Harold Stanley Venn was born in Bridgwater, Somerset, England, in 1887, the son of George and Annie Venn (née Jenkins). The family lived at Florence Villa, Wembdon Road, Bridgwater, before later moving to The Hollies, Jaycroft Road, Burnham, Somerset. His father was a commercial traveller for Messrs. Colthurst, Symons & Co. of Bridgwater, who were a large brick and tile manufacturing company. Harold was the youngest of four children.
He was educated at Hart House School, a private boarding school in Burnham, and then became a commercial traveller like his father but it is not known who he worked for.
He left England in 1909 for Australia and New Zealand and travelled frequently between the two countries before deciding to return to England in 1914. He travelled via Japan and Honolulu to San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, and from there continued to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to spent time with his eldest brother, Reginald.
Having decided to finally return home in the spring of 1915, he booked as a second cabin passenger on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool, and leaving Montreal some time in April, he arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. This was then delayed because she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service at the end of April.
She finally left New York just after mid-day and six days out, on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from her Liverpool destination. Harold Venn was killed as a result of this action. He was aged 27 years and unmarried.
As his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, New South Wales Australia Passenger Lists 1826 – 1922, Western Australia Passenger Lists 1852 – 1930, Honolulu Hawaii Passenger Lists 1900 – 1959, California Passenger Lists U.S. Records of Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada 1904 – 1954, Cunard Records, Bridgwater Mercury, Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/115, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.