Walter Lewis Hetherington was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 21st December 1877, the son of Jonathan and Mary Ellen Hetherington (née Taylor). His father was a pilot who guided merchant vessels through the River Mersey, and the family home was at 48, Langdale Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool, Lancashire. Walter was the second oldest of five children in the family, although his youngest sister died in infancy.
On completing his formal education, Walter went on to study as a mechanical engineer and find work on steam ships.
In 1912, his father died, and his mother was a partial invalid. Walter resided at home with his mother and two of his sisters. He had another sister who worked away from the home. All were unmarried.
On the 12th April 1915, he was appointed Third Senior Third Engineer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania at a monthly rate of pay of £15-10s.-0d. (£15.50p.). He reported for duty at 7 o’clock, on the morning of the 17th April 1915, in time for the liner’s last ever sailing out of the River Mersey. It was not his first voyage on the vessel.
Having successfully completed her crossing to New York, he was on board when she left New York just after mid-day on the 1st May for the return leg of her voyage to Liverpool. Six days later, on the afternoon of the 7th May, however, he was dead, killed after she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, off the south coast of Ireland At that stage of her voyage, she was no more than fourteen hours away from her home port.
As Walter Hetherington’s body was never found and identified afterwards, his name is embossed on the Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, in London. He was aged 37 years.
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.
In August 1915, his family was given the balance of wages owed to him. This was in respect of his service on board from the 17th April until the 8th May, 24 hours after the ‘greyhound of the sea’ had foundered. He had a life assurance policy for £200, which presumably was paid out to his family.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UniLiv D92/2/141, UniLiv D92/2/428, UniLiv D92/11, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Graham Maddocks, George Donnison, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 9th January 2024.