Henry Harrison Webster was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the 15th January 1914, one of twin sons of Frederick George and Margaret Webster (née Arthur). His twin brother was called Frederick George and he also had another brother named William Frederick, who was born in 1912.
Henry’s father originally came from Liverpool, Lancashire and his mother from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, but had emigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto, Ontario, where Frederick Webster worked as a plumber.
In the spring of 1915, however, his father decided to take his family back to Britain for a holiday and as a result, booked second cabin passage for them all on the Lusitania which was scheduled to sail from New York harbour to Liverpool, on 1st May 1915.
Leaving Toronto at the end of April, they boarded the liner at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May. in time for her delayed sailing out of the port, which began just after noon. Six days later, Henry Webster, his twin brother Frederick and their mother were all killed, when the liner was torpedoed and sunk, off the coast of southern Ireland. Only his father and his brother William survived out of the whole family.
The catastrophe was outlined in the book The Tragedy of the Lusitania written in 1915 by Captain Frederick D. Ellis, in which he stated: -
They reached the deck with the others who were dining when the torpedo struck. Webster took his son by the hand and darted away to bring lifebelts. When he returned, his wife and babies were not to be seen, nor have they since been seen.
Henry Webster was only fifteen months old at the time and as his body was never recovered and identified after the sinking, he has no known grave.
Ontario Canada Births 1832 – 1916, Cunard Records, Aberdeen Daily Journal, Aberdeen Weekly Journal, Tragedy of the Lusitania, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Stuart Williamson, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.