Mary Gertrude Smith was born in Erdington, Warwickshire, England, on the 23rd February 1877, the daughter of William and Mary Thomas Smith (née Ottey). Her father was a victualler and Mary was the older of two children, having a younger brother named William H., and an older step-sister named Ethel Linda from her mother’s first marriage to Henry Osborne Smith, who died in 1873.
Mary became a school teacher at Camp Hill Grammar School, Birmingham, and met a
local grocer named Alfred Thomas Wakefield with whom she became engaged to be married.
Alfred Wakefield had immigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1906, where he first worked in a dry goods store before establishing his own business, importing menswear, and in 1914, Mary decided to travel to him in Honolulu to get married. Alfred’s brother, James, also lived and worked in Honolulu.
In July 1914, she boarded the newly-built Allen Lines S.S. Alsatian at Liverpool, and after crossing the Atlantic Ocean and disembarking in Quebec, Canada, she travelled overland, probably by rail, to Vancouver, British Columbia. From there, she sailed on the S.S. Niagara to Honolulu, arriving on the 13th August.
Less than a week after her arrival, on the 19th August, Mary and Alfred Wakefield were married at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Honolulu. The couple resided at 2144. Lanihuli Drive, Honolulu.
Shortly after they were married, Mary became pregnant, and then on the night of the 2nd/3rd April 1915, Alfred Wakefield committed suicide in his cabin on board the Mauna Kea while on an overnight voyage from Hilo on the island of Hawaii, to where he had been conducting business, to Honolulu. He strangled himself in his cabin with a leather strap from his suitcase. It was stated that he was being treated for insomnia for a number of months prior to his death and this was given as the reason for his actions.
Mary Wakefield benefitted from a $5,000 insurance policy, as well as inheriting most of the proceeds arising out of the sale of her husband’s business, all of which was conducted quite quickly.
A very short time after her husband’s death, Mary Wakefield decided to return to her mother in England and have the child she was carrying and persuaded a Miss Margaret Jones to accompany her on her journey. Margaret Jones was a 43 year old British nurse at Queen’s Hospital, Honolulu. Consequently, the pair first crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed at San Francisco, California in the United States of America, from where they left for New York by rail, at the end of April 1915.
Once in New York, they booked saloon passage through Theo. N. Davies & Co. Ltd. of 24, State Street, on the Lusitania which was due to sail from the harbour there, on 1st May 1915. They boarded the vessel that morning, (with ticket number 46093), and were escorted to their cabin - room D29, which was the personal responsibility of William ‘Wil’ McLeod who came from Bebington, a district of Birkenhead, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool. McLeod was an experienced employee of Cunard and had achieved the rank of Chief First Class Bedroom Steward, but was serving as an ordinary first class bedroom steward on what was to become the liner’s final voyage.
Mrs. Wakefield and her companion would have had their last glimpse of America in the early afternoon as the liner left the port and sailed out into the Atlantic Ocean. Six days out of New York, however, the Lusitania was torpedoes and sunk by the German submarine U-20, only twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland, and only hours away from the safety of her Liverpool destination.
At first, both ladies were reported lost, but Mrs. Wakefield had, in fact, been rescued from the sea and having been landed at Queenstown, was taken to hospital, no doubt
because of her pregnancy and also because she was suffering from shock and bruising. Miss Jones was not so fortunate, however, and lost her life as a result of the torpedoing of the ship!
No doubt as a result of her ordeal, Mary Wakefield gave birth to her baby, a boy she named Kenneth George John, in Queenstown’s hospital on the 18th May. She also positively identified Margaret Jones’ body, probably from a photograph - as she would still have been in hospital when Miss Jones’ body was buried in Queenstown, on 10th May 1915. As it was necessary to bury all the recovered bodies as soon as possible, because they could not be hygienically stored in the increasing heat of May, they were all photographed in the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown before being buried so that they could be identified later, if necessary.
Mary Wakefield eventually returned to England with her newly born son, residing at 14. Reddings Road, Moseley, Birmingham, with her mother. She developed pleurisy and was confined to her bed for some months.
Bedroom Steward Will McLeod, who had looked after Mary Wakefield and Margaret Jones in saloon room D29, shared Miss Jones’ fate, however, and never saw his Bebington home again!
In 1937, Kenneth Wakefield enlisted as 40035 Acting Pilot Officer K.G.J. Wakefield in the Royal Air Force. By 1944, he was a Squadron Leader serving with the 69th Squadron, based at Northolt, west of London. On the 8th August 1944, while flying his Wellington Mk. XIII bomber on a photo-reconnaissance mission over Normandy, France, his aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and only one of the four-man crew survived. Kenneth Wakefield’s remains were recovered and buried in Breel Churchyard. He was aged 29 years.
Mary Wakefield never remarried and towards the end of her days resided at 39. West Castle Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. She died at Shelton Hospital, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on the 28th December 1958, aged 81 years. She left an estate of £14,372-16s.-1d. (£14,372.80½p.) to Lloyds Bank Limited, which would seem to indicate she had no living relatives when she died.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Hawaii U.S. Marriage Certificates and Indexes 1841 – 1944, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Honolulu Hawaii Passenger Lists 1900 – 1959, California Passenger Lists 1882 – 1959, Cunard Records, Birmingham Daily Post, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, San Francisco Chronicle, Hawaii U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1822 – 1962, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/303, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.