Grace “Gracie” Hope French was born in Renton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the 10th June 1890, the daughter of Archibald and Annie French (née Colquhoun). The family home was at 184, Main Street, Renton, and Gracie was the youngest of seven children. Her father worked as a “yarn bundler” at the local Turkey Red Works, and also managed the local football team.
On leaving school, Gracie worked as a dressmaker and milliner.
In 1908, her only brother, Archie, immigrated to the United States of America, and settled in Passaic, New Jersey, where he worked as a plumber. In 1911, Gracie decided to follow him, and travelled from Glasgow to New York City on board the
California, disembarking on the 14th March.
Grace found work as a dressmaker on reaching Passaic, and lived at 104. Jackson Street. She first worked for Ware & Dalley, and later at Stein’s shop in the city.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return home to Renton for a holiday and as a consequence booked a second class ticket from New York to Glasgow on the Anchor Liner S.S.
Cameronia. Then at the end of April, the British Admiralty requisitioned her for war service as a troop ship, and on the morning of 1st May, transferred her passengers, some crew and her cargo to the
Lusitania. Gracie French therefore joined the vessel at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York. The
Lusitania then left port just after mid-day. Her New York address was given as 242, West 142nd Street.
Six days later, after the ship had been torpedoed and sunk, by the German submarine
U-20, she found herself struggling in the water and only managed to survive by clinging on to the top of the floating corpse of a large man, until she was rescued and landed at Queenstown. From there, she was able to send a telegram to her parents informing them of her survival and she eventually managed to get back to Renton, where she was re-united with her family.
Having recovered from her ordeal, Gracie French wrote a letter, detailing her experience, to her landlady, Miss Isabelle Webster, who lived in the same building as Gracie did, at 104. Jackson Street, Passaic. Miss Webster subsequently passed on the letter to the Passaic Daily News, who published excerpts from it in their 1st June 1915 edition: -
“I was on deck when the first torpedo struck the ship right under but very far down. The next struck the boilers. Then the rush started. They all shouted ‘They got her at last!’ I tried to find a lifebelt but did not succeed. I asked a Canadian what to do, but he only pushed me away. Looking back on the deck I saw a lot of people crowded together, then took the final leap off the ship as she went down. Everything was calm. The water was strewn with swimmers. wreckage, and bodies.
“I caught a piece of wreckage and floated with the current until I hit a collapsible boat. There was one man in the boat but he was too weak to assist me. About the same time I reached the boat, a fireman grasped it but he was almost exhausted. I got caught under this boat, and the man had to dive under and push me out. Then we got into it.
“We reached another boat in which there were twenty-nine men and three women. One of the women was drawn down the funnel of the boat when it sank. She was blown out again by an explosion. …
Gracie French was one of many survivors who erroneously stated that the Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes, and the woman
‘drawn down the funnel’ was most likely Margaret Gwyer, who also survived.
One of the second cabin passengers who was killed and whose body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards was Richard Preston Prichard, who originally came from Ramsgate in Kent. In an attempt to learn more of his fate, the Prichard family first went to Queenstown and scoured the mortuaries there and his brother Mostyn printed and published posters seeking information about him. Mrs. Prichard then wrote to many surviving passengers and crew members seeking information. One of these was Grace French and in November 1915, she replied to one of the Prichard family letters thus: -
I met your son three times every day and as far a I can remember he wore two suits one very smart navy blue serge and a green suit, more for knock about wear.
The green suit he wore at the time of torpedoing, ( and a soft green hat, but that of course would not be of any account). .....
She was unable to add anything else to her remembrance of Richard Preston Prichard.
In the summer of 1915, Grace French successfully applied for aid to The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen to help those second and third class passengers or the relatives of those that had perished, who had suffering financial loss as a result of the sinking. The committee which administered the fund awarded her the sum of £4-0s-0d,
towards replenishing her wardrobe, all of which had been lost.
Coincidentally, fellow second cabin passengers Mrs. Elizabeth McCorkindale and her two children Duncan and Mary, all three of whom perished in the sinking, also had a connection with Main Street, Renton. Elizabeth McCorkindale’s mother-in-law lived there and the family was probably making for that address from their home in Chrome, New Jersey, U.S.A..
On reaching Renton, Gracie, in partnership with her sister, Annie, established a dressmaking and millinery shop. In September 1926, she again crossed the Atlantic Ocean, to visit her brother, who was now living in Brooklyn, New York City. She returned to Renton in March 1927, and as far as is known, this was her only return visit to the United States of America..
In 1960, the Annie and Gracie, both of whom never married, moved to 3. Steele Walk, Balloch, which is only about 3 miles north of Renton. The sisters continued to run their business from there until Annie’s death in 1974!
Within a year of Annie’s death, Gracie went to live at the Church of Scotland’s Clyde View Eventide Home, Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire. She died there on the 5th February 1986, aged 95 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, U.S. City Directories, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Evening Telegraph, Passaic Daily News, The Herald News, IWM GB62, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Liverpool Record Office, Graham Maddocks, Margaret F. Winslow, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Hildo Thiel, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.