Albert Charles Attewell Dunn was born in Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, on the 29th December 1884, the son of William and Leah Dunn (née Attewell). His father was a wheelwright, and the family resided at 16. Treharris Street, Roath, Cardiff.
Albert began an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer which eventually saw him join the British Mercantile Marine as a marine engineer on steam ships and move to Liverpool, Lancashire, England.
On the 2nd September 1911, Albert married Nellie McCullagh in Liverpool. Her sister, Christina, married Albert’s brother, Alfred, in 1919!
Albert served as Intermediate Sixth Engineer in the Engineering Branch on board the Lusitania. He reported for duty on the morning of the 17th April 1915, before the ‘greyhound of the seas’, left her home port for the very last time to cross the Atlantic to New York.
Three weeks later, he was still serving in the same capacity when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, ten miles off the southern Irish coast and only hours away from Liverpool.
He survived the sinking and having been rescued from the sea was landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually got back to Liverpool. Once there, he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s final voyage and paid the balance of wages owing to him in respect of it. This was in respect of his service from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May 1915; 24 hours after the great liner had foundered.
Following his ordeal, Albert Dunn served as an Engineering Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve on board the Lusitania’s sister ship, Mauretania, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty, and served as a troop and hospital ship throughout the war.
When hostilities ceased, Albert Dunn returned to his career in the Mercantile Marine until his retirement as a Chief Engineer.
Albert and Nellie Dunn’s only child, a daughter named Audrey Alberta, was born in 1919 and the family lived at 21. Saxonia Road, Walton, Liverpool.
Albert Dunn died of cardiac failure in Liverpool on the 29th February 1972, aged 87 years. He was cremated at the Liverpool Crematorium on the 3rd March 1972, and he left an estate of £1,087. The family were still residing in their home at Saxonia Road at the time of his death.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, Cunard Records, Liverpool Evening Express, Probate Records, PRO BT 350, Graham Maddocks, John Walker, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 27th March 2023.