John Walker was born in Fillongley, Warwickshire, England, in 1889, the son of William and Mary Ann Walker (née Watkins). His father was an agricultural labourer and John was the eldest of three children, having a sister named Hilda Lillian and a brother named William Stanley.
The family moved to Great Barr, Staffordshire, and later Fowlea Farm, Etruria, on the outskirts of Stoke-on Trent, Staffordshire.
On completing his education, he served his apprenticeship as a blacksmith with a Mr. Steele in Stoke-on-Trent and then he found work with Cobridge Brick & Marl Company Limited in Stoke-on-Trent as a general blacksmith.
In early 1913 he married Gertrude “Gertie” Thursfield in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and in April 1913, the couple immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where John was employed as a fitter with the Grand Trunk Railway and his wife found work as a dress finisher. The couple resided at 177, University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.
By 1915, Gertie Walker, who was expecting her first child, had received word from England that her father was unwell, so at the end of April, John and his wife set out from Toronto to travel home to England, and as a result, boarded the Lusitania at the Cunard berth in New York harbour, on the morning of 1st May as second cabin passengers in cabin D76.
The liner left New York on the early afternoon of the same day and just six days later, when only hours away from her Liverpool destination and twelve miles off the southern Irish coast, she was torpedoed and sunk. Both John and Gertie Walker were killed as a result of the sinking. John Walker was aged 26 years.
As his body was never recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. Gertrude Walker's body was not recovered either!
On 3rd July 1915, administration of John Walker's estate was granted at London to his father, William Walker, Fowlea Farm, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, who by this time was a farm bailiff. His effects were valued at £100-0s-0d.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Warwickshire Baptisms 1813 – 1914, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Cunard Records, Staffordshire Advertiser, Staffordshire Sentinel, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/108, UniLiv D92/2/265, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.