Janet Anderson Wallace was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 27th April 1890, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wallace (née Provan) of 55, Hill Street, Kilmarnock. She had three older sisters and two younger brothers. Her father was a packer in a pottery.
One of her sisters had immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States of America and in April 1913, Janet Wallace decided to give up her job in Paisley, Renfrewshire, to
join her. Six months later, on the 31st December, in Cleveland, she married William Rintoul Stevenson, a native of Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. He had been a well-known defender with the Bathgate Football Club before emigrating and Janet had first met him in Kilmarnock when he came home for a visit. Their home in Cleveland was at 2060 Denison Avenue, where he was a pattern moulder. A daughter Elizabeth P. - ‘Lizzie’ - was born to them on the 2nd June 1914.
In the spring of 1915, Janet Stevenson decided to return to Kilmarnock for her first visit home and no doubt to introduce her new daughter to her relatives. Leaving husband William behind, she left Cleveland at the end of April with Elizabeth and set out by rail for New York. Once there, she and her infant daughter joined the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, in time for the liner’s last ever sailing out of the port, which began -after a delay - just after mid-day on 1st May 1915.
Six days out of New York, the liner was torpedoed and sunk, by the German submarine U-20, whilst just off the coast of southern Ireland and only 250 miles away from her Liverpool destination. Both Janet Stevenson and her baby were killed. She was aged 25 years.
Local newspaper The Kilmarnock Standard reported in its edition of 15th May 1915, Thomas Wallace’s pathetic attempt to discover any news of his daughter and granddaughter's fates: -
Mrs. Stevenson was on her first visit home and it had been arranged that her father was to meet her at Liverpool and accompany her to Kilmarnock. Like many others, when the first rumours were circulated regarding the fate of the ship, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace were not inclined to place any credence on them, the possibility of such a catastrophe happening being well nigh beyond imagining. When the reports were confirmed they were naturally greatly concerned as to the safety of their daughter, and the last information which Mr. Wallace received by telephone from Glasgow before leaving for Liverpool on the Friday night was that all had been saved.
On his arrival at Liverpool and calling at the office of the Cunard Company, the true position of matters was almost indescribable. Relatives and friends of passengers had arrived from all parts anxious to glean information as to their friends and the officials did all that was humanely possible to satisfy inquiries and to appease those to whom the worst news possible had been communicated.
Mr. Wallace was advised by the officials to return to Kilmarnock, as nothing could be gained by waiting, and whenever anything definite was learned regarding his daughter, it would be sent to him. On Saturday night, he returned and in the beginning of the week, he endeavoured to book through to Queenstown with the object of identifying his daughter's body if it had been found.
As neither her body nor that of her daughter was ever recovered and identified afterwards, however, neither has a known grave.
On 16th June 1915, however, a letter was received by the Cunard office at Liverpool, which had been re-routed from its Glasgow office and written by Janet Stevenson’s sister in Cleveland. She had seen a photograph of an infant child rescued from the Lusitania in an American newspaper and she thought it was her niece Lizzie. She
wanted to know if it were possible that Lizzie Stevenson had survived.
Cunard had to reply the next day that it had no record that the child had survived!
William Stevenson filed a claim for consideration by the Mixed Claims Commission. He had become a naturalized citizen of the United States on 21st September 1916, but as he and Janet were British subjects at the time of the sinking, the Commission declined to make any award for compensation to him.
Cuyahoga County Ohio U.S. Marriage Records and Indexes 1810 – 1973, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2198, Edinburgh Evening News, Kilmarnock Standard, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/5, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Dave Huffaker, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.