Hilda Mary Joy was born in Ilkley, Yorkshire, England in 1882, the daughter of Augustus Bowdin and Elizabeth Ann Joy (née Brumfitt). Her father was a brewer, and the family lived over the fancy shop, later a ladies outfitters, that her mother ran at 33 Brook Street, Ilkley. Hilda was an only child.
In 1899, her father died, and after her mother sold her shop and retired, Hilda re-located
with her mother to 22. Cardigan Road, Headingley, Leeds.
She was particularly fond of theatrical and operatic work and was particularly skilful as a vocalist. She had been associated with amateur operatic presentations in Leeds and had also appeared in pantomime and with a touring company. When she was performing, she went under the name of Mary Joy, and sometimes Rose Garden!
She had become engaged to be married to Norman Stones, who also lived in Ilkley, and who had immigrated to Van Anda, Texada Island, British Columbia, Canada, in 1911 where he was granted land where he engaged in poultry and fruit farming. Once he had established himself on his farm, he sent for Hilda, and she left Liverpool on the 27th June 1912, arriving in Montreal on board the Corsican. She travelled overland to Vancouver, and on arrival on the 11th July, she married her fiancé.
In early 1915, the couple decided to return to Yorkshire as Hilda’s mother was in ill-health, and subsequently booked as second cabin passengers with The Cunard Steam Ship Company, to cross the Atlantic on the Lusitania.
Having left Vancouver sometime in April, the couple arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 and boarded the liner in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock sailing. This was then delayed until just after mid-day 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.
Six days out of New York 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 point, she was off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and only 250 miles away from her Liverpool home port.
When the ship was struck, according to A.A. and M. Hoehling in The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Norman Stones was seen stripping his wife down to her stockings, seemingly oblivious to all around him, and putting a lifebelt on her presumably so that she could survive in the water: -
In the brilliant sunshine, and with the privacy of Times Square, Stone (sic) did not desist until Mrs. Stone, unprotesting, was stripped down to her stockings. Then he fastened her lifebelt securely around her, lessening to some degree her nakedness.
Unfortunately, Norman Stones’ concern for his wife’s safety did not help her to survive, for although he was later rescued from the sea, she must have drowned, as no trace of her, alive or dead was ever found afterwards. She was aged 32 years.
Norman Stones eventually reached Ilkley, where he gave an interview to a reporter from the Yorkshire Post, which was printed in the edition of Wednesday, 12th May, and re-printed in The Ilkley Gazette on Friday, 14th May. During the course of the interview, Norman Stones gave a lengthy and graphic account of his experiences, including his last moments with his wife: -
THE LAST SEEN OF MRS. STONES.
Particularly sad was Mr. Stones’s story of the last moments with his wife. He had
provided both of them with lifebelts, and had planned that they should swarm down the full ropes of the wrecked boat on the port side, that he should swim with his wife clear of the ship, and trust to getting hold of some wreckage or being picked up by a boat. The situation had developed with such alarming suddenness that they were only just able to get over the side and down to the water. Mrs. Stones went first. Before she went over the side she took a purse containing some bank notes from her handbag and gave them to her husband to put into his pocket. These sea-soaked and stained notes were straightened out in Leeds on Monday. Mrs. Stones was perfectly calm and confident. She climbed down the rope, and then jumped from the hull of the ship into the sea. Mr. Stones followed, and just at that second the vast hull of the Lusitania took a plunge and sank. Both were drawn down into the vortex. Mr. Stones, who is a practised swimmer, and was able to hold his breath under water, was conscious of wreckage floating past him. He came to the surface for a second but sank again. The second time he came up the disturbance had ceased, and he was able to look round. “I never saw my wife again,” he said. “There was no sign of the ship, but the water was full of drifting struggling bodies and wreckage.
A description of Mrs. Stones, forwarded to the Cunard Steam Ship Company by her uncle, George Brumfitt, 2. Pembroke Avenue, Hove, on 28th May 1915, stated: -
“…age 33, height about 5ft 1in, rather stout in build, large grey eyes, dark brown hair”.
Despite this description, no trace was found of her.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, West Yorkshire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1910, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, UK Outgoing Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, U.S. Records of Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada 1904 – 1954, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, PRO BT 100/345, The Ilkley Gazette, Yorkshire Evening Post, Yorkshire Observer, UniLiv D92/2/72, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.