George Somerville Rolfe was born in Glascote, Warwickshire, England, on the 26th October 1883, the son of The Reverend Thomas Forster and Erina Bellingham Rolfe (née Somerville). The Reverend Rolfe was for some ten years, the headmaster of Tamworth Grammar School, leaving in about 1895, to become rector of Kirk Bramwith, Doncaster, Yorkshire. George was the eldest of six children.
George Rolfe was educated at Tamworth Grammar School, and in 1905; he had immigrated to Canada and settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where he took up fruit farming. Whilst engaged in this pursuit, he lost his right arm, just above his elbow, in an accident.
At the end of April 1915, he left his farm in Hamilton, having decided to return to England to pay a visit to his family. He had been back in England in the previous year, returning home in May 1914 on the Lusitania's sister ship Mauretania from Liverpool. Having booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, he joined her at her berth, Pier 54 in New York harbour, in time for her delayed sailing, which began just after noon. The delay was caused because she had to embark passengers, crew, and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Then, just six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the southern Irish coast, the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 and George Rolfe was one of the victims of the action.
Tragically, The Reverend Rolfe only received news of his son’s death when he saw it in the newspapers, and one of his sons then journeyed to Liverpool to seek hopeful news, but none arrived! As George Rolfe’s body was never found and identified, he has no known grave. He was aged 31 years.
Three weeks later, a letter appeared in The Tamworth Herald, which had been presumably sent to his father, who had then sent it on to Tamworth for publication for the interest of those who had known him. It was from a surviving passenger, (name
unknown), who had obviously witnessed George Rolfe’s last minutes on earth: -
"I am certain that I met your relative on the Lusitania, but the fact that he had lost his right arm is nearly enough to identify him with a man with whom I possibly was the last to speak.
I would like to say that his courage and splendid calmness just before the end will always be remembered by myself. 3 or 4 minutes before the end came I noticed a man leaning against the rail of the boat calmly smoking a cigarette. I went up to him asking ‘Could you not get a belt either?’ He replied ‘No’. ‘Well’, I said ‘It looks as if we are up against it properly‘. ‘Yes’ he said and touching his empty sleeve ‘I can't swim with that’.
We shook hands saying ‘Goodbye’ and ‘keep smiling’ he called to me as I moved away from him. He was very calm and brave. I did not see him after that, for a minute or two later the ship went down. I by some miracle managed to get hold of a piece of wreckage and was picked up 4 hours later. If your relative has gone, then he met his end as a gentleman and a Briton, and I am proud I had the honour of shaking hands with him".
The Tamworth Herald also opined: -
Mr. G.S. Rolfe was universally liked and his loss is a very sad bereavement to his parents and his family.
George Somerville Rolfe is commemorated on the Tamworth municipal war memorial and also on the memorial at the old Tamworth Grammar School, although his name is shown on the latter as G.A. Rolfe.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Oxfordshire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1915, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of Canada, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Tamworth Herald, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Bill Walton, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.