Maud Adelaide Otway Hatchell was born in Maryborough, Queens County (now Portlaoise, County Laois), Ireland, on the 24th November 1877, the daughter of Dr. Joseph Henry and Anchoretta Hatchell (nee Fishbourne). Her father was a physician and Maud was one of eight children.
On the 4th August 1910, Maud arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, having sailed from Liverpool on board the Empress of Ireland. She then travelled overland to Vancouver, British Columbia, where on the 13th August, she married her fiancé, Thomas Turpin, who was also from Maryborough and who had emigrated to Canada in February 1909. The couple lived in Victoria, British Columbia, where Thomas Turpin worked as a
machinist in a carriage works.
In the spring of 1915, however, they decided to return to Ireland and Dublin City, where Maud’s family were now living. As a result, they booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania and having left Victoria at the end of April 1915, they arrived in New York, in time to board the liner on the morning of 1st May for her delayed sailing which began at 12.25 p.m., that day.
Six days later, the couple both survived the torpedoing and sinking of the liner when she was twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. Although having been separated in the sea, both were rescued and landed at Queenstown where they were re-united. They both eventually made it safely back to their families.
On hearing of the sinking, Maud’s mother-in-law, who was in Killarney, County Kerry, a popular holiday location, telephoned a Mr. Freeman, the manager of the Imperial Hotel in Cork City, seeking information. He was obviously known to her, perhaps being a relative or family friend, and he telephoned the Cunard office at Queenstown. At the time of the call, Thomas Turpin was in the office, therefore confirming his safety, but at that time, nothing was known of Maud.
An account of the Turpin’s ordeal was reported in the Irish Independent on the 11th May 1915: -
Mr. T. Turpin, son of Mr. H. Turpin, solicitor, Maryborough, who, with his wife, was returning from Victoria, B.C, said the vessel listed to starboard on being first struck, and remained in that position for about ten minutes, so that the passengers were disposed to think there was not much danger.
The striking of the torpedo was like ‘a bottle being thrown into a basket of other bottles’, and was accompanied by very little sound. He knew nothing of a second torpedo. The deck became to them, as it were, ‘the side wall of a house’, going deeper and deeper, and the boilers began to explode as she sank by the bow, still retaining the list to starboard.
He was anxious to go below for lifebelts, but yielded to his wife’s entreaties that he should not do so. They got two deck-chairs and held on to them. A man tried to take the lady’s chair from her, but Mr. Turpin prevented him. There was a good deal of panic in their part of the vessel, and they knew nothing more until, following a boiler explosion, they found themselves in the water.
Struck on the forehead by some object, Mr. Turpin went down. When he came up, his wife was nowhere to be seen. His deck-chair was gone.
After swimming about for ten minutes or so, he reached an upturned boat, on the keel of which several people were astride. With their assistance he managed to get up on the keel of the boat, where they all remained for four hours until rescued by a tug boat and brought to Queenstown. While he was afloat on the upturned boat, people on a similar boat about 200 yards away hailed him and told him his wife was safe.
Mrs. Turpin only recollects that after being thrown into the sea, she went
under twice, and when she came up the second time she found herself near an upturned boat and was dragged onto the keel by one of the parties upon it.
She, with the others, was rescued by a trawler and brought to Queenstown, arriving some time after the tug which brought in her husband. She is still suffering from the effects of her awful experience. Mr. Turpin looks none the worse of all that he went through, but he still complains that he cannot sleep. ‘The cries of the drowning were heartrending, and they are still in my ears’, he says.
Some time after reaching their home in Dublin, they applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for compensation to make up for a worsening of health brought about by the distress of the sinking. This fund had been set up after the liner had been sunk, by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other people from the local business community, to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those who had perished, who were experiencing difficulty as a result of the sinking. It was thought that saloon class passengers were wealthy enough not to need help and each claim was met on its merits.
In late August 1915, the awards committee granted Maud Turpin and her husband the sum of £10-0s-0d., in final settlement of any claim, so the worsening of their health could not have been considered beyond repair!
The Turpin’s remained in Ireland, eventually settling in Belfast, County Antrim.
On the 3rd April 1952, Maud Turpin died, aged 74 years. Her address at the time of her death was 106. Fitzroy Avenue, Belfast. She was buried in Belfast City Cemetery beside her husband who had died in 1945.
Maud Turpin left her estate of £144-1s.-11d. (£144.09½p) to Edmond Flanagan who was described as a parliamentary reporter.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of Canada, Cunard Records, Irish Independent, Liverpool Record Office, Northern Ireland Will Calendar Index 1858 – 1965, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/158, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.