Margaret McClure was born in the Parish of Girthon, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, in 1886, the daughter of George and Elizabeth McClure (née Halliday). Her father was a shepherd, and the family settled in Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, while Margaret was still a child. It is believed her father died when she was a teenager.
She worked as a domestic servant and lived at Maxwelltown, Dumfriesshire.
Her mother lived in New York City in the United States of America, with her second husband, and when he died, sometime in early 1915, Margaret McClure crossed the Atlantic to be with her.
She had intended to return to Great Britain on the Anchor Liner S.S. Cameronia, which should have left New York at the end of April 1915, but instead of sailing, the vessel was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship and all her passengers, some of the cargo and some of her crew were transferred instead to the Lusitania, which left New York just after mid-day on 1st May - her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure being delayed to accommodate the change.
Margaret McClure was allocated a second cabin berth on the liner, which must have seemed like a bargain exchange for her when she boarded. However, it must all have turned sour for her six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, when the vessel was struck by a single torpedo fired by the German submarine U-20. At the time, the Lusitania was within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port!
Margaret McClure was killed as a result of this action and as no trace of her, dead or alive was ever found afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 32 years.
In the summer of 1915, an application was made by someone, described as a dependant, for financial assistance to The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up after the disaster by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other worthy dignitaries, to help those survivors and relatives of the dead, who found themselves in difficulties as a result of the sinking. The committee administering the fund marked the application for “Further Enquiries”, and it is not known who the dependant was, but they were awarded the sum of £3-0s-0d in December 1915.
1891 Census of Scotland, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Daily Record, Dumfries and Galloway Standard, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/11, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.