Mary McWhirter Murray was born at 18. Main Street, Newton on Ayr, Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 5th November 1878, the daughter of Andrew and Margaret Murray (née McWhirter). She was the elder of two children, her younger sister being named Margaret, and her father was a carriage painter.
Nothing is known about her childhood and early life, except that the family moved to Glasgow, Lanarkshire, shortly after the birth of her sister, and at some stage her father became a house painter.
On the 25th November 1904, she married Daniel Leitch, a spirit salesman, at the Masonic Hall, Rutland Crescent, Kinning Park, Glasgow. Their daughter, Margaret Isabel, was born in 1905, and by 1911, the family were living at McLean Street, in the Plantation area of Glasgow.
On the 31st August 1911, Daniel Leitch had rescued a young boy who got into difficulty while swimming at Ayr, and as a consequence, was awarded a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society. Unfortunately, on the 17th December 1912, he died, aged 29 years, leaving Mary a widow with their young daughter to support.
Mary Leitch, to support herself and her daughter, joined the British Mercantile Marine as a stewardess on trans-Atlantic liners operating out of the port of Glasgow. Her usual ship was the S.S. Cameronia and she engaged on her as matron at Glasgow on the 15th April 1915, just before she embarked on a voyage to New York. After arriving safely in New York, the Admiralty requisitioned the Cameronia for war use as a troop ship and on the 1st May 1915, nine crew members not needed for her new rôle, (stewards, stewardesses and Mrs. Leitch) were transferred to the Lusitania.
She re-engaged as a stewardess for the Lusitania's final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, presumably because the Lusitania already had a matron, Anna Enderson, and an assistant Matron, Karen Jorgensen.
On the afternoon of the 7th May, while off the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was intercepted by the German submarine, U-20, and sank 18 minutes after being struck on her starboard side by a single torpedo.
Out of 22 stewardesses who sailed from New York on 1st May 1915, only eight survived and Mrs. Leitch was fortunate enough to be one of the eight!
It is not known what injuries, if any, Stewardess Leitch suffered during the ordeal she experienced following the sinking and her subsequent rescue, but she died at 48. Wolseley Street, Oatland, Glasgow, on the 12th April 1918, aged 39 years. She was buried at Craigton Cemetery, Glasgow, beside her husband.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of Scotland, 1911 Census of Scotland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, The Scotsman, UniLiv. D/92/6/1, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Lawrence Evans, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated –29th January 2023.