Archibald ‘Archie’ Bryce was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, in 1861, the elder son of William and Mary Bryce (née Farmer). He had seven sisters and one brother. His father had begun the family tradition of serving the Cunard Steam Ship Company as an engineer in 1848 when he first joined one of the company’s paddle steamers and had ended his service as Chief Engineer of the Gallia in 1886.
Archie Bryce followed him into the company as a junior engineer in 1884, at the age of 23 years, and on the 21st August 1897, he married Margaret Christina Finnie in Conway, Caernarvonshire, Wales. In 1915, the family home was at 'Rydal', 5, College Road, Great Crosby, Lancashire, England.
He served on many of Cunard’s ships such as the Saragossa, and the Tarifa, on the Mediterranean trade and the Aquitania, the Aurania, the Bothnia, the Campania, the Carmania, the Caronia, the Etruria, the Lusitania herself, the Mauretania, and the Scythia on the trans-Atlantic run.
The Carmania was his first turbine steamer, and he became her Second Engineer in November 1905 and her Senior Second Engineer in September 1906. In November 1911, he joined the Mauretania as Intermediate Second Engineer and was promoted to Senior Second Engineer one month later. He first served on the Lusitania in January 1913 as Senior Second Engineer and in July 1914 was promoted as her Chief Engineer. For a brief spell, he served in the same capacity on the R.M.S. Aquitania, but when she was taken up by the Admiralty for use as a hospital ship in 1914, Archie Bryce returned to the Lusitania.
He did not join the Lusitania for her last voyage out of the River Mersey until the morning she sailed, the 17th April 1915, as a substitute for Chief Engineer George Patterson, who had previously engaged for the voyage.
When that ship left New York, at noon on the 1st May 1915, he still held the position of Chief Engineer on board, (at a monthly rate of pay of £35-0s-0d.) and he was killed one week later after she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, ten miles off the coast of southern Ireland.
In an account published in The Widnes Weekly News for the 14th May 1915, a member of the crew who did survive, First Electrician George Hutchinson, told of seeing Engineer Bryce after the ship was struck: -
I was in my room at the time we were struck, preparing my list in readiness for reaching Liverpool. Then there was a bang, and I rushed to the alley-way and met the chief engineer.
After going below and trying in vain to fix the dynamos, Electrician Hutchinson then returned to the deck and his own electrical room.
When I came out of it I again met the chief engineer, and he said "Come on Hutch, come down and see what we can do". I replied "Perhaps we will all be below shortly". I shook him by the hand and said "Goodbye, old chap, I think it is everyone for himself, now.” This was in the last few minutes.
Bryce's corpse was not recovered until six weeks later, when, on the 18th June, it was washed up on Boffin Island, off the west coast of Ireland. It was not initially identified, however, probably because of its condition after being immersed for so long in the sea and was given the reference number 6, which showed it was the sixth body washed up in the area of the Doolin and Arran Islands. When a positive identification was made, however, probably from property found on it, it was despatched to Messrs. John Waugh and Sons, Funeral Directors of Liverpool, for burial.
This took place at Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool, at 2.00 p.m., on the 25th June 1915, in Non-Conformist Section 1, Grave No. 315. The burial service was conducted by The Reverend David Tripney. Chief Engineer Bryce was aged 54 years.
His remains still lie there today in a grave covered by a most ornate granite stone, with the initials AB in monogram form, on the top. The inscription is made up from lead characters, many of which, unfortunately, have been removed. It states: -
In Loving Memory of
ARCHIE BRYCE,
AGED 54 YEARS.
CHIEF ENGINEER R.M.S. "LUSITANIA"
WHO WAS LOST AT SEA THROUGH
THE TORPEDOING OF THE SHIP
BY THE GERMANS OFF KINSALE
MAY 7TH 1915
BODY RECOVERED ON BOFFIN ISLAND
WEST OF IRELAND ON JUNE 18TH
AND INTERRED HERE
JUNE 25TH 1915.
His widow Margaret is also buried in the grave. She died in May 1936, aged 75 years. The property found on her husband's body was sent to her on the 22nd June 1915.
She also inherited all his effects which amounted to £2,235-10s-2d (£2,235.51p.), which was a considerable sum in those days, and in August 1915, also received the balance of wages owed to him by Cunard for his service on the last voyage of the Lusitania. She later moved to 8. Hertford Road, Bootle, Liverpool. In addition, The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited paid her a yearly pension to compensate her for the loss of her husband which amounted to £191-5s-8d. (£191.28½p.), which was payable at the rate of £15-18s-11d. (£15.94½p.) per month.
His name was also engraved on a brass plaque belonging to The Liverpool Branch of The Marine Engineers’ Association which used to be in The Britannia Rooms in The Cunard Building in Liverpool. Underneath the badge of the association was engraved: -
ROLL OF HONOUR
LIVERPOOL BRANCH
A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF
THE MEMBERS, WHO LOST THEIR LIVES
THROUGH ENEMY ACTION IN THE
GREAT WAR. 1914 - 1919
and then followed the names of the 226 former members.
The memorial is not in the building today, however and its present whereabouts, if it has survived, are not known.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Kirkdale Cemetery Burial Register, 1861 Census of England, 1871 Census of England, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Apprentices Indentured in Merchant Navy 1824 – 1910, UK and Ireland Masters and Mates Certificates 1850 – 1927, Freeman’s Journal, Liverpool Echo, Widnes Weekly News, Marine Engineers’ Association Journal, Probate Records, UniLiv D92/2/438, PRO BT 334, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, George Donnison, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 27th December 2022.