John N. Ellis was born in Great Britain in 1888. In 1915, his family home was at 70, Thurnscoe Road, Manningham Lane, Bradford, Yorkshire, England. He was a carpenter.
Some time before the outbreak of the Great War, he had been working in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and lived there at 8302, 111th Avenue, with his wife.
By the spring of 1915, he had been unemployed for some time, and decided to return to Bradford and as a consequence, booked as a second cabin passenger on the Lusitania which left New York just after mid-day on 1st May 1915. He occupied berth 4 in cabin E112.
When the liner was torpedoed, one week later, John Ellis was rescued from the sinking and after being landed at Queenstown, he eventually made it back to the family home in Bradford.
As a survivor, he was entitled to apply for financial support from The Lusitania Relief Fund, which was administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local dignitaries.
The committee which administered this initially sent him the sum of £1-0s-0d on 10th June 1915, which it later increased to £21-0s-0d in order that he could purchase a new set of tools to replace those lost in the sinking, to enable him to carry on with his trade.
John Ellis’ best friend in Edmonton, who in fact lived not far from him at 8212, 111th Avenue, was Charles D. Nicholson, who was also a carpenter. Mr, Nicholson travelled with him on the voyage as a fellow second cabin passenger, but did not survive the sinking!
John Ellis gave this account of his ordeal to a Bradford newspaper in the days following his rescue: -
Another survivor is Mr. John Ellis, who was coming to Bradford from Canada, after living on the other side of the Atlantic for several years. Originally he went to Edmonton in the States, but in recent years he had resided in Canada. For some months past he had been out of work and had resolved to visit the homeland in the hope of securing work, and intending later to send for his wife to follow him. A friend was accompanying him from Canada. After the vessel was struck the friend declared his conviction that the Lusitania would keep afloat for hours. Mr. Ellis thought otherwise, and he secured a lifebelt and eventually jumped into the sea when the starboard side of the vessel was about level with the water. He is not a swimmer, but his friend could swim and neglected to secure a lifebelt. They became parted on the boat, and Mr. Ellis has not since seen or heard of his friend, and fears that he must have been drowned.
Cunard Records, Edmonton Journal, Liverpool Records Office, Unknown newspaper, Calgary Herald, UniLiv D92/2/372, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.