Mary Jane Lindsay Walker was born in Moss-side of Ballinshoe, near Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, Scotland, on the 6th November 1871, the daughter of James and Margaret Walker (née Mealmaker). Her family farmed 79 acres of land and Mary was one of six known children in the family. Her mother died in 1876, leaving Mary’s father and older siblings to raise the family.
On completing her education, Mary entered domestic service, and then in 1906, she immigrated to the United States of America where she was employed as a laundress at the home Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the widow of George Hearst, and the mother of William Randolph Hearst, at her mansion, Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton, Alameda County, California.
In the spring of 1915, however, she decided to return home for a holiday and as a consequence, she purchased a second cabin ticket to sail on the Lusitania’s May sailing from New York, which was due to commence on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Having left San Francisco at the end of April she joined the liner at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of May Day. The liner’s departure was delayed, however, because she had to embark passengers, cargo and some crew, from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for war work by the British Admiralty at the end of April.
The Lusitania eventually got under way just after mid-day and just six days later, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 just off the coast of southern Ireland, only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Mary Walker was one of the many who were killed as a result of the torpedoing and as her body was never recovered and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 43 years.
She left her estate of £514-1s.-0d. (£514.05p.) to her sister, Mrs. Agnes Mitchell, Haughs of Ballinshoe, Kirriemuir.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1564 – 1950, 1881 Census of Scotland, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Cunard Records, Dundee Courier, Montrose Standard, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/30, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.