Ernest Joseph Townley was born in Wandsworth, Surrey, England, in 1866, the son of Joseph and Frances Elizabeth Townley (née Symonds). Ernest was the middle of three known children in the family and his father was a cotton broker and warehouseman.
After completing his education, Ernest became a warehouseman and then a commercial traveller for a drapery company.
On the 14th August 1899, he married Amelia Aggs at the Parish Church of St. Nicholas in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and the couple had three children. The family home was at ‘Holmleigh‘, Effingham Road, Long Ditton, Surrey.
From 1913, in the course of his profession, he had travelled to Canada in the month of March, and did so again in 1915. He had been to Toronto, Ontario, and booked his return passage to England with The Cunard Steam Ship Company through agents A.J. Webster and Son of Toronto, from New York to Liverpool and joined the Lusitania as a saloon passenger - with ticket number 13003 - on the morning of 1st May 1915, before the liner left that city for the last time. Once on board, he was allocated room D40, which was the responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward William Barnes who came from Wallasey in Cheshire, on the opposite side of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
The Cunarder's scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure was then delayed until just after mid-day as she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and crew from the Anchor Lines vessel the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship. Then, six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of southern Ireland, by the submarine U-20.
Ernest Townley survived this action, however and despite being in the water for some time, was eventually rescued and having been landed at Queenstown, managed to make it back to his home, the day after the sinking. There, he was able to give an account of his experiences to the local newspaper, The Surrey Advertiser and County Times, which was published the following Saturday.
It stated: -
"One of the worst sights of the whole catastrophe", he says, "occurred while the boats were being launched." About seventy women and children had got into a boat but the attempt to launch it failed. It hung on end by the davits, and all the women and children in it were washed away. Having assisted to launch other boats, Mr. Townley found two lifebelts.
One of these he gave to a lady and tried to persuade her to jump into the sea, as it appeared to be the safest plan. She, however, declined. He put the other lifebelt round himself, and as the ship suddenly listed, sprang into the sea.
He was then picked up by a boat, but as the great vessel heeled over, one of the davits caught it and it was capsized, all the occupants being thrown into the water. Then the four funnels of the ship came down, smashing everything in its (sic) way - boats and people. Mr. Townley happened to be just clear of
them and thus narrowly escaped being killed or rendered insensible, but he was sucked down in the swirling vortex.
Fortunately, he came up again, and being a strong swimmer, was able successfully to fight his way free from the suction. He clung to some pieces of wreckage, and about three quarters of an hour later was picked up by a boat. The same boat also rescued a lady who sat unconscious in a deck chair, just as it she had been resting on board ship - a strange and pathetic spectacle.
The rescue boat was the steam patrol boat H.M.S. Bluebell, under the command of Captain John Thompson and the lady who sat unconscious in a deck chair, was saloon passenger Lady Margaret Mackworth, who was returning to south Wales with her father, coal magnate Mr. David A. Thomas and his secretary Mr. Arnold Rhys-Evans. All three survived.
Ernest Townley also gave a similar account to a representative of The Surrey Comet but with the additional information: -
One of the most distressing sights was the number of bodies of little children seen floating on the water. Many of the persons saved had all their clothes torn from them. One man who was taken into the boat was apparently dead but was ultimately restored after two hours of artificial respiration. The first thing he did when his breathing returned was to ask for a cigarette. Mr Townley himself confessed that his first desire after being rescued was for a smoke. .....
Mr. Townley had intended travelling by the Esperia, but came up with a friend on the Lusitania because they thought that ship would be safer. His friend, sad to relate, was drowned.
It is likely that his friend was French-born fellow saloon passenger Mr. George Maurice of nearby Claygate in Surrey, who was indeed killed as a result of the torpedoing.
The newspaper ended its account with: -
Mr. Townley left Queenstown for his home on Saturday, and appears, and feels, little the worse for his terrible ordeal, but, he observed, it is an experience he does not want to go through again.
Bedroom Steward Barnes who had looked after Ernest Townley in room D40 also survived the sinking and eventually returned to his Wallasey home.
Nothing further is known about Ernest Townley, except that he died on the 23rd February 1931, aged 65 years. He was living at that time at Flynn Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire. He left his estate of £1,043-4s.-9d. (£1,043.24p.) to his wife.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Norfolk England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1940, 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, Cunard Records, Probate Records, Surrey Advertiser and County Times, Surrey Comet, PRO 22/71, Graham Maddocks, Peter Threlfall, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.