John Preston Smith, known as Preston Smith, was born in the village of South Bank, near Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England, on the 8th February 1887, the son of John and Mary Elizabeth Smith (née Preston). The family home was originally at 9. Connaught Street in the village, but by 1911, they were residing at 11, Bolckow Road, Grangetown,
Middlesbrough, Yorkshire. His father was a pattern maker and Preston was one of the youngest of eight children.
By the time he was aged 14 years, he had left school to become a butcher’s errand boy, and later became a steel moulder, possibly by the same engineering firm that employed his father and some of his older brothers.
Then, in August 1910, he arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on board the Victorian, having travelled from Liverpool, and on arrival in Montreal, he set off by rail to Racine, Wisconsin, in the United States of America, where one of his older brothers, William, had emigrated to in 1905. Preston Smith found work as a shipping clerk with the Hamilton-Beach Electrical Manufacturing Company in Racine.
Preston Smith also had a fine singing voice, and in the autumn of 1913, he had started on an extensive tour of Canada and the United States of America with The Royal Gwent Male Voice Choir, sometimes known as The Royal Gwent Glee Singers. He was engaged as a tenor in the choir, and the tour went on for almost 18 months.
At the end of the tour, in April 1915, the members of the choir travelled to New York to join the Cunard liner Transylvania for their trans-Atlantic crossing home. However, upon their arrival there, they found that the Lusitania was ready to sail, and as she was a bigger, better ship, and would get them back to Wales at least one week earlier, nine of them decided to transfer to her instead and boarded her as second cabin passengers. They also considered that she would be a safer ship to travel on, because of her superior speed.
John Smith was one of the nine who transferred, the others being, G.F. Davies, S. Hill, D.T. Hopkins, I.T. Jones, W.G. Jones, G.B. Lane, D. Michael, and T. Williams.
As the Lusitania left her moorings at Pier 54, just after on 1st May 1915, the choir stood on deck and sang The Star Spangled Banner and each night thereafter on the crossing, they gave a concert in each saloon on board the vessel, to raise money for The Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage and other seafarer’s charities in the city.
Although three of the choir, G.F. Davies, D.T. Hopkins and I.T. Jones, were killed, six days later after the liner was torpedoed and sunk, Preston Smith was lucky enough to be counted amongst the survivors.
As the ship began to sink, him and a fellow second cabin passenger Beatrice Williams who came from Treherbert, Glamorgan, South Wales, had held hands and after the count of three, had jumped into the sea. When Smith came to the surface, he was alone and could see no sign of Miss Williams.
Having been landed at Kinsale, and taken to the Army Barracks there, Preston Smith gave an interview to a reporter from The Cork Examiner which was published on Monday 10th May, in which he said: -
I am a member of the Royal Welsh Singers, and we were returning from America for six weeks holidays after having completed a twenty month’s tour in that country. I was dining at the time that the Lusitania was torpedoed and I don’t know how it happened. I seized my young sweetheart and procured lifebelts and put them on us, and then we rushed upstairs. At that time the ship was listing badly. There was perfect calm on board and no commotion, but of course there was excitement.
As the ship went down, I threw my girl over the side, but I am afraid that she must have struck the side of the ship, as when I went after her she had disappeared. I went down and came up again and seized a chair and afterwards pulled four men on to it and others also reached it, and as I had to give my place to one of them, as I was the only swimmer.
I kept swimming round until I got hold of a little iron tank, and remained holding on to that until I was picked up by a trawler and brought here. The people have been very kind to us and especially the doctors and staff at the hospital and we are exceedingly grateful to them. As far as I know, all my companions are gone. It is strange that it should have been a Yorkshireman who pulled me on board the trawler and his voice greatly cheered me.
The trawler which picked John Smith out of the sea was the Royal Naval tender H.M.S. Heron and having eventually got back to South Wales, he eventually met up with Beatrice Williams again in Treherbert. She had also survived the sinking. Before he made his return to Yorkshire, they gave a joint interview to a reporter of The Western Mail in which they described their experiences, and this was also published in the newspaper edition for Monday 10th May 1915:-
Mr. Preston Smith ..... said that he got washed away about 100 yards and then got hold of a deck chair on which he rested about twenty minutes before he got on a raft. He helped four others to get on to it but it became overloaded and began to sink. Being the only swimmer, he, therefore, took to the water again and ultimately reached a little iron tank and held on to that for two hours. It toppled over several times, and his legs were so cramped and swollen that he could not use them on Saturday, and they had to be bandaged up.
“It was a Yorkshire man who pulled me out of the water at last,” said Mr. Smith, “and for half an hour after being rescued, I was utterly helpless“. They also pulled out an Irishman named Doyle, who was singing Irish songs in the water. He had gone quite daft.
“Another man who was saved about the same time was a stoker named Frank Turner, who had been rescued from the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland also. He was a lucky stoker. We pulled six women and three men out of the water, but two of the women subsequently died.
Whilst swimming towards the raft, and almost done up, a woman swept past me, propped up with lifebelts and deck chairs all round her. She asked for assistance but I was too done up to help her, because I had by now lost the use of my legs. She said she was about done too“, “but I am going down like a Briton,’” she added. “Just then a raft came by and picked her up, and all the boys on the raft gave her a hearty cheer. They just went crazy with joy at being able to rescue her”.
Also rescued with him by H.M.S. Heron, were second cabin passengers Stanley Critchison, Mrs. Julia Sullivan, third class passengers Fred Bottomley, Harold Thompson and Michael Doyle, who had gone quite daft, Steward's Boy Cornelius Horrigan, First Class Waiter Charles Hotchkiss, First Class Waiter Vernon Livermore, Second Class Waiter Harold Rowbotham and Fireman Francis Toner. Dead bodies landed from the vessel were those of saloon passenger Mrs. Ida Campbell-Johnson,
second cabin passengers Lieutenant Robert Matthews and Mrs. Margaret Shineman, and crew members Night Watchmen Richard Chamberlain and George Cranston.
Preston Smith was obviously mistaken about the number of female passengers taken from the sea - both those who survived and those who died.
Also, the stoker named Frank Turner, who had been rescued from the Titanic and the Empress of Ireland was in fact the previously mentioned Fireman Francis Toner. The story of his being the ultimate disaster survivor was also published in the southern Irish newspaper The Cork Examiner, just after the sinking and has persisted to this day in various forms. Research has concluded, however, that there was no crew member of that name on either the Titanic or the Empress of Ireland and the story can only have originated with Fireman Toner on board H.M.S. Heron. Perhaps he was indulging in a little harmless fantasy at the time!
From South Wales, Preston Smith eventually made it back home to Grangetown, from where he successfully applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, for alleviation of some of the losses he had incurred as a result of the sinking.
This fund had been set up immediately after the sinking to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those killed, who had no means of support, as a result of the disaster.
The relationship between John Smith and Beatrice Williams did not prosper, however, because she later married a Mr. Harper, and Preston Smith returned to the United States of America.
On the 3rd July 1916, he boarded the St. Paul in Liverpool with 15 members of The Royal Gwent Male Voice Choir, disembarking in New York City eight days later, and they immediately made their way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to commence another tour.
On the 7th May 1917, exactly two years after surviving the sinking of the Lusitania, Preston Smith married Margaret Elizabeth Jones in Detroit, Michigan. He gave his occupation as being an electrician, and the couple established their home at Washington Street, Racine, Wisconsin. The couple had no children, and Preston found employment as a cost clerk in an auto factory. They later moved to 1422. Maryland Avenue, Racine. On the 12th July 1921, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
On the 31st May 1942, his wife, Margaret, died. He later became engaged to be married to Anne Thomas, who was originally from Wales, but had been living in Manchester. She travelled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on board the Aquitania, where she was met on her arrival on the 30th December 1946 by Preston Smith. They travelled together to Royal Oak, Michigan, where they were married on the 4th January 1947.
They had no children and continued to reside at 1422. Maryland Avenue, Racine. John Preston Smith died at his home on the 9th February 1957, the day after his 70th birthday. He was buried in Graceland Cemetery, Racine.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Michigan U.S. Marriage Records 1867 – 1952, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Illinois U.S. Federal Naturalization Records 1856 – 1991, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917 – 1918, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards 1942, Liverpool Record Office, Cork Examiner, Irish Independent, Journal Times, North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Western Mail, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norm
Copyright © Peter Kelly.