Elizabeth Horton was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England in 1863, the daughter of John and Sarah Brown (née Briddon). Her father was a furnace man in one of the local steel works.
On the 27th December 1882, she married Edwin Horton in Sheffield, and the family home was at 67, Sheffield Road, Tinsley, Sheffield, Yorkshire. Her husband worked in the steel mills, and the couple had three children.
In June 1914, she arrived in New York City on board the Baltic, and from there, she went to Cleveland, Ohio, to visit her daughter, who was married to a Mr. Bartlett. In the spring of 1915, she decided to return to her home in England, and she consequently booked second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool. Leaving Cleveland at the end of April, she arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for the liner’s scheduled morning departure. This was then delayed until the afternoon as she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the S.S.
Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship at the end of April.
The Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20, off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her home port.
Elisabeth Horton was killed as a result of this action , but not long afterwards, her body was recovered from the sea and landed at Queenstown, where it was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there and given the reference number 77, pending a positive identification.
Once this had been done, on 10th May 1915, she was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, two miles north of the town, in Mass Grave C, First Row, Upper Tier, where she lies to this day. It was on this day that most of the victims of the sinking were buried after a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard offices at Lynch’s Quay on the waterfront. Elizabeth Horton was aged 52 years.
Property recovered from her body, which probably aided its identification, was sent to her husband Edwin at the Sheffield Road address on 8th June 1915. It consisted of £3-18s-0d., (£3.90p.) in British treasury notes, silver and copper coinage, a gold watch and chain, a gold bracelet a gold necklace, four rings, two brooches, a earring a purse and some keys.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLivPR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.