Edith Middleton Williams was born in Westfield, New Jersey, in the United States of America, on the 27th March 1906, the eldest daughter of John and Annie Williams (née Millman). Originally from England, her parents had immigrated to the United States of America in April 1904, and settled for a time in Marlborough, Massachusetts, where her older brother, John Edward, was born, before moving to Plainfield, New Jersey. Her father worked as a shoemaker when he arrived in Massachusetts, but obtained employment as a motor mechanic, and later a groom, in Plainfield, New Jersey.
Her parents had nine children, although three died in infancy, and as well as her older brother, who was born in 1905, she had four younger siblings - George, Ethel, Florence and David.
On 1st April 1915, John Williams joined the Cunard Steamship Company as a steward, and sailed for Liverpool on the Lusitania on that date, the last eastward voyage the great
liner would ever complete. Once in Liverpool, he crossed the River Mersey to the home of his sister, Mrs. Charlotte Forster of Deva Villas, Church Road, Hoylake, Cheshire. Having obtained work as a motor mechanic in a garage opposite the nearby railway station, he sent for his wife and family to join him.
A charitable group, The St. George’s Society paid the family’s passage to England as it was virtually destitute and as a consequence, at the end of April 1915, Edith’s mother Annie and the other children, John Edward, George, Ethel, Florence, and David, all set out from Plainfield to New York, where, on 1st May they boarded the Lusitania as third class passengers for the trans-Atlantic voyage.
When the ship was struck, by Kapitänleutnant Schwieger’s torpedo, six days later, only twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland, Edith Williams was on her own with her little sister Florrie. She couldn’t find her mother and as the chaos of the sinking progressed, no-one seemed to have time for two children amongst their own problems.
As the liner began to sink, Edith Williams, still gripping her sister’s hand tightly, kept trying to reach the portion of the deck still out of the water, which became harder and harder as the Lusitania went down by the bow.
Eventually, the pair of them were swept into the sea and Florrie was swept away from her and presumably drowned. Edith herself was in rapid danger of suffering the same fate when she glimpsed a woman clinging onto a rope, hanging from some floating wreckage. The woman was wearing a thick tweed skirt and Ethel Williams managed to grab hold of it and save herself.
The woman was fellow third class passenger Mrs. Rose Howley travelling from New Rochelle, N.Y., to Keighley in Yorkshire, and she later described her experiences in The Bradford Daily Telegraph, which was published on 10th May. The account said: -
When the ship went down, Mrs. Howley was drawn under by the suction, but through her lifebelt, she came to the surface, and all around, people were struggling and crying for help. For a second time, Mrs. Howley was drawn down, and on rising again, she touched a hard substance which proved to be an upturned boat, to the keel of which two or three men were already clinging. She appealed to them for help, and they encouraged her to retain her hold. She did so, and eventually one of the men managed to pull her partly up the boat.
While she had been endeavouring to get a firm hold on the boat, Mrs. Howley had felt something tugging at her dress and looking round, she noticed a little girl. She exclaimed "Oh, it's a child," and with the assistance of the men, the girl was pulled up as well.
Mrs. Howley then recognised her as Edith Williams, one of a family with whom she had become acquainted on the ship. There were the mother, five girls, and a boy, and only the boy and Edith were saved.
The group clung to the boat for four hours before assistance reached them. Two other of the ship's boats came near and linked themselves with the upturned boat. They did what was possible to rescue those struggling around, and two women were taken up in a very exhausted condition.
At length a steamer was seen approaching, and a man in one of the boats hoisted a portion of his clothing on the end of an oar and signalled for help, while the people in the boats shouted as hard as they could.
Twenty minutes later, the shipwrecked people were taken on board, and later were landed at Queenstown.
Mrs. Howley’s memory of the composition of the family was not quite correct, but nevertheless, Annie Williams and George, Ethel, Florence and David were killed and only Edith and Edward out of the whole family were saved.
In Queenstown, Edith Williams was re-united with her brother Eddie - the only other member of the family to survive. They were then both taken to the Leahy Estate in Cork, where, after two weeks, during which the full tragedy of the sinking must have begun to occur to them both, their uncle, David Forster arrived to take them back to Merseyside, where they were re-united with their father John Williams, in Hoylake.
Not long after this, 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 suffered as a result of the sinking.
The awards committee granted him the once-and-for-all sum of £5-0s-0d., as he was, by this time, employed full time, as a coachman.
In May 1916, John Williams, still employed as a steward with the Cunard Steamship Company, returned to the United States with his two surviving children. He left them with friends for a while, but returned to England with them in 1919. He filed a claim for compensation for the loss of his wife and children, but it was rejected by the Mixed Claims Commission on the grounds that both he, and his late wife, had been British subjects at the time of their deaths, and therefore he was not qualified to make a valid claim.
It has been reported in many accounts that John Williams had deserted his family in April 1915, but no evidence has been discovered in support of these accounts.
Edith Williams returned to Plainfield in 1925 and became a medical nurse.
On the 12th November 1932, she married Dean Everett Wachtel in the Civil Registrar’s Office, Guayaquil, Ecuador. By the time of her marriage, Edith was styling her name as Edythe! The couple resided in Zaruma, Ecuador, for a number of years following their wedding. In 1935, their son, Dean Everett, was born in Minnesota, and later Edythe separated from her husband.
For many years, she was haunted by her memories of the sinking and for nearly twenty years afterwards, she could still feel Florrie’s hand in hers, before her sister was swept away from her to her inevitable death!
Edythe Wachtel died at Mercy San Juan Hospital, Carmichael, California, on the 12th May 1992, aged years 86 years. Since 1980, she had been a resident of Sierra Sunrise Retirement Centre, Carmichael. As per her wishes, no religious services were conducted after her death and her remains were cremated and scattered in the Pacific
Ocean off San Francisco, California.
U.S. Consular Reports of Marriages 1910 – 1949, California U.S. Death Index 1940 – 1997, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1950 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2558, Birkenhead News, Modesto Bee, Exploring the Lusitania, Liverpool Record Office, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.