Gordon Ernest Ashcroft was born in 1891 at Formby, near Liverpool, Lancashire, England, the son of Edgar Makin and Harriet Ellen “Cissie” Ashcroft (née Birch). The family home was at 18, Fairholme Road, Great Crosby, Lancashire, and Gordon was one of five children in the family. His father was a merchant and general broker.
On completing his education, Gordon became a produce broker’s clerk before becoming a waiter on ocean-going liners out of Liverpool and joining the Mercantile Marine.
He engaged as a first class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool on the 12th April 1915 and he reported for duty on the morning of the 17th April, before the liner left the River Mersey for the last time. As a first class waiter, his monthly rate of pay was £4-5s-0d., (£4.25p). It was not the first time that he had
served on the Lusitania.
Having arrived without mishap in New York, Waiter Ashcroft was on board when the liner left New York on the early afternoon of the 1st May 1915 for her return trip to Liverpool. Six days later, however, when the vessel was sunk off the southern coast of Ireland, by the German submarine U-20, he was killed. He was aged 23 years.
A fortnight later, on the 22nd May, southern Irish newspaper, The Cork Examiner, published a photograph of him under the title INFORMATION WANTED and: -
GORDON ASHCROFT
Who was a member of the “Lusitania” Crew. Further details are as follows: - Height 5 ft.10 in.; eyes grey ; complexion fresh. It is known that his dress consisted of pale blue flannels, and that they would possibly bear the vendor’s name, “Watson Prickard“, Liverpool.
Despite the advertisement, presumably inserted by his family, no sign of Waiter Ashcroft’s body was ever recovered and identified and as a result, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
Administration of his estate was granted to his father on the 11th June 1915 at Liverpool and his effects amounted to £202-0s-9d, (£202.04p), quite a large sum for a waiter to have accumulated in 1915.
In August 1915, Gordon Ashcroft’s father also received the balance of wages due to his son in respect of his sea service from the 17th April to the 8th May 1915, 24 hours after the great liner had gone down.
One of Ernest Ashcroft’s friends from Formby, First Class Waiter James Marshall also lost his life as a result of the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Lancashire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1911, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Cork Examiner, Formby Times, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 7th December 2022.