Henry Becker Sonneborn was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States of America, on the 14th October 1870, the son of German emigrants, Philip and Wilhelmina Sonneborn (née Becker). He was the third youngest of seven children in his family and his father was a saloon keeper and wholesale liquor dealer. The family resided at 629. Light Street, Baltimore, for many years.
On completing his education, he went into coal business with his brother, Louis. He formed a close relationship with Leo. M. Schwabacher, who was a book keeper from Peoria, Illinois, and who worked and resided with the Sonneborn family. From at least 1906, Henry was travelling on a regular basis to Paris, France, as he had aspirations of becoming a professional singer. He was quite wealthy, for as well as the income from his coal business, he was left a very generous inheritance by his father when he died in 1901.
Henry sold his share of the coal business to his brother in 1912 as he wished to move to Paris on a more permanent basis. He lived in an apartment in a very fashionable part of the city with Leo Schwabacher, making annual trips back to Baltimore.
In October 1914, with the German Army approaching Paris, and the future of the city uncertain, Henry Sonneborn and Leo Schwabacher decided to return to Baltimore. They stayed for the majority of their time at 2209. Brookville Avenue, Baltimore, where Henry’s mother and some of his relatives resided. While there on this occasion, Henry bought a mausoleum, so that when the time came, he and Leo Schwabacher could be laid to rest together!
In April 1915, however they decided to return to Paris, and as a consequence, booked saloon passage - with ticket number 14346 through the firm of A. W. Robson, of Baltimore, to travel on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool.
Having left Baltimore at the end of April, the pair joined the Lusitania at Pier 54 in New York port, on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Having boarded the liner, they were escorted to their accommodation, which was room B60, the personal responsibility of First Class Waiter John Roach, who came from Liverpool. Roach was serving as a first class bedroom steward on what was to become the Lusitania’s final Trans-Atlantic crossing.
The liner’s sailing was delayed until the afternoon as
onia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work at the end of April. The Lusitania finally left the 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. At that point, she was twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only 250 miles away from her home port and destination.
Both Henry Sonneborn and Leo Schwabacher were killed as a result of this action - united in death as they had been in friendship in life. They were both aged 44 years. As neither of their bodies was ever found and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave.
Waiter John Roach, who had looked after Henry Sonneborn and Leo Schwabacher in room B60, survived the sinking, however, and eventually made it back to his Liverpool home.
After the war, the Mixed Claims Commission considered a claim filed by Henry’s extended family for compensation for his death and the loss of his personal belongings. The Commission awarded the sum of $2,500.00 to his nephew, Herman H. Praetorius, and the executors of his estate, Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company of Baltimore, Maryland, the sum of $2,230.50, the value of his personal belongings.
1880 U.S. Federal Census, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Baltimore City Directory 1892 - 1911, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2040, Baltimore Sun, New York Times, PRO 22/71, 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.