Mary Dorothy Lambie was born in Roslyn, Washington, in United States of America, on the 27th June 1912, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Lambie (née Docherty). She had an older sister named Elizabeth, who was born in 1906.
He father was a slater by trade and the family had originally emigrated from Saltcoats, Ayrshire, Scotland.
In the spring of 1915, however, her mother was suffering from poor health and decided to return to Scotland with both her children, leaving Mary‘s father behind in Washington. As a result, the three travelled to New York at the end of April and joined the Lusitania as second cabin passengers in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May, in time for her sailing in the early afternoon.
When the ship was sunk, just six days later, by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination, she and her mother and sister were all killed and none of their bodies were ever recovered and identified afterwards. As a consequence, she has no known grave. She was aged just three years.
On 19th May 1915 a cable sent from Boston and no doubt instigated by Mary‘s father, Donald Lambie, arrived at the Cunard offices in Queenstown which gave a description of Mary’s mother and concluded: -
DAUGHTER ELIZABETH AGE 10 MARY AGE 3 BOTH FAIR HAIR BROWN EYES.
Nevertheless, no sign of any of them was discovered!
Her father did not survive her by many years, however and was also a victim of the
Great War, being also killed by the Germans almost two years later!
Having returned to Scotland after the death of his family, on the liner Tuscania, which sailed from New York on 24th May 1915, he joined the British Army to gain his revenge. Serving as 13802 Lance Sergeant D. Lambie of the 14th Battalion, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he was killed in action in northern France on 24th April 1917. He is buried in Gouzeaucourt New British Military Cemetery.
Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald, Kilmarnock Standard, San Francisco Chronicle, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/49, UniLiv PR13/6, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Steve McGreal, Roy Makinson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.