John Harrison Chattan Stephens was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on the 8th October 1913, the son of Francis Chattan and Hazel Beatrice Stephens (née Kemp) of Montreal. His maternal grandfather Mr. Albert Edward Kemp was a Canadian cabinet minister.
Following the outbreak of World War I, his father, Lieutenant Chattan Stephens, was an officer serving with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, and, in 1915, had been wounded in the fighting around Ypres, Belgium, on the Western Front, and was recovering in a London hospital. His son was being brought over to see him, by his grandmother, Mrs. Frances Stephens, accompanied by her maid Miss Elise Oberlin and John's nurse, Miss Caroline Millen. His mother was already in London.
Consequently, the party booked saloon passage through W.H. Henry of Montreal, on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York and having left Montreal at the end of April they arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May. With ticket number 13170, they boarded the liner and John Stephens and his nurse Miss Millen were escorted to room D9, which was the personal responsibility of William McLeod who came from Birkenhead, Cheshire on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool. McLeod was an experienced employee of Cunard and had achieved the rank of Chief First Class Bedroom Steward, but was serving as an ordinary first class bedroom steward on what was to become the liner’s final voyage. John Stephens’ grandmother and her maid were in nearby room D5.
The liner’s departure from the port was delayed until the early afternoon of 1st May and just six days later the whole party of four were killed when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the southern Irish coast and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Baby John Stephens’ body was never recovered and identified, although that of his grandmother was, and consequently, he has no known grave.
Bedroom Steward McLeod, who had looked after all four members of the party also perished in the sinking and never saw his Birkenhead home again.
His father, who had attained the rank of captain, returned to Canada in 1918 and died as a result of the Spanish Flu pandemic in October of that year.
Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Birkenhead News, New York Times, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/ 345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.