Frederick Arthur ’Fred’ Worrall was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, on the 2nd February 1870, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Worrell (née Birchall). His father was a clerk and bookkeeper, and Fred was one of five known children in the family.
On completing his education, he became a solicitor’s clerk before he immigrated to the United States of America sometime between 1891 and 1893 and settled in Manhattan, New York City.
On the 21st June 1893, he married Cecelia Higgins, also known as Bridget Higgins, in Manhattan, New York City, and the couple had two children – Arthur Thomas, born on the 22nd April 1894, and Frederick Timothy, born on the 20th February 1896. A month after the birth of their second son, on the 22nd March 1896, Cecelia Higgins died.
Sometime after the death of his wife, Fred brought his two sons to Manchester and gave them into the care of two of his unmarried sisters, Mary and Annie, who resided at 26. Barton Street, Moss Side, Manchester, and later 42. Melbourn Street, Gorton, Manchester.
By now, Fred was a coal merchant and also a nursery man, and travelled back and forth between Manchester and Red Bank, New Jersey, where he had a home, and, presumably engaged in business.
In February 1914, he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean on board the Baltic, and when he decided to return home in the spring of 1915, he booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania.
Nothing much more is known about him apart from this, except that he would have boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 and would then have had his last sight of his adopted city after the vessel had finally sailed out into the north River in the afternoon. Her
scheduled departure time had been 10.00 a.m., but this was deferred until just before mid-day, so that she could take on board passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work 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 eighteen minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours sailing time from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
Fred Worrell was one of nearly 250 third class passengers who were killed as a result of this action and as his body was never recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 45 years at the time of his death.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Manchester England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1915, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.