Elizabeth Tomms - known to her family as “Lizzie” - was born in Perry Barr, Staffordshire, England, on the 25th June 1885, the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Tomms (née Lanigan). The family home was at 127. Edward Road, Erdington, Birmingham. Her father was a gardener, and Lizzie was the youngest of eight children in the family.
In 1913, she had emigrated to Canada, and by 1915, she was living at 77. Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. By this time her mother was dead and her father was cared for by an unmarried sister of Lizzie, Winefride.
In the spring of that year, however, she decided to return to Great Britain, and as a result, booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool.
Nothing much more is known about her apart from the fact that she would have boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York city on the morning of 1st May 1915 and would then have had to have waited until just after mid-day before the liner actually embarked on what was to become her final voyage.
Her scheduled departure time had been 10.00 a.m., but this was delayed so that she could load cargo and take on board passengers and crew from the Anchor Liner, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for service as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank after only 18 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours sailing time from the safety of her home port.
Lizzie Tomms was killed as a result of this action and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified, she has no known grave. She was aged 29 years, and was engaged to L/Corp. W.H. Sherman, who was attached to the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital in the Dardanelles.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms 1870 – 1894, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, UniLiv D92/2/129, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.