Elizabeth Ross Morris was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 5th May 1875, the daughter of Hugh and Janet Ross “Jessie” Morris (née Rennie). She was the eldest of three known children. Her father was a professional seaman, who was drowned while serving as second engineer on the Kenmure Castle when she sank in the Bay of Biscay on the 2nd February 1883.
On completing her education, she found work as a shop assistant.
She was married to Walter Llewellyn Dewhurst, a bank commissionaire, in Liverpool in 1905, but he died in 1911, aged 38 years, and Elizabeth never remarried. The couple had no children, and in 1915, she lived at 13, Brook Street, Bootle, Liverpool, with her mother.
Following the death of her husband, she joined the British Mercantile Marine as a stewardess on trans-Atlantic liners sailing in and out of Liverpool.
She engaged as a stewardess in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool, on the 16th April 1915 - a ship she had served on before - at a rate of £4-0s.-0d. per month. When signing on for the voyage, and in her Seaman’s Discharge Records, she stated the year of her birth as being 1882, seven years after the actual event! She sailed from the River Mersey on the following morning on the Cunarder’s final voyage to New York, and when she left there on the 1st May, she was one of 19 stewardesses on board.
When the Lusitania sank off the southern coast of Ireland on the afternoon of the 7th May, thirteen of the stewardesses were lost and only six were saved. Elizabeth Dewhurst was lucky enough to be numbered amongst those who were saved.
Another of the Lusitania’s stewardesses, Eleanor Dodwell, also lived in Brook Street, Bootle, at No. 16. She, however, did not survive the sinking.
Elizabeth continued to serve as a stewardess on trans-Atlantic liners, amongst them, the Majestic, Aquitania, and Berengaria, until 1939. By this time, she was residing in Southampton, Hampshire, from where most of the trans-Atlantic liners were based.
Elizabeth Dewhurst died in Southampton on the 30th August 1947, aged 72 years. By this time, she was residing at 196. Regents Park Road, Southampton. Administration of her will was granted to her sister, Mrs. Mary Wilson Baxter, who was described as being the wife of one Wilfred Baxter, and her stepbrother, John McCreadie, a bar keeper, on 6th November 1947. Her estate amounted to £3,949-5s.-9d. (£3,949.28½p).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 348, PRO BT 349, PRO BT 351/1/157369, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated –25th February 2023.