Gwendolen, also known as Gwendolyn, or Gwen Jones, was probably born in Wales in 1885.
Little is known about her, except that she arrived in New York City on the 22nd June 1907, on board the
Lucania. She was accompanied by an Evan Pugh Jones, described as her brother, and their destination was Pleasanton, Alameda, California.
Evan Pugh Jones had emigrated from Wales in the 1890’s and found employment as a coachman at Hearst Castle, Pleasanton. Hearst Castle was built by George Hearst, the father of the renowned William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, on a 40,000 acre site.
Gwen accompanied her brother to Pleasanton, and was given a position as a dairy maid and domestic servant at Hearst Castle, no doubt on the recommendation of her brother. She was unmarried.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return to Great Britain on a visit and obtained a second cabin passage from San Francisco, California on the
Lusitania. Travelling from there at the end of April, she arrived at the liner’s berth at Pier 54 in New York on 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing.
This was then delayed until the afternoon as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner,
Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship at the end of April. The
Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day, and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20, off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and only about fourteen hours away from her Liverpool home port.
Gwendolen Jones was killed as result of the torpedoing and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 29 years.
Administration of her estate was granted to The Treasury Solicitor at London on 15th November 1916 and her effects amounted to £200-0s-0d.. The involvement of The Treasury Solicitor was curious, but was explained in a letter from the British Embassy in Washington to the U.S. State Department.
In this letter, dated the 3rd October 1925, it was stated that embassy officials had obtained a grant of administration of Gwendolen Jones’ personal estate in California – her only asset being an unspecified sum of money in a bank account at the Hibernia Savings and Loan Society in San Francisco, but in accordance with international practise, they were notifying the U.S. State Department that the U.S. government were entitled to succeed to the money in this bank account. It was explained that as Gwendolen Jones had never married, died intestate, and was born illegitimately, the British government had succeeded to her estate in Great Britain, which amounted to the afore-mentioned £200.
It is possible that Gwendolen had been born illegitimately, and raised by a Jones family without ever having been formally or legally adopted, hence the reason for her estate being claimed by the Treasury Solicitor.
1910 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1840 – 1957, Cunard Records, Probate Records, Digest of International Law (1942 edition), 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.