Elise Oberlin was born in Lachen, Switzerland, in June 1888, the daughter of Gregor and Marie Oberlin (née Gmeinder). Her father was a saddle and harness maker and Elise was one of five known children in the family.
It is not known when she immigrated to Canada, but she became maidservant to Mrs. Frances Stephens of 393. Dorchester Boulevard, West Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Mrs. Stephens’ son Lieutenant Chattan Stephens had left Canada with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and serving with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry had been wounded in the fighting around Ypres, Belgium, on the Western Front, probably in April 1915. Having been evacuated from the battlefield, he was taken to a London hospital to recover from his wounds and his mother, Mrs. Frances Stephens decided to travel there to see him, accompanied by his infant son John, John’s nursemaid Miss Caroline Milne and Elise Oberlin.
Having booked saloon passage for all four of them through Montreal agents W. H. Henry, the party left Montreal, probably by rail, and travelled to New York to take the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool.
Having arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o’clock departure, the party boarded, (with ticket number 13170), and Mrs. Stephens and Miss Oberlin were allocated room D5. Miss Milne and baby John were allocated nearby room D9.
Both of these rooms were under the personal supervision of First Class Bedroom Steward William ‘Wil‘ McLeod, who came from Bebington, a district of Birkenhead, Cheshire, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool. McLeod was a long serving employee of The Cunard Steam Ship Company and had reached the status of Chief First Class Bedroom Steward, but on the Lusitania‘s last ever voyage, he was serving as an ordinary first class steward.
The liner’s departure for Liverpool was actually delayed until the early afternoon, to take on board passengers, cargo and some crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank two miles closer inland. At that stage of her voyage, she was only 250 miles from her home port.
All four members of the Stephens family party were killed when the ship sank and although Mrs. Stephens' body was recovered, that of Miss Oberlin and the two others never was. Consequently, she has no known grave.
She was aged 26 years at the time of her death.
Bedroom Steward McLeod also perished in the sinking and never returned home alive to his Bebington home.
U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, PRO 22/72, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Peter Engberg-Klarström, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.