Hilda Singleton was born in in Preston, Lancashire, England, on the 15th September 1904, the daughter of John Richard and Margaret Ellen Singleton (née Shenty). Hilda was an only child and her father, who was a general labourer died in 1906.
Sometime after her father’s death, her mother met Albert Topping, a former soldier and railway labourer, and when he immigrated to Brooklyn, New York City, in the United States of American in June 1912, Hilda and her mother followed him the following August. Two days after arriving in Brooklyn, on the 23rd August 1912, Hilda’s mother married Albert Topping. From then on, Hilda became known as Hilda Topping – taking her step-fathers surname as her own.
In January 1915 Albert Topping decided to return to Britain to re-enlist in his former unit, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and on his arrival, was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, in training at Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Her mother decided to take Hilda and join him in England, intending to stay with friends in Preston, and having apparently obtained passage for them both, paid for by the British government, she cabled her husband with the news of their imminent return, at the end of April. They then both joined the Lusitania at New York as third class passengers, before the liner sailed, on 1st May 1915.
Hilda Topping never saw her father or England again, for both she and her mother were killed when the liner was sunk, six days later. No trace of their bodies was ever found and identified afterwards. Hilda Topping was aged 10 years.
Albert Topping was naturally devastated by the events of that afternoon. The Lancashire Daily Post of 10th May 1915, reported: -
The husband, who was in training at Felixstowe, got leave from his regiment to meet the boat on Friday. He came on to Preston, where he has been waiting in suspense for news of his wife and daughter. He is determined to get what revenge he can out of the Germans, and on Saturday he induced ten men to enlist.
He survived the Great War, but it is not known exactly where he served.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, National School Admission Registers & Log Books 1870 – 1914, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Lancashire Daily Post, Preston Herald, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.