John Ferris was born in Rock Street, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland, on the 22nd July 1879, the son of Philip and Johanna Ferris (née O’Donnell). He had an older sister named Bridget, and a younger sister named Ellen. His father was a publican, running a public house at Rock Street, Tralee, but later became a railway station master.
His father died in 1896, while station master at Fenit railway station, and John succeeded him as the station master. Fenit is a small fishing and seaport approximately 10 kilometres west of Tralee.
In the early 1900’s, he left his native Ireland and travelled to Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he worked as a railway porter before joining the Mercantile Marine as a waiter and steward on trans-Atlantic liners, mainly on the Cameronia, an Anchor Lines liner which travelled between Glasgow and New York City in the United States of America.
On the 15th April 1915, he sailed on the Cameronia to New York City; however, at the end of April, while the liner was still anchored in New York harbour, she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship, and on the 1st May, some of her cargo and passengers were transferred to the Lusitania.
In addition, nine crew members (stewards, stewardesses, and a matron) who were not required on the Cameronia were also transferred to the Lusitania.
These included John Ferris who re-engaged as an assistant steward in the Stewards' Department, for the Lusitania's final voyage. It was not his first time travelling on the Lusitania, and what must have seemed at first to be a stroke of good fortune certainly turned sour when she was sunk! Fortunately, he survived the sinking.
On the 22nd May 1915, he was mentioned in a report about the sinking in The Kerry Advocate newspaper. It stated that he was a former railway stationmaster at Fenit, and that he attributed his survival to his knowledge of swimming and floating.
He presumably returned to Glasgow, but some time later he moved to Liverpool, Lancashire, where he married Annie French, another Irish immigrant, in the summer of 1918. Their only child, a son named Phillip John, was born on the 12th April 1919.
John Ferris continued to work at sea for several years before finding employment with the Liverpool Corporation Public Transportation company. The family resided at 18. Westbourne Street, before moving to 51. Breckfield Road South, and finally, 20. Castlewood Road, all in the Everton area of Liverpool.
John Ferris died in a Liverpool hospital on the 20th July 1954, aged 74 years. His wife Annie had died in January 1954, and he was laid beside her at Anfield Cemetery on the 22nd July 1954.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England & Scotland Select Cemetery Registers 1800 – 2022, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Scotland, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Liverpool England Electoral Registers 1832 – 1970, The Kerry Advocate, Liverpool Echo, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 351/1/454534, UniLiv. D/92/6/1, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 12th November 2023.