Margaret ‘Madge’ Druller Jones was born in London, Middlesex, England, on the 25th July 1871, the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Jones (née Flintoff). Her father was a commercial traveller dealing in tea, and she was the youngest of six children.
It is possible that her parents became estranged, for by 1881, Margaret’s mother had returned to her family home in Northallerton, Yorkshire, taking her children with her, while her father remained working and lodging in London.
By 1891, Margaret, her mother, and some of her siblings had emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, while her father continued to work and live in London, and then, in 1894, Margaret had gone to Honolulu, Hawaii, to work as a nurse at The Queen’s Hospital.
In 1915, she gave up her position in the hospital to accompany a Mrs, Mary Wakefield, first to San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, and then on to Europe, where she intended to join the Red Cross, to nurse war wounded. Mrs. Wakefield, who was also a British citizen, had been married to Alexander Wakefield, who had been a broker in Honolulu. He had died, however, and as she was pregnant at the time, she secured Margaret Jones’ services to accompany her on the journey back to Britain.
Mrs. Wakefield had booked saloon passage for both of them on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool, and having travelled to the east coast by rail at the end of April, they boarded the vessel at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May. Once they had boarded, (with ticket number 46093), they were escorted to room D29, which was the personal responsibility of William ‘Wil’ McLeod. He was an experienced employee of Cunard who 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. He came from Birkenhead, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
The two British ladies no doubt had their last ever view of New York in the early afternoon of 1st May, as the liner slipped out of the North River to begin her journey across the Atlantic. Six days later, the vessel was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her destination. Both ladies were initially listed amongst the missing, but Mary Wakefield was, in fact, in Queenstown hospital, where she gave birth about a week after the sinking. It later turned out, however, that Margaret Jones had been killed. She was aged 43 years at her time of death.
Her body was recovered from the sea fairly soon after the sinking, however, and taken to the temporary mortuary set up in the yard of the Cunard offices at Lynch‘s Quay in Queenstown. It was initially given the reference number 89 and described as: -
Female, 55 years, grey hair, black dress, rather stout.
It was eventually positively identified by Gertrude Wakefield, presumably from a photograph, as she would have been in hospital until after Margaret Jones’ burial. As it was necessary to bury all the recovered bodies as soon as possible, because they could not be hygienically stored in the increasing heat of May, they were all photographed in the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown before being buried. Margaret Jones’ burial took place on 10th May 1915 in the Old Church Cemetery, outside the town, in Mass Grave A, 2nd Row, Lower Tier. It was on this day that most of the victims of the sinking were buried, following a long funeral procession which began at Lynch’s Quay on the waterfront.
On 27th August 1915, property recovered from Margaret Jones’ body, which no doubt aided its identification, was sent to her sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Plews, at 9, Polham Rd., Darlington, County Durham. It consisted of a $1 bill, two gold brooches and a gold watch, engraved with Miss Jones initials M.D.J.
Margaret Jones’ mother submitted a claim to the Canadian Commission, seeking $5,000 as compensation for the loss of her daughter; however, she failed to appear at hearings before the Commission in October 1923 and May 1924, and as she was by then believed to have returned to England, her claim was disallowed.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of Canada, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Honolulu Hawaii Passenger and Crew Lists 1900 – 1959, California Passenger and Crew Lists 1852 – 1959, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 793, San Francisco Chronicle, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/284, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.