Muriel Thompson was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, in 1884, the youngest daughter of Nathaniel Curtis and Charlotte Thompson (née Disney). She had seven older siblings and her father was a grocer, who died in 1896. Her father had been very successful in business and the family was quite wealthy.
Sometime after her father’s death, the family moved to Firfield, Holyport, Bray, near Maidenhead, Berkshire.
Muriel Thompson left Maidenhead in March 1914 and made her way to Liverpool where she boarded the Philadelphia and sailed to New York City in the United States of America. She continued on to the home of a friend, a Miss Tracy, in Kissimmee, Florida. In the spring of 1915, she decided to return to Maidenhead, and as a result, booked a second cabin passenger, on the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York at 10 o'clock on the morning of 1st May 1915.
She arrived in New York in time for the liner’s sailing which was delayed until 12.27. p.m.. This was because the Lusitania had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia and six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. Muriel Thompson was not counted amongst the survivors. She was aged 30 years. During the voyage, she shared cabin C27 with Mrs. Gertrude Poole, who also perished.
Despite members of her family travelling to Queenstown and no doubt visiting the mortuaries there, Muriel’s body was not discovered amongst the dead, nor was it ever subsequently recovered and identified.
On 24th August 1915, administration of Muriel Thompson’s estate was granted to her
sister, Miss Eleanor Louise Thompson, her effects amounting to £2,010-3s-2d., (£2,010.16p.).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Maidenhead Advertiser, Reading Mercury, Probate Records PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/374, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Leigh Hewitt, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.