Doris Farrar Burley was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on the 12th January 1906, the first child of Reuben Burley and his wife, Florence (née Bull). She lived at 126. Frederick Arcade, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada with her parents and her infant brother Reginald. Her parents had originally lived in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire, England, and had emigrated in 1904.
At the end of 1914, her maternal grandfather had died in Hamilton, and in the spring of 1915, her grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bull decided to return to England. The Burley family decided to travel with her to Ashton, for a holiday. Consequently, all of them booked as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania, and joined the vessel at New York, on 1st May 1915, before she sailed on what became her final voyage ever.
It proved a tragic and devastating decision for the Burley family, for they, and Mrs. Bull, were all killed when the liner was torpedoed and sunk. Doris Burley was only nine years old.
Only the body of her grandmother was ever recovered and identified and as a consequence, none of the Burley family has a known grave.
Ontario, Canada Births, 1858 – 1913, 1911 Census of Canada, Cunard Records, Stalybridge Reporter, (Photo), PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/95, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.