Marguerita ‘Rita’ Belsher was born in Cowley Hill, St. Helens, Lancashire, England, on the 13th November 1882, the eldest child of Robert Aitken and Ann Belsher (née Lewis). Her father was a joiner, and her siblings were – Daisy & May, who were twins, Annie, Christina, and Robert Lewis. The family home was at 115. Stanhope Street, Cowley Hill, St. Helens.
On the 4th August 1906, she married James Kay, a joiner/builder of Peasly Cross, St. Helens, and they first settled there after their marriage, where they had one child, a son named Robert Belsher, (always known as 'Robbie'), who was born in 1907.
In March 1912, her husband had gone to New York City, in the United States of America, to look for work and find a suitable home for his wife and son. Within a few weeks, he had established himself there and sent word to his wife to join him. Rita Kay and her son had initially intended to take passage to New York City on the S.S.
Baltic, departing from Liverpool on the 30th June; however, they deferred their departure to the following voyage which left Liverpool on the 18th July. The family established their home at 852, Rhinelander Avenue, Bronx, New York City.
In early 1915, Rita Kay was expecting her second child, and decided to return to England, accompanied by Robbie, to visit her parents, and have her child, leaving her husband in America. Consequently, they were both booked as second cabin passengers on what proved to be the Lusitania's final voyage. Rita’s parents were by this time living at 15, Rutland Street, Windle, St. Helens.
After the ship sank, Rita and Robbie Kay were both flung into the water and the boy suffered the terrible trauma of seeing his mother washed away before his eyes. Although he was eventually rescued from the sea and survived, his mother perished. She was aged 32 years.
To make matters worse for her family in England, it was not immediately certain that she and Robbie were on the
Lusitania until the day after the Cunarder sank and then her father received a telegram from the Imperial Hotel, in Queenstown, to where Robbie had been taken. The telegram stated: -
ARE YOU EXPECTING MRS. KAY & BOY
Mr. Belsher immediately wired back to say that he was expecting his daughter and her son, but on Monday 10th May he received the fateful reply: -
DEEPLY REGRET MRS. KAY MISSING, BOY HERE.
He set out the same day for Queenstown to collect his grandson and search for his daughter, but his searches were in vain for not even her dead body was recovered and identified afterwards.
The Imperial Hotel, which accommodated many of the Lusitania's survivors still stands today and is now called The Atlantic Inn.
At the time of Rita’s death, her sisters Daisy and May were living at 115 Stanhope Street, St. Helens, and Ann, who had married a Mr. Albert Baines, was living opposite at No. 118, both houses having been built by Robert Belsher, the girls’ father.
At that time, Rita’s sister, Daisy, was in service in the household of the prominent Hammill family of ‘The Gables’, St. Helens, and on 11th May 1915, Mrs. Grace Hammill wrote her a letter of condolence which still survives today. It said: -
My dear Daisy,
I can’t express to you how sorry we both are for you. It is a dreadful blow for all of you + to lose Rita in such a tragic manner is even worse if possible. Thank God little Robbie is saved, that I know will be a great joy to you + in caring for him you will always feel you are doing something for her.
We can’t understand why all these sad things should come upon us, but God knows + it is quite certain that he means us to make the best of our own lives in spite of all that comes to us. As I know you are one of those who finds your own happiness in helping others + in this too it will help you to bear your own sorrow.
I feel so glad that you are among your own now as you will be such a comfort to them all.
‘Your loving friend
Grace Hammill.
Rita Kay’s father died in December 1943, aged 84 years, and her mother in November 1936, aged 77 years. Of her sisters, Ann died in March 1964, aged 78 years, May died in February 1966, aged 84 years, and Daisy died in November 1977, aged 94 years. The youngest sister, Christina had died in March 1906 aged only 19 years. Her brother, Robert, had followed Rita to New York City in October 1912, and worked as an accountant. He settled there, marrying a Swedish woman, with whom he raised a family, and died in 1970, aged 82 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, St. Helens Electoral Register, St. Helens Newspaper & Advertiser, St. Helens Reporter, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, White Star Journal, PRO 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/348, Graham Maddocks, Jane Campbell, Robert O'Brien, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.