Florence ‘Florrie’ Williams was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in the United States of America, in 1911, the third daughter of the six surviving children of John and Annie Williams (née Millman). Originally from England, the family had immigrated to the United States of America in April 1904, and eventually settled in Plainfield. Her father was a motor mechanic and although nine children had been brought into the world by her parents, three had died in infancy.
On 1st April 1915, her father joined the Cunard Steamship Company as a steward, and sailed for Liverpool on the Lusitania on that date, the last eastward voyage the great liner would ever complete. Once in Liverpool, he crossed the River Mersey to the home of his sister, Mrs. Charlotte Foster of Deva Villas, 2, Church Road, Hoylake, Cheshire. Having obtained work as a motor mechanic in a garage opposite the nearby railway station, he sent for his wife and family to join him.
As the members of the family were without any means of support, a charitable group, The St. George’s Society, paid their passage to England and as a consequence, at the end of April 1915, Florrie’s mother Annie and the other children, John Edward, Edith, George, Ethel, and David, all set out from Plainfield to New York, where, on 1st May they boarded the Lusitania as third class passengers for the trans-Atlantic voyage. The liner’s departure from her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour was delayed until the early afternoon, because she had to embark passengers, cargo and some crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for war service by the British
Admiralty.
When the ship was torpedoed, by the German submarine U-20 six days later, Florrie Williams was with her big sister Edith. Edith couldn’t find her mother or any of her family as the chaos of the sinking progressed, no-one seemed to have time for two children amongst their own problems.
As the liner began to sink, Edith, still gripping her sister’s hand tightly, tried to reach the portion of the deck still out of the water, which became harder and harder as the Lusitania went down by the bow. Eventually, the pair of them were swept into the sea and Florrie was swept away from her sister and presumably drowned. At that time, the liner was only twelve miles off the southern Irish shore and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Mrs. Williams, George, Ethel, and David were also killed. Only Edith and Edward were saved.
Florrie was just four years old and her body was never found and identified afterwards. Thus, she has no known grave.
In the summer of 1915 John Williams applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for financial help. This fund had been set up immediately after the liner had gone down, by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local business dignitaries to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those who had perished, who had come upon financial difficulties as a result of the sinking. It was thought at the time that the saloon passengers would not need financial help!
The awards committee granted John Williams £5-0s-0d to compensate him for the loss of most of his family. At that time he was stated to have been employed as a coachman.
In May 1916, John Williams, still employed as a steward with the Cunard Steamship Company, returned to the United States with his two surviving children. He left them with friends for a while, but returned to England with them in 1919. He filed a claim for compensation for the loss of his wife and children, but it was rejected by the Mixed Claims Commission on the grounds that both he, and his late wife, had been British subjects at the time of their deaths, and therefore he was not qualified to make a valid claim.
It has been reported in many accounts that John Williams had deserted his family in April 1915, but no evidence has been discovered in support of these accounts.
Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2558, Birkenhead News, Exploring the Lusitania, Tragedy of the Lusitania, Liverpool Record Office, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.