Lillian Ethel Hayes was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, on the 10th May 1886, the daughter of John and Martha Selina Hayes (née Wolstenholme).
She was married to Stanley Critchison and their family home was originally in Sheffield Yorkshire, at 62 Wake Road.
In 1913, the couple had immigrated to Canada and settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where Stanley Critchison pursued his trade as an electrician. In January 1914 a son was born to them, whom they named Bernard.
By the spring of 1915, however, either the life in Canada was not satisfactory or maybe because of the Great War raging in Europe, they decided to return to Yorkshire and as a consequence, they booked as second cabin passengers on the
Lusitania, which was due to sail from New York to Liverpool on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Leaving Hamilton by rail at the end of April, the three of them arrived in New York in time to join the liner at Pier 54 in New York on that day and were all on board when she left the berth in the early afternoon, her sailing having been delayed until then.
Six day later, however, with the liner within sight of the southern Irish coast, the family unit was wiped out after she was torpedoed and sunk. Lillian Critchison and their son Bernard were both killed, only Stanley surviving to tell his story. In the southern Irish newspaper The Cork Examiner just after the sinking, he related how he had not been with his wife and child when the ship was struck and this was reported :-
Some time before the terrible explosion, he had gone below to pack up as they had been instructed to have everything in readiness by nine o'clock. When the terrible crash came, he rushed on deck to find his wife and child whom he had left sitting there. He went all round the decks, but failed to find them, and then he moved to the starboard side of the boat.
He never saw either of them again either - despite carrying out the macabre task of touring the temporary mortuaries set up in Queenstown, just after the sinking.
As no trace of Lillian Critchison's body was ever found and identified, she has no known grave. She was aged 28 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Yorkshire Baptisms, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cork Examiner, Cunard Records, 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.