dear Mrs. Fyfe,
I hope you will pardon me as I know this letter is very dilatory but I could not write before as I had lost your address & only obtained it after I enquired of your sister-in-law.
I write to enquire if you have recovered from our awful experience of May 7th. I do hope you are alright again & none the worse. I am feeling tip-top & the loss of my wardrobe & money is the only regret personally.
I am also interested to know how you escaped. I gave you a life-belt & advised you to try to obtain a place in one of the boats. I lost sight of you then until we met in Queenstown.
The best thing is to try to forget the horrible affair. Do write & let me know how you are keeping.
Believe me, very sincerely yours,
Cyril J. G. Wallace.
Mr Wallace also received a letter from Mrs. Prichard, whose son, Richard Mostyn Prichard, was another second class passenger and of whom nothing had been heard of after the sinking. Mrs. Prichard wrote to as many survivors as she could obtain addresses for, seeking any information on her son. Cyril Wallace wrote: -
“Amberleigh”,
Alnwick,
August 23/’15
Dear Mrs. Prichard,
Your communication came to hand on the 20th inst. regarding your son. Although I was a second cabin passenger on the S.S. Lusitania and knew practically all the passengers in this part of the ship by sight, as I also am of a sociable disposition, I cannot say that I remember seeing your son on board. May I ask if you are positive he sailed on the ill-fated liner? My cabin was C28, and therefore your son, in D90, was one floor below me and on the same side i.e the port side [the cabins were so arranged that the odd numbers were on one side and the even on the other]. We were torpedoed on the starboard or right hand side so if your son was in his stateroom at the time he would certainly have had time to regain the open deck. It is possible though that he were having luncheon at the time, as the torpedo struck just when the 2nd sitting was in full swing – about 2.10pm. I was in my stateroom at the time but I heard afterwards from various survivors that there was a fearful congestion among the above passengers in
their frantic desire to all regain the boat-deck at once. The stairway was of average width but it is practically certain that some met their death in this mad scramble. The Lusitania sank very fast – about 12 minutes after being hit, in my opinion.
Yes it was only to (sic.) & the work of a moment, to realize the ship was doomed. I was in my cabin when the disaster happened. I felt a dull thud, followed by the sound of rending iron plates and splintering wood & immediately the vibration of the engine ceased. The Lusitania listed very heaving to starboard, sinking head first. I put on a lifebelt and scrambled up on to Deck “A”, the Lifeboat deck. Hundreds of passengers were clustered around the boats & I was besieged by several women with entreaties to save them. I gave my lifebelt to Mrs. Fyfe of Glasgow who was luckily saved & then helped to lower the boats. This lasted for a few minutes, when the Lusitania suddenly quivered from stem to stern & began settling very rapidly. I feared the vortex so dove overboard, swimming as rapidly as I could from the doomed liner. I had progressed some thirty yards, when the poor old “Lucy” disappeared with a deafening roar. I was swimming on my back at the time & could discern dozens of people on the decks sliding out of sight as the ship disappeared. It was heartrending. About a dozen lifeboats were launched & about two rafts, but many survivors clung to the wreckage, which was scattered in all directions. Several of these were picked up afterwards by rescuing steamers. I was picked up about 1½ hours after by one of the boats.
I’m really very sorry to say it, but I think that if you have received no news of your son, it is not possible that he was saved on one of the rafts. If he had been you would surely have heard from him since.
If you write to the following address you may secure further information: -
Miss Rose Goodwin
176. High Street,
Newhall
Burton-on-Trent
Once again expressing my regrets at my inability to furnish you with good news, believe me,
I am,
Sincerely yours,
Cyril J. G. Wallace.
No trace of Richard Mostyn Prichard was ever found.
Cyril Wallace enlisted in the Army, being granted a commission in his father’s regiment, The Northumberland Fusiliers, on 28th August 1915 - he had previously applied for a commission in The Army Service Corps on 1st June 1915. At the time of his commissioning, he was training as an officer cadet in the Durham University Officer Training Corps, presumably so that he might gain experience which would help him obtain his commission.
Proceeding overseas to France the following year, to join the 14th Battalion, he was badly gassed on 22nd November, at Hulluch near Loos, along with several N.C.O.’s. They were all in a trench under shellfire when an old cylinder, full of chlorine gas was hit, showering its contents over the occupants. The cylinder had been buried in the trench parados and was almost certainly left over from the British attack of the previous
September.
Cyril Wallace was evacuated to The General Hospital at Wimereux and was unconscious for 30 hours, thereafter suffering choking, vomiting a sore throat and dyspepsia. After his initial recovery, he still suffered from poor nerves, sleeplessness and anaemia. He was discharged from hospital on 13th December 1916 after which he was granted two months sick leave followed by three months light duty.
In March 1917, he wrote to the War Office to enquire about his eligibility for a wound gratuity on account of the suffering he had undergone through his gassing: -
From Lieut. Cyril J.G. Wallace
14th Northumberland Fusiliers
To the Secretary,
War Office, Whitehall.
Sir, -
Will you kindly inform me if I am entitled to a wound gratuity? My name appeared in the Casualty List of Dec 1st 1916.
I was severely gassed during an engagement at Hulluch (near Loos) on Nov. 21st 1916. I was discharged from hospital on Dec 13/1916 and granted 2 months' sick leave. I have now got three months light duty.
My doctor informed me that my lungs shall probably be permanently affected and my breathing is very much restricted. I suffer from gastritis, have a chronic cough, and am in poor health generally.
I should respectfully like to add, Sir, that I gave up a good position in America and came over on the Lusitania to take up my commission. When we were torpedoed, I lost everything and was also very ill, owing to my being in the water over an hour before being eventually picked up. I got no compensation for my loss whatsoever.
At present I am still being attended to by my doctor and my expenses thus incurred are large.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
86th Training Reserve
Hornsea, Cyril J.G. Wallace
March 5/1917 14th N. F.
It is not known whether he was any more successful in achieving money from the War Office than he was from The Lusitania Relief Fund.
Having completed his convalescence with The 86th Training Reserve, at Hornsea, in
Northumberland, he asked for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps, stating that his civilian occupation in Springfield, Massachusetts gave him a good knowledge of machinery and also that joining the Corps was the main reason he had left America in the first place.
This does not really equate with his service in his father's regiment, but nevertheless, he was granted his transfer and trained successfully, eventually gaining his pilot's 'wings'. He does not seem to have served operationally with the Corps however, because he later re-joined The Northumberland Fusiliers on the Western Front.
On 9th September 1918, whilst serving in France as a Lieutenant with the 24th (Tyneside Irish) Battalion, of the Fusiliers, he died at No. 46 Stationary Hospital, Etaples, of disease which he had contracted in the field. It was first thought that the disease was diphtheria, but it later turned out to be acute hepatitis! He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, France, in Plot XXVIII, Row O, Grave 2.
Having escaped death on the Lusitania on that May afternoon just over three years earlier, it caught up with him in the end!
Despite the fact that both his parents were still living, before his death, he cited his next of kin to be his fiancée a Miss Victoria Brett, who lived in Kneller Hall, in Twickenham, Middlesex. In his will, in which he left £151-12s-9d., (£151.64p.), his address was shown to be that of his parents’ in Alnwick. In April 1919, they moved to 2, Benwell View, Bentinck Road, Newcastle.
In February of that year, Mr. F.M Smith, chairman of an organisation named the Public Safety Committee of South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, wrote to the British War Office seeking full details of Lieutenant Wallace’s life and military service. The letter stated that: -
Wallace lived in this town and returned to England to enlist, on the Lusitania, the time the ship was torpedoed and sunk. I understand he was gassed at one time and later died of disease.
It is not known what the purpose of this committee was, or if the War Office actually acquiesced to this request!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Liverpool Record Office, Officers Died in the Great War, Springfield Republican, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, St. George’s Gazette, Seven Days to Disaster, Tyneside Irish, IWM GB64, PRO WO 339/4/543, UniLiv.D92/1/1, UniLiv D92/2/244, Graham Maddocks, Joe Devereux, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.