The identity of William James is unknown, although whoever he was, it is thought that he was born in Wales in 1877.
Following the sinking of the Lusitania, a letter was received by the Cunard Steam Ship Company from a Mrs. E. James, Wholehouse Farm, Talgarth, Breconshire, Wales, claiming that she was his mother. Research has revealed that this was Mrs. Elizabeth James (née Price), who had been married to one Albert James, but who was a widow by 1915. Further research has revealed that she had thirteen children, ten of whom were
living in 1911, but none proved to be a match for James Williams!
Another letter in the Cunard Archive was from a woman writing from 25. Tanhouse Street, Ravensthorpe, Yorkshire, who claimed that she had married James Williams in February 1902, and before the end of that year, a son was born to the couple. The marriage did not last long, however, as James deserted his family in 1905, and his wife obtained a Separation Order at Wakefield on the 14th March 1906 on the grounds of desertion.
This correspondent stated that after he deserted her, James Williams travelled to Canada with another woman, and was imprisoned within a short period of time, having been convicted of having committed a minor crime. Following his release from prison, he was deported as an undesirable person and returned to England. Thereafter, in 1911, he travelled to America and settled in New York, where on the 15th December 1914, he married a woman in Hoboken, New Jersey, and they lived at 728, Columbus Avenue, New York. His second wife had at least one daughter from a previous relationship. This second marriage made James Williams a bigamist as he had not divorced his first wife.
Whoever James Williams was, in the spring of 1915, he decided to return to Great Britain and having booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania, he left his second wife behind and joined the steamer at her berth at Pier 54 in New York in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock sailing. This was then delayed until the early afternoon, so that she could take on board passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank two miles closer inshore. At that stage of her voyage, she was only 250 miles from her home port of Liverpool.
James Williams was killed as a result of this action but his body was recovered from the sea not long afterwards. It was landed at Queenstown and taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there, where it was allocated the reference number 108 and described as :-
Male, 30 years, clean shaven, dark complexion, dark hair, 5’5” or 5’6”.
Having been positively identified, however, on 10th May 1915, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, three miles north of the town, in Mass Grave C, 1st Row, Upper Tier. It was on this day that most of the victims of the sinking were buried after a long funeral procession which began outside the Cunard offices at Lynch’s Quay on the waterfront.
Property recovered from his body, (which probably aided its speedy identification), was then sent to his wife, at the New York address, on board the S.S. Orduña, on 8th July 1915 and handed over to her on 10th August. It consisted of four $1 bills, some British and American small coins and a collar stud. Some time later his first wife, still residing in Ravensthorpe, heard of his death and submitted a claim for his property. It was at this point that she learned of her husband’s bigamist marriage. As James’ property had already been returned to his second wife in New York, there was nothing left for her to claim.
James Williams was aged 38 years at the time of his death.
Cunard Records, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/77, UniLiv D92/2/430, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.