Elsie May Hook was born in Grays Thurrock, Essex, England, on the 1st January 1903, the daughter of George and Edith Ellen Hook (née Barter). Her father was a builder’s machinist.
The family had immigrated to Canada in 1907, where her father found work a metal foundry in Toronto, Ontario, and where the family lived at Millicrest Street. Elsie had a younger brother, Frank, who was born in 1904.
In the autumn of 1913, her mother had died, and by early 1915 her father decided to return to England and take the children with him. Since his wife's death, the family housekeeper had been another Englishwoman, Mrs. Annie Marsh, originally from Kent, but in 1915, she too, had decided to return to England with her husband and infant child, and booked third class accommodation for the three of them on the
Lusitania. Initially, George Hook had intended to travel on the same ship and sailing, with his children as second cabin passengers, but instead booked third class passages, so that the two families could travel together.
As a consequence, both families joined the liner on the morning of 1st May 1915 at New York before her departure for Liverpool. To make it cheaper still for George Hook, however, he misrepresented Elsie's age so that he could pay half fare for her, stating that she was only eleven years of age, when she was in fact twelve!
The crossing of the Atlantic proved fairly uneventful for the most part and both families enjoyed the splendid surroundings available even in the third class lounges. The Hook family also became particularly friendly with two other third class passengers, Gerda Neilson and Jack Welsh.
Six days later, when the vessel was struck, George Hook gathered up his two children and deciding that they should not trust to any of the lifeboats which were already overcrowded, jumped into the sea with them, as the deck and the level of the sea became one!
Almost immediately, Frank was separated from the other two who were eventually rescued and landed at Queenstown. They immediately commenced a search for him and when there was no initial sign, they feared the worst. As a result, they spent three whole days searching the temporary mortuaries in the town, eventually, discovering him in Queenstown Hospital, where he had been taken with a broken thigh, sustained from a falling lifeboat as he had made his leap into the sea.
The Hook family eventually made it to England, as did Gerda Neilson and Jack Welsh, who having met for the first time on board the
Lusitania, so fell in love that they married each other not long after their return, on 13th May! Tragically, however, only Annie Marsh survived from her family, both her husband and son perishing as a result of the torpedoing!
In 1924, she married William George Samuel Hadland in Salford, Lancashire. Her husband, who was a packer in a manufacturing plant, had served with the Lancashire Fusiliers during the Great War, and the couple had two children, William George Samuel, born in 1924, and Edith Alice, born in 1926.
On the 13th July 1948, Elsie and her husband and daughter boarded the P & O liner,
Brent Empire, at Glasgow, bound for Sydney, Australia. Also on board was her father, George Hook.
The family settled in Newport, Victoria, Australia, and for many years resided at 54. Bunbury Street. After her husband died in 1957, Elsie and her daughter moved to 23. Spruhan Avenue, Norlane, Victoria, to reside with her son, William, and his family.
Elsie May Hadland died in Norlane, Victoria, Australia, on the 14th November 1995, aged 92 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Essex England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1918, 1911 Census of Canada, 1939 Register, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, Cheshire Observer, Cork Examiner, Seven Days to Disaster, Australia Electoral Rolls 1903 – 1980, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.