Mary Anita Reeves was born in Lewisham, Kent, England, on the 29th October 1881, the daughter of William Wallace and Eva Jane Reeves (née Cooper). Her father was a merchant’s clerk, and Mary was one of five children.
She qualified as a school teacher, and eventually secured a position as an assistant headmistress in a school in Ruislip, Middlesex. She became engaged to Cyril Elmore Pells of Beccles, Suffolk, who was an apprentice in an optical and scientific instrument facility in Ruislip, and he immigrated to North Lonsdale, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in August 1912.
In March 1914, she travelled to Lonsdale to be reunited with her fiancé, and to get married. This marriage took place at North Lonsdale, British Columbia, on 22nd April 1914, and a son, John Elmore Pells, was born to them on 16th February 1915.
In early late April 1915, the family left Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to return to England, as her husband wished to enlist in the Army and they booked second cabin passage on the May Day sailing of the Lusitania. When the liner was sunk on the 7th May, although both parents survived, baby John was drowned.
Elmore Pells did eventually enlist in the British Army and tragically was to join his son, just over three years later, when he was killed fighting the Germans north of the River Aisne, in France.
In his book Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, published in 1927, the author R.A. Colwill relates the circumstances surrounding Mary Pells' husband's death: -
Another officer who was popular with the Company was Lieut. C.E. Pells. He had, in his heart, bitter hatred for the Germans, for his only child was drowned when they sank the Lusitania. And all that morning he seemed to take fiendish delight in mowing them down with a rifle. He moved about, cheering the men and showing them how to take better cover. Then he was killed.
His body, like that of his son, was never recovered and identified and he is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the 1918 fighting in the area, at Soissons.
In 1996, Elmore Pells' nephew, Norman A. Pells, published a family history entitled The Roots and Branches of a Pells Family in which he states that Mary Anita Pells set up practice as a masseuse in New York City after the War.
However, the Soissons Memorial register, which gives details of her husband's family, states that he was: - husband of Mary Anita Pells, (née Reeve) of San Louis Obispo, California, U.S.A. Usually, Commonwealth War Graves Commission records are more likely to be accurate, as they were compiled, after the war, with the help of members of the family
On the 7th June 1919, administration of Cyril Elmore Pells’ estate, which amounted to £230-16s.-10d. (£230.84p.), was granted to Mary Anita Pells in London, and then, in September 1919, she returned to Canada.
On her return to British Columbia, she filed a claim with the Canadian Commission, seeking compensation for medical expenses and for the loss of her personal effects, and the personal effects of her late husband in the sinking of the Lusitania. Shortly after filing her claim, she went to San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, to train as a nurse, but it is more likely she trained as a masseuse. In 1926, the Canadian Commission awarded her $1,089.15 in compensation.
She lived and worked in San Louis Obispo, California, for a time before moving to New York City, where she worked as a masseuse at the Hotel Royalton, 44. West 44th Street, New York City. In 1938, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Mary Anita Pells never remarried, and died in East Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, on the 11th November 1961, aged 80years. She left an estate in England of £1,156-10s.-10d. (£1,156.54p.).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index , 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. New York Naturalization Records 1882 – 1944, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Roots and Branches of a Pells Family, Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, Probate Records, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, James Maggs, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.