Mary “Mazie” G. McGovern was born in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey, in the United States of America, on the 27th May 1893, the eldest of the six children of Patrick James and Jane “Jennie” McGovern (née Tonroe).
She was educated at the Sacred Heart School, Bloomfield, New Jersey, U.S.A. and was a communicant of the Sacred Heart Church. Her family home was at 20, Dodd Street, Bloomfield, New Jersey.
On 8th February 1911, Mazie became an electrical worker at the Westinghouse Lamp Works. Her mother died on 28th September 1911. Around 1913, Mazie moved in with her aunt in Bloomfield, leaving her father to reside with her two brothers and three sisters.
Her parents were Irish immigrants, and she had an uncle who lived in County Roscommon, Ireland. On two occasions, Mazie and her father had crossed the Atlantic to visit him there.
In April 1915, after her uncle's death, she learned that she had been left his estate and decided to travel to Ireland to claim it. As a result, she left her employment on 28th April, and she booked as a second cabin passenger on the Lusitania, and sailed from New York on early afternoon of 1st May 1915.
She never got to see her inheritance, for she was killed when the liner was sunk, by the German submarine U-20, six days later, off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
On 25th May 1915, a letter arrived at the Cunard office at Queenstown giving a description of Miss McGovern, which stated: -
Age 22 years. Height 5 ft. 6 ins. Weight 100 pounds. Light hair. Fair complexion. Jewellery Locket and chain inscribed M.G.M.
No body resembling this description was ever recovered, however, and as a result, Mazie McGovern has no known grave. She was aged 22 years.
Mazie’s father became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 7th October 1921, and had filed a claim for compensation for his daughter’s death, for consideration by the Mixed Claims Commission. The Commission declined to make any award as her father, being a British subject at the time of her death, did not qualify under the terms of the agreement between the United States and Germany for the awarding of compensation.
New Jersey U.S. Births and Christenings Index 1660 – 1931, 1905 New Jersey State Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 533, New Jersey Evening Star, PRO BT 100/345, 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.