Margarita Christina McCormac, always known as 'Mietta', is believed to have been born in Umballa, India, in 1871. Nothing is known of her childhood or early life, except that her mother’s name was Elizabeth, and by the time the family moved to Liverpool, Lancashire, England, in the late 1870’s, her father was believed to have died.
In the 1881 Census of England, her mother is recorded as being Elizabeth Sullivan. She is also recorded as being a widow, so she may have been married at least twice. Mietta was known to have had four older siblings – John, Elizabeth, Theresa, and Joseph, all of whom were born in Ireland, therefore it is likely that their father was serving in the British Army and was transferred to India in the late 1860’s.
Both of her brothers were described as being ‘French polishers’, and her brother, Joseph, was employed by the Cunard Steam Ship Company Ltd. In that capacity.
By 1901, Mietta was residing with her sister, Elizabeth, who was a school teacher, in various lodging, while her other siblings had married and were living with their families in the Liverpool area.
By 1911, she was still lodging with her sister, Elizabeth, at the home of James D. Sefton and his family at 7, Beech Grove, Seaforth, Liverpool, Lancashire, and had become a professional stewardess, serving mainly on trans-Atlantic liners.
On the 16th April 1915, she engaged as a stewardess in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania, at Liverpool, at a monthly rate of pay of £4-0s.-0d., and joined the vessel at 7 a.m. the following day, for what became her last ever sailing out of the River Mersey, on her way to New York. Miss McCormac had previously served on the liner, S.S. Orduña.
Three weeks later on the afternoon of the 7th May, Stewardess McCormac was killed
when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, off the southern coast of Ireland on her return voyage to her home port. As her body was never recovered and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. As a consequence, she is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London. She was aged 44 years, although on engagement, she stated that she was aged 34 years!
Out of 22 stewardesses who served on board the Lusitania on her uncompleted voyage to Liverpool, thirteen were killed and only nine survived.
Administration of Mietta McCormac’s will was granted to her brother, Joseph, at Liverpool, on the 25th June 1915, her effects amounting to £257-18s.-0d, (£257.90p.), a considerable sum for a person on a relatively low rate of pay in 1915.
In August 1915, the balance of wages owing to her was also forwarded to her family. This was in respect of her service on board the Lusitania from the 17th April to the 8th May 1915; 24 hours after the liner had foundered.
1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of |England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Audrey Breen, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 30th November 2024.