Eva Eliza Howard was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England in 1886, the daughter of Walter and Jessie Howard (née Finch). She had an older brother named William, and she also had two siblings that died in infancy. At the time of her birth, her father was a carter, but he later became the manager of a brewery, and then the licensee of The Britannia Tavern, 73. Botolph Street, Norwich.
On completion of her education, Eva worked as a boot and shoe operator in a local footwear factory. She met William Finch, who lived at 1. St. Miles Alley, Norwich, and who worked as a shoe cutter, presumably in the same factory, and the couple became engaged to be married.
In October 1911, William Finch immigrated to the United States of America and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he found work in a local shoe factory. Once he had established himself in Lynn, Eva decided to follow him, and on the 20th June 1912, she arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on board the Laconia. No doubt William Finch met her as she disembarked, and the couple immediately made their way to Lynn, stopping off in the town of Revere, to get married. They ceremony taking place within hours of Eva arriving in the United States of America!
Eva found work in the same factory in Lynn as her husband, and the couple lived at 56. Johnson Street, Lynn.
In January 1915, Eva Finch’s mother died and she had decided to make a return trip to Norwich, probably to comfort her father and her other relatives. Consequently, she booked a second cabin passage on the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York on 1st May 1915.
Leaving Lynn at the end of April, she arrived at the liner’s berth, at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May and had her last view of America in the early afternoon of that day, as the liner made her delayed departure from the North River and sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Six days later, Eva Finch lost her life, after the Cunarder was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, only hours away from her Liverpool home port and destination. She was aged 29 years.
Soon after the sinking, however, her body was recovered from the sea and landed at Queenstown where it was taken to the temporary mortuary set up in the yard next to the Cunard offices at Lynch’s Quay, where it was given the reference number 85. It was then buried on 10th May 1915, in The Old Church Cemetery, outside the town, in Mass Grave C, 3rd Row, Upper Tier. It was on this day that most of the bodies recovered after the sinking were buried, following a long funeral procession which began outside Cunard’s offices in the town.
At the time of the burial, the identification of body No. 85 was not known, and it was merely labelled: -
Fair Hair, wore a long cord coat.
It was later identified, presumably by the family, from a photograph taken of it whilst it was still in the mortuary. Because of the lack of facilities in Queenstown for embalming bodies and the large numbers of them which were recovered soon after the sinking, it was necessary to bury them all as soon as possible for hygienic reasons, in the warm conditions of early May in southern Ireland. Anxious relatives of those missing were then invited to identify their loved ones through these photographs.
Eva Finch is also commemorated on the family gravestone in Norwich Cemetery. The inscription stating: -
ALSO EVA ELIZA
THE DEARLY LOVED WIFE OF
WILLIAM FINCH, (LYNN. MASS. U.S.A.) .....
WHO LOST HER LIFE ON THE LUSITANIA
7TH MAY 1915, AGED 29 YEARS.
INTERRED AT QUEENSTOWN, IRELAND.
PEACE, PERFECT, PEACE.
On 7th June 1915, property recovered from her body, which probably aided its identification was sent to her husband William, at the St. Miles Alley address. This was discovered in a ladies satchel which must have been lost when Eva Finch was pitched into the sea and consisted of four gold rings, a bracelet, a pendant, a brooch, a chain, and a pencil. Also contained in the satchel were two addresses on a piece of paper, 1, North Row, Seaton Burn, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England and 56, Johnson Street, Lynn, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A..
The North Row address was that of fellow second cabin passengers, brother and sister, Kenneth and Annie Robson, who also lost their lives as a result of the sinking, so it is more than possible that Eva Finch had befriended one or both of them on the voyage to England. The Lynn address was William and Eva Finch’s home.
William Finch had signed on as a crew member of the Canadian, which sailed from Boston on the 15th May, destined for Liverpool. He was one of a number of men caring for 1,030 cavalry horses destined for the British Army. In newspaper reports, he stated that it was his intention to join the British Army as soon as he arrived in England and avenge Eva’s death; however, he either changed his mind, or more likely was rejected for military service, as he returned to Lynn at the end of June 1915.
Walter Howard, Eva Finch’s father, died in October 1930, aged 74 years, and her husband, William died in Norwich, Norfolk, on the 27th February 1974, aged 95 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Massachusetts Marriage Records 1840 – 1915, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 - 1963, Cunard Records, Norwich Mercury, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.