Mary E. Wright was believed to have been born in London, England, in 1892, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Wright. In 1915, the family home was at 47, Montford Place, Upper Kennington Lane, London S.E., Middlesex.
In November 1914, Mary Wright had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in New York City, where she found employment as a maid with a Mrs. Greenough, who was the daughter of prominent local Frederick W. Whitridge, at 3, East 9th Street, New York.
She was obviously well respected by Mrs. Greenough, for in the spring of 1915, her employer paid for her to return home for a holiday and consequently booked her as a second cabin passenger on the May 1915 sailing of the Lusitania. Having arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in time for the liner’s scheduled 10 o’clock sailing, Mary Wright did not get what was to become her last glimpse of her adopted city until after mid-day.
This was because the liner’s departure was delayed whilst she took on board passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship at the end of April. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20, and sank just eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about 250 miles from the safety of her Liverpool home port. Mary Wright was killed as a result of the action. She was aged 23 years.
Her body was eventually recovered from the sea, however, and landed at Queenstown where it was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there, and given the reference number 111, pending a positively identification. Once this had been done, however, on 14th May 1915, it was put on board the liner S.S. New York for despatch to New York. It is presumed that Mrs. Greenough paid for this to be done, as it would
have been much cheaper and much easier to have had it shipped to her father’s home in London.
On arrival there, however, it was immediately the subject of much speculation as it was erroneously identified as that of Mary McBright! It was soon evident that there was no-one on board the Lusitania of this name, but as the coffin had been sealed, and Mary McBright was reported to be aged 45 years, Cunard at New York and Mrs. Greenough and her father became confused as to the corpse’s exact identity as they all knew that Mary Wright was aged only 23 or 24 years. Papers and a bunch of keys taken from the body of No. 111 did not appear to help and still pending a positive identification, Cunard at New York was warned by the New York Health Authorities on June 10, that they could not retain the body for much longer.
At this stage, had Cunard opened the coffin, perhaps a positive identification could have been made, but perhaps this was not done because of evident decomposition noticed by the Health Authorities and also because it might have been difficult to find anyone prepared to make such an identification! Unusually, no photograph of the remains of victim No. 111 was taken in Queenstown, which was the case with all the other unidentified dead. This presumes that Cunard was certain at the time, that the body was that of Mary Wright! Thus, it is difficult to see from where the name Mary McBright first originated! Nevertheless, on 10th June, Cunard at New York cabled the Liverpool office: -
LUSITANIA MARY WRIGHT GIRL ABOUT 23 WHILE MCBRIGHT REMAINS FORWARDED THOSE WOMEN 45 STOP SHALL WE INTER TO AVOID DIFFICULTIES HEALTH AUTHORITIES?
A reply was received on 11th June which stated: -
MCBRIGHT BURY BODY IN SUCH MANNER IF NECESSARY CAN BE EXHUMED
Consequently, the body of Mary Wright was buried on 15th June 1915 in The New York Bay Cemetery, Jersey City, New Jersey, in the Cunard Plot, in Grave 4, Lot 29, Section Q South. Another British Lusitania second cabin victim Mr. Herbert Ellis had been buried twelve days earlier, in nearby Grave 1.
By that time, it is likely that everyone concerned had accepted that Mary McBright and Mary Wright were one and the same person, and on 27th July 1915, in a final attempt to clear up the matter, Cunard General Manager’s Office in New York sent the following letter to its counterpart in Liverpool, on board the White Star liner Arabic: -
Dear Sirs,
“LUSITANIA”
ELLIS - MCBRIGHT
We regret to say that we are unable to give you any further information than that contained in our letter with reference to the identification of the remains of No. 111, recorded in your list as those of Miss McBright. It was with a view to aiding in the identification that we had cabled you at the suggestion of the Police Authorities for a photograph of these remains, which you informed us in your favour of 1st inst. you cannot send, as the remains were not photographed. In the absence of a photograph, and of any person or source who might identify the remains of the woman of 43 or
45, according to your list, our Authorities advised, and we deemed it better not to open the casket, but it has been interred in such a way that, if necessary, same can be exhumed.
Mary Wright, with whose remains these were, apparently, confounded, was a young woman of 23 or 24 years.
As per enclosed copy of memorandum, the expenses incidental to the burial of these remains, (McBright) amounted to $42.50. The difference of $17.00 covered by the memorandum of Messrs. York & Swift, is due to the fact that when you corrected the cable report, and informed us that the remains were probably those of Mary Wright, we notified Mrs. Greenough, her former employer, who instructed Messrs. York & Swift, to care for the body on arrival, and they took the necessary steps.
On receipt of your cable on May 22nd, instructing us to hold the body, and when question as to identity arose, Messrs York & Swift were unable to act further in the matter, and our undertakers had to do the balance of the work in removing the body, burying same, etc.
Yours faithfully,
The Cunard Steamship Co., Ltd.
Cunard of Liverpool made its reply to this letter on 6th August 1915, which stated: -
In reference to Mary McBright, we are sorry that the identification of her remains are (sic) still in doubt. From the information in your possession, do you think that we can safely record these remains as those of Miss Mary Wright?
We note your remarks relative to Mr. Whitbridge having questioned the correctness of the identification, on account of the age. In all instances where age is given, this is only presumed by the Police, and, therefore, we do not pay much attention to this. As a matter of fact, when we receive enquiries concerning any of the unidentified remains, we tell the relatives or the person making the enquiry, to take no notice of the age mentioned. It is, therefore, a pity that you did not carry out your intention of having the casket opened.
If this had been done, possibly he would have had no difficulty in settling the question of identification. It is to be regretted that your efforts to trace the owner of the key tab found on these remains have been unsuccessful. We are afraid that we have no further instructions for you on this matter, but we leave it with you, fully realizing that if there are any possible means of bringing about definite identification, you will do so.
Thanking you for all the trouble you have taken in this direction,
We remain,
Yours faithfully,
THE CUNARD STEAM SHIP COMPANY LTD.,
Before Messrs York & Swift had withdrawn their funeral undertaking services, they had submitted their bill for $17.00, which was broken down as: -
Custom papers 3.00
Telephone 1.00
Wagon 3.00
Attendance, Men & expenses 10.00 $17.00
Body of Mary Wright or McBright
ex “Lusitania”.
The work in removing the body, burying same, etc. thereafter, was conducted by Messrs. Thomas Hughes of 260, Warren Street, New Jersey, and their bill was similarly set out :-
Expenses incidental to burial of Miss McBright
June 15. Coach Hire for Minister $ 5.00
Wagon Hire to N.Y. Bay 5.00
Opening Grave 6.00
Minister’s fee 2.00
Bringing remains from N.Y. Ferriages
& exp. 5.00
Services of Man 2.50 $25.50
On 24th September 1915, property recovered from Mary Wright’s body, was sent to her father, at the Kennington Lane address. This included a pair of glasses, a gold bracelet a gold ring, a silver brooch and a bunch of keys. The keys, which had a tab bearing the number 14787 and Security Check Co. Rochester, New York, had, as we have seen caused some consternation as they were not recognised by Mrs. Greenough as belonging to her household or Mary Wright and may have helped to fuel the McBright/Wright controversy!
New York Passenger List 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, New Castle News, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/5, UniLiv D92/2/160, UniLiv D92/2/259, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.