Gordon Graham was born in Scotland in 1889. In 1915, he had been living in San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, but in the spring of 1915, he decided to return home, possibly because of the war raging in Europe and maybe mindful of his patriotic duty.
Consequently, he booked third class passage for himself on the May sailing of the
Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool, at 10.00 a.m. on 1st May 1915. Having boarded the vessel in time for this departure, he then had to wait until just after mid-day before the liner slipped her moorings and sailed into the North River and her date with destiny across the Atlantic Ocean. This was because the
Lusitania had to load cargo and take on board passengers and crew from Anchor Lines ship the S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Nothing much more is known specifically, about Gordon Graham, but when the
Lusitania was about 250 miles away from her destination, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, she was torpedoed by the German submarine
U-20 and sank within 18 minutes! Mr. Graham perished as a result of this action and as his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 26 years.
One of Cunard’s documents compiled in February 1917 and now held in The Public Record Office in Richmond, Surrey, states that his occupation was that of a soldier. If he had been serving in the British Army at the time, then his death would have been recorded and commemorated by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which it is not, so either the documentation is wrong, or perhaps he was serving in a foreign Army. Certainly he was not a member of the Army of the United States of America at the time!
Cunard Records, U.S. National Archives, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.