Alfred ‘Alf’ Gardner was born in Seaforth, Lancashire, England, on the 24th August 1893, the son of Robert and Sarah Gardner (née Miller). He had eleven siblings, and his father was a chimney sweep, who died when Alf was a child.
On completing his education, he became a general labourer before joining the Mercantile Marine as a trimmer on steam ships operating out of Liverpool.
He married Margaret McKevitt on the 9th March 1915, and they lived at 16, Boreland Street, Marsh Lane, Bootle, Lancashire.
He engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania on the
12th April 1915 at Liverpool at a monthly wage of £6-0s.-0d. - £1-0s-0d. of which was advanced to him at the time. He then joined the vessel before she left the River Mersey for the last time on the morning of the 17th April. He had served on the Lusitania before.
Having completed the liner’s crossing to New York, Alf Gardner was performing his tasks as a trimmer on the early afternoon of the 1st May, as she left New York to begin her return voyage to Liverpool. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of the 7th May, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the steamer was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from the safety of her home port. Trimmer Gardner lost his life as a result of this action. He was aged 21 years at the time, although when he engaged, he gave his age as 23.
His body was never recovered and identified after the sinking but, at first after the 7th May, he was posted as missing.
As it was necessary to bury all the recovered bodies as soon as was practicable, for reasons of hygiene, they were all photographed in the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown before being buried. Anxious relatives of those missing were then invited to identify their loved ones through these photographs. This was difficult in certain cases because of injuries they had received as a consequence of the sinking or because they had been in the water for a long time. Some time after the sinking, all the photographs were displayed in St. George’s Hall in Liverpool.
Margaret Gardner had obviously seen the photograph of corpse number 82 there and thought that it might be that of Alf Gardner. She then communicated with Cunard to give the Company more information about her missing husband and stated that he had: -
Dark hair, Height 5’ 8”, Eyes blue, Tattoo on arm “Maggie, a rose, a five pointed star“.
This obviously did not match the description of corpse No. 82, which was never identified, nor was Trimmer Gardner’s body ever recovered and identified either! Consequently, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing at Tower Hill, London.
He is also commemorated on the municipal war memorial in Stanley Road, Bootle, Merseyside. His name is not on one of the bronze panels on the main memorial, but on a semi-circular wall around it, where later additions are displayed.
In August 1915, his widow Margaret was paid the balance of wages owed to him, in respect of his service on the Lusitania’s last voyage, which was reckoned to be from the 17th April 1915, until 8th May, 24 hours after the vessel had gone down!
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UniLiv.D92/1/6-2, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Denise Deighton, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 27th November 2023.