Margaret Elizabeth Hughes was born in Sandycroft, Flintshire, Wales, in 1873, the daughter of John and Jane Hughes (née Seville). She was the eldest of seven known children in the family and her father was a professional seaman and later a boat master. Sometime in the late 1880’s, the family moved to Bootle, Lancashire, near Liverpool.
On the 6th November 1895, Margaret married William Foulkes, who was a seaman, at St. Leonard’s Church, Bootle. The couple had no children, and by 1915, William Foulkes had died. She resided at 64, Brook Road, Bootle, with her widowed sister, Sarah Adams, and her nephew, Leonard Adams.
Presumably, to earn a living following the death of her husband, Margaret found work as a stewardess on passenger liners, and she engaged as a stewardess in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool Pier Head on the morning of the 17th April 1915 just before the liner left the River Mersey for the last time. As a stewardess, her monthly wage was £4-0s.-0d. It was not the first time that she had served on the
vessel.
Having completed the liner’s crossing to New York without mishap, Stewardess Foulkes was still serving on board on the early afternoon of the 1st May, as the Lusitania left New York to begin her return to Liverpool. However, six days out of that port, on the afternoon of the 7th May, the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only some 250 miles away from the safety of her home port.
There were 22 stewardesses on board when the vessel was struck, nine were saved and thirteen were lost. Unfortunately, Margaret Foulkes was one of those lost. She was aged 42 and as her body was never recovered and identified after the disaster, she has no known grave and is thus commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
On the 23rd August 1915, administration of Stewardess Foulkes’ estate was granted to her mother, her effects amounting to £51-16s.-0d, (£51.80p).
After the death of her father, her mother married a Mr. Henry Lewis and they moved to 220, Marsh Lane, Bootle, Lancashire.
The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted a yearly pension to Mrs. Sarah Adams, who was obviously someway dependant on her sister. This amounted to £13-0s.-0d. (£13.00p.), which was payable at the rate of £1-1s.-8d. (£1.07p.) per month.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages, and Banns 1754 – 1933, 1881 Census of Wales, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, David Irving, Robert O'Brien, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 25th November 2023.