Elizabeth Ann Brock was born in Nempnett Thrubwell, Somerset, England, in 1867, the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Brock (née Vowles). Her father was an agricultural labourer, and Elizabeth was one of eight or nine children born before her mother died. Her father later remarried and had a second family.
In her early teenage years, she entered domestic service, being employed as a general servant in the family home of a local farmer, William Baker, Grove Farm, Nempnett Thrubwell.
On the 29th November 1884, she married a local man, George Marks, in Bedminster, Somerset. The family resided at various addresses in Nempnett Thrubwell over the following years. The couple had four children – Cornelius George, born in 1885, Gilbert Henry, born in 1887, Joseph Ernest, born in 1888, and Georgina, born in 1891.
In April 1914, she, her husband, and her daughter, Georgina, had travelled from Bristol to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on board the Royal George, en route to Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America, to stay with her two sons Gilbert and Joseph, who lived at 1908 Montrose Avenue, Chicago. Her husband had returned home after staying for a few months, and after some 18 months at the home of her sons, Mrs. Marks also decided, in the spring of 1915, that it was time to return home.
Consequently, mother and daughter booked third class passage from Chicago on the May sailing of the Lusitania which was scheduled to sail from New York at 10.00 a.m. on the morning of 1st May 1915. They then joined the liner at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour in time for this sailing and had their last glimpse of America the same afternoon as the liner made her delayed departure out of the harbour and into the Atlantic Ocean just after mid-day.
The delay was caused because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
Six days later, mother and daughter were both killed after the liner was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and about 250 miles from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
As neither of their bodies was ever found and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. Mrs. Marks aged 48 years, although the official passenger manifest stated her age to be 50 years.
Her son, Joseph, later tried to claim compensation for the loss of his mother and sister in the United States of America, but the Mixed Claims Commission decided to make no award to him as he did not become a naturalized U.S. citizen until 1916, and therefore was not entitled to any compensation.
George Marks, Elizabeth’s husband, died in Nempnett Thrubwell in 1935.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Bristol England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1888 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2193, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/419, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.