Grace Marie MacFarquhar was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the United States of America, on the 2nd July 1898, the daughter of John and Jane Anne MacFarquhar (née Grant). She had an older brother and sister – Colin George, and Elsie A., and the family home was at Bufford Street, Bridgeport, before they later moved to 203g., and then 199., Hollister Street, Stratford, Connecticut.
In the spring of 1915, her mother decided to take Grace on a holiday to Morayshire, in Scotland, and the two of them took the train from Bridgeport to New York, where they boarded the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, before she sailed, out of the port for the last ever time, on 1st May 1915.
They both survived the sinking, six days later, and having been rescued from the sea, were landed at Queenstown from where they later made it to Burghead, Morayshire,
via Glasgow, Lanarkshire, in Scotland. Whilst there, Jane MacFarquhar gave an interview to the press, which appeared in The Dundee Advertiser of 10th May 1915: -
Mrs. Macfarquhar (sic) stated that she and her daughter were in the second cabin saloon when the liner was struck.
Everybody, of course, rushed to the decks. Some very foolishly rushed to the staterooms to get their valuables. There was no time for that. They had three (sets of) stairs to climb to get to the deck from the second cabin saloon. There was not much crushing, certainly not so much as one might expect in the circumstances, but the steps were difficult to ascend as the ship had taken a big list.
When she reached the deck she found the passengers crowding to the high part of the deck. She thought they would have a better chance at the other side, and risked crossing the wet and slanting deck, a rather dangerous procedure.
In fact, at this point, Grace MacFarquhar actually lost her footing and slithered down to the edge of the deck where she was only prevented from going overboard by the deck rail. A steward then led the couple through a first class saloon, threading them from chair to chair until they came to a lifeboat about to be launched. The story continued: -
She found a boat ready to be launched and she and her daughter were practically the last to enter it. The boat was fully loaded. There were not many persons around these boats and it was a case of loading them up as quickly as possible with any persons who were near, irrespective of sex.
“All the same, on our boat there were no more men than was required to row and handle her. The ship was going rapidly down when our boat rowed away. One of the men who took the time from when the torpedo struck till the ship disappeared stated that it was only 12½ minutes.
I did not actually see the liner sink,” Mrs. MacFarquhar concluded, “It was too sad a sight to see her go down with all those people on the deck and I turned my head away. My daughter did the same.
We picked up a number of survivors from the water, and we saw many bodies floating past. The boat, after three hours rowing, was taken in tow by a small vessel from Kinsale and shortly after, a Government vessel arrived and took the survivors on board, landing them at Queenstown.”
Grace and her mother remained in Scotland until the war had almost reached a conclusion, when they boarded the Aquitania at Southampton on the 20th September 1918, and arrived in New York City seven days later, from where they travelled by rail to their home in Stratford.
Grace became a nurse and never married. She lived with her parents at 199. Hollister Street. Her father died in 1926, and her mother in 1942, and sometime after this she moved to 77. Lewis Street, Bridgeport.
Grace MacFarquhar died in New Britain, Connecticut, on the 7th February 1979, aged 80 years, and she was buried with her parents at Union Cemetery, Stratford.
1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Dundee Advertiser, Seven Days To Disaster, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.