Frederick John, ‘Fred’, Milford was born in St. Austell, Cornwall, England, on the 28th May 1878, the son of George and Maria Milford (née Job) of Porthpean, St. Austell, Cornwall. His father was a gardener, and Fred was the youngest of four children. His mother died in 1884, and his father re-married a few later, and had five more children with his second wife.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Fred became a domestic gardener, and then, around 1902, he immigrated to the United States of America, and initially settled in Hancock, Michigan. He worked as an insurance salesman for the industrial department of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the headquarters of which, was in New York City, and he liked his life in America so much that he applied for and was granted United States citizenship in 1908.
On the 5th August 1913, he married Sarah Ethel Fisher in Hancock, and gave his profession at that time as being a solicitor! The couple had no children, and resided at Old Road, Quincy, Houghton, Houghton County, Michigan.
In the spring of 1915, he received that his father was ill in St. Austell, and decided to return to his home to visit him. Consequently, he booked a second class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Having left Hancock sometime in April, he boarded the vessel at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 there, in time for her 10.00 a.m. sailing, but in keeping with all her passengers and crew, he had to wait until the early afternoon before she actually sailed. This was because the Lusitania had to take on board passengers, crew, and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of the previous month.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. Fred Milford survived the sinking, however and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he told his story to a representative of the Press Association and this was later syndicated in newspapers around the world. He said: -
I was having lunch when I heard a dull crash, but it did not startle me at all. Very soon afterwards I heard women screaming and I then hurriedly made my way to the deck. The vessel in a short time began to list to starboard and nearly a score of the boats on the port side were filled with passengers, but it was found impossible to lower them owing to that side of the ship being so high in the air. I managed to get across to starboard. The ship’s deck was then level with the sea.
I made for a boat which was just putting off and in fact had one foot on the craft and the other on the ship. Then owing to something wrong, the lifeboat jammed and all the occupants were thrown into the water. It was a terrible moment. The passengers in the water, including women, screamed in terror and soon sank. Other boats collapsed or turned over, and hundreds of people, men, women and children were struggling hopelessly about, some frantically clinging to boats which had been upset.
I struck out and managed, after swimming for about fifteen minutes, to come across a boat into which I was dragged. Hundreds of people were on rafts, and the sea was alive with men and women.
Another account of his ordeal was published in Cornish newspaper The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser on Thursday 13th May, after his arrival home there and stated: -
After helping to save the women and children, Mr. Milford jumped overboard in his lifebelt, when the water was level with the top deck. He was in the water for 20 minutes before being picked up by a boat.
This boat was still connected to the davits by a rope and had not his friend Mr. Edward Collins cut the rope with a penknife in the nick of time, the boat would have been pulled under when the Lusitania went down. It took them fifteen minutes to get clear of the wreckage.
Mr. Milford lost most of his personal belongings on board, but his money, being represented by a draft on the Bank of England, will probably be saved to him. He was rising from lunch when the first torpedo struck the vessel.
The Edward Collins referred to was possibly fellow second cabin passenger Edwin M. Collis, from Riverside, Chicago, Illinois, as there was no Edward Collins on board the ship. However, in accounts left by Collis of the sinking, there is no mention of any involvement with his cutting a rope attaching a lifeboat to the ship’s side!
As his father was not seriously ill, Fred did not remain in his native land for very long, for in June 1915, he boarded the American Line vessel Philadelphia at Liverpool for his return to America and arrived in New York on 30th of that month. Records of the immigration centre at Ellis Island, New York, do not show that he ever left the country again to cross the Atlantic.
After the conclusion of the war, the Mixed Claims Commission awarded Fred Milford the sum of $11,500.00 in compensation for the injuries he suffered as a result of his ordeal. Part of his claim was that as a result of the sinking, he had suffered from diabetes. In addition, the Commission awarded him $281.00, which was the value of his lost personal belongings.
In 1918, like all men living in the United States of America, Fred Milford was obliged to register for the ‘Draft’, and curiously, as well as it being recorded that he was
suffering from diabetes, it was also stated that he suffered a limp as a result of his left leg being a half an inch shorter than his right!
By 1920, Fred Milford was selling automobiles, and then, he died of septic pleurisy following a scalp infection, with his diabetes being a contributing factor, on the 2nd January 1927, at his home in Quincy, aged 48 years. He was buried three days later in Forest Hill Cemetery, Houghton.
Michigan U.S. Marriage Records 1867 – 1952, Michigan U.S. Death Records 1867 – 1952, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2205, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917 – 1918, West Briton & Cornwall Advertiser, Yorkshire Post, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.