Mary Frances “Mollie” Mainman was born in Greensborough, Victoria, Australia, on the 1st September 1898, the daughter of Alfred Reid and Elizabeth Sarah “Bessie” Mainman (née Dowsett). Her father was a butcher, who had emigrated from England to Australia in 1882. She had two older brothers named John V., known as jack, born in 1894, and Alfred Shaw, known as “Alf”, who was born in 1895.
In July 1904, the entire family sailed on the Persic from Australia to England, arriving on the 3rd August. Presumably, they spent time with his father’s family, but it’s unlikely that his father found any work, for in April 1906, the family immigrated to Canada.
They first went to Saskatchewan, but then moved to 10535, Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. Although her father began his working life as a grocer, he later qualified as an accountant and was employed in this capacity by Edmonton City Council in the treasury department there. In 1907, her mother gave birth to twins – a boy named Edwin Richard, known as “Eddie”, and a girl named Elizabeth Sarah, known as “Bessie”.
In the spring of 1915, Mollie’s grandparents in Exeter, Devonshire, England, had died and the family was requested to go there to wind up the family estate. Consequently, at the end of April 1915, all seven family members left Edmonton for New York where they joined the Cunarder Lusitania as second cabin passengers, at Pier 54, before she sailed for Liverpool on 1st May.
Just six days later, however, the family virtually ceased to exist after the liner was torpedoed and sunk for out of the seven of them, only Mollie, Elizabeth and Edwin survived. All the others were killed. Molly was sixteen years old at the time.
It is probable that the three children were put into a lifeboat, which is why they survived together and they were eventually taken from the sea and after being landed at Queenstown, were taken to Canterbury in England, where presumably family members lived.
In an edition of The Coalville Times for 14th May 1915, - Coalville is a small town in Leicestershire - it was stated: -
The baby was saved by a fifteen year old girl who was occupying the same cabin as Mrs. Booth. She threw the baby into the arms of a boatman and was also taken off herself, but her parents are missing. She did not see Mrs. Booth who, it is surmised rushed to the cabin for the child and had not returned before the boat went down.
The fifteen year old girl was Mollie Mainman, and the baby she saved was Nigel Frederick Booth, who was travelling from Canada to Leicestershire with his mother. Although Nigel Booth survived, his mother did not.
During the summer of 1915 an application for aid was made on behalf of the three of them, to The Lusitania Relief Fund, a fund set up after the sinking by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local dignitaries, to alleviate financial loss and distress amongst those second cabin and third class passengers who had survived.
In response to this request, the sum of £25-0s-0d was sent to a Mrs. Ellison of 2, Princess Avenue, Liverpool, Lancashire, on their behalf. Mrs. Ellison was probably a relative, as her husband was given property recovered from John Mainman’s body in June 1915 and Molly is known to have been there, following her arrival in Exeter. A suit of clothes was also paid for out of the fund, for the surviving three children.
Nothing much is known about Mollie Mainman after her survival, except that she never married, and lived for a number of years at “Hamildon”, Druids Cross Road, Liverpool, before she moved to the home of her sister, Mrs. Bessie Kennedy at nearby 45. Druidsville Road. It would appear that she moved between both residences, and may have worked at the Girl’s Catholic Orphanage that was located at Druids Cross Road.
Mollie Mainman died in Grasmere, Cumbria, on the 23rd December 1973, aged, 75 years.
Australia Birth Index 1788 – 1922, 1911 Census of Canada, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Coalville Times, Edmonton Journal, Liverpool Record Office, The Age, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/198, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.