Gertrude Kate Elizabeth Veale was born in Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, on the 20th September 1869, the daughter of Edward John de Coverly and Rebecca Veale (née Woodhouse). She was the youngest of six children and her father was a money lender and an agent for the Royal Liver Friendly Society.
On the 14th April 1891, she married Thomas William Poole at St. John the Evangelist Church, Clifton, Bristol. Her husband was a corn merchant, born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the United States of America to British parents. The couple had two children – William Alan, born in 1893, and Margaret Joyce, born in 1893.
In 1913, her husband had gone to la Plata, Maryland, in the United States of America, and it is likely that in early 1915 he had become seriously ill. Whatever the reason, Gertrude Poole decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean to be with him, and consequently booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, sailing from Liverpool on the 17th April 1915.
After an uneventful voyage, she arrived in New York City on the 24th April, and learned that her husband had died in La Plata on the 20th April – while she was in the
middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Whether or not she travelled to La Plata is unknown, but she decided to return to her home, which at that time was at Coombe Dingle, Bristol, very soon after her arrival.
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She booked as a second cabin passenger on the return sailing of the Lusitania, departing a week after she had arrived in new York on the same vessel, and she joined the vessel at the Cunard berth, Pier 54, in New York harbour, on the morning of 1st May 1915, and was shown to cabin C27, which she shared with Miss Muriel Thompson. Gertrude had her last glimpse of that city just after mid-day, when the liner began her delayed departure.
The delay was caused because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew, and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship at the end of April.
Then, six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port. Gertrude Poole was killed as a result of this action. She was aged 45 years.
As no sign of her body was ever found and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. Muriel Thompson also perished, and her remains were never found or identified either.
Probate of her estate was granted to her brother, William George Veale, Solicitor, at London on 7th July 1915 and her effects amounted to £1,417-14s-0d., (£1,417. 70p.).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England & Wales Christening Index 1530 – 1980, England Select Marriages 1538 – 1973, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Cheltenham Chronicle, Gloucestershire Echo, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/374, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.