George King was born in Trimdon, County Durham, England, in 1883, the son of Thomas Henry and Margaret King (née Greener). He was one of eleven children and his father was a coal miner.
On the completion of his education, George followed his father down the coal mines, becoming a coal miner himself. In 1906, he married Margaret Tinkler, and the couple had one child, a son named Norman. The family home was at 38. Second Street, Horden, County Durham.
In October 1914, he had travelled to West Frankfort, Illinois, in the United States of America, where one of his brothers was working as a coal miner. Presumably, he also found work in the coalmines there, but by the spring of 1915, he had decided to return to England. It is likely that he was returning to bring his wife and son to Illinois, or else he intended enlisting in the British Army.
Consequently, he booked third class passage on what proved to be the final voyage of the Lusitania. He boarded the vessel with ticket number 162568 on Saturday morning, 1st May, in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock departure. However, the sailing was delayed until after midday as some cargo, and a number of passengers and crew members of the Anchor Lines, S.S Cameronia, which had earlier been requisitioned by the British Admiralty to go in to service as a troop carrier, were transferred on board.
Six days later, when in sight of the Old Head of Kinsale, off the southern coast of Ireland, George King was killed when the vessel was sunk by a German torpedo fired from the submarine, U-20.
No trace of him was ever found, or if his remains were recovered, they were never identified.
Sometime later his widow applied for financial help from The Lusitania Relief Fund, set up by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and other local dignitaries. This fund helped the survivors and relatives of victims of the sinking who had suffered financial distress through the sinking, and she was awarded the sum of £5-0s-0d. She was residing in Sunderland at this time.
In December 1915, the committee of the Lusitania relief Fund reviewed the case of Mrs. King and her son, and decided to award her £0-10s-0d. per week, and her son, £0-5s-0d. per week.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, UniLiv D92/2/44, UniLiv D92/2/171, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.