Henry George Burgess was born in Bath, Somerset, England, on the 9th April 1876, the eldest child of Henry Burgess and his wife, Emma (née Male). Both his parents had been born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where they married in 1875, and prior to his birth, his parents had set up home in Bath. His father was a commercial traveller.
On completion of his education, Henry became a commercial traveller, like his father, and found employment in Bradford, Yorkshire. He met and married a local girl by the name of Ella Mary, but her family name and the place and date of their marriage is unknown.
By 1915, he resided with his wife at Croton, Glenview Road, New Close Estate, Nab Wood, Shipley, Yorkshire. He was employed as manager of the shipping department of Messrs. William Wade and Company, stuff merchants, of Bradford.
He had been in America and Canada in connection with this business since March 1915 and for his return to Britain, had booked passage on the Anchor Liner
Cameronia, from New York to Glasgow, with ticket number D13343. Having sought to board her on the morning of 1st May 1915, however, he discovered that she had been requisitioned for war work as a troop ship by the British Admiralty and all her passengers and some of her crew were transferred instead, to the Lusitania. In fact the latter vessel's departure was delayed two hours to accommodate this change of plan. Consequently, Mr. Burgess found himself booked as a saloon passenger on the
Lusitania instead and was found accommodation by Purser James McCubbin, once he had boarded.
He was not altogether happy about his transfer to the Lusitania, because of the fact that he had seen newspaper articles in New York, where the Germans had threatened to sink the ship and having spoken to British submarine officers in America, he had been told that the Lusitania, being so large, presented an easy target. As the vessel had neared home, however, most passengers had lost their fear of attack, him included.
Six days out of New York, however, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania
was struck by a single torpedo fired by the German submarine U-20, and sank within 18 minutes. Mr Burgess was able to secure his safety despite this action, and later related his experience to a reporter of his local newspaper, The Shipley Times and Observer. He stated: -
I was in the dining room just finishing luncheon when the first shock came. I kept cool, for which fact an ice-cream I had just had may have accounted to some extent. The passengers rushed up on deck. I went up also and had a look round. The situation seemed to me to be pretty bad and I took the precaution to go down to my state room, two decks below, and put on my life jacket. The state rooms are all provided with these, and I certainly think that if the passengers had all made use of them, a great many more might have been saved.
I am not a good sailor, but I found it perfectly easy, with the help of this life preserver, to keep afloat. Of course after the boat had badly listed, it would be difficult to reach the state rooms in safety.
When I got back to the boat deck, I found a state of complete confusion reigning, but there was no panic. I could not say that anyone was giving instructions, but the alarming suddenness with which the shock came may, perhaps, have accounted for this. The passengers seemed to have no idea what to do, but many of them, myself amongst the number, rendered all possible aid in endeavouring to lower the boats. By the time that I had got back to the boat deck, I found that the vessel had taken a very heavy list
She had been struck on the starboard side, and we tried to lower the boats on the port side. Women and children were put into the first boat, and it was lowered, but unfortunately from some other cause which I did not see clearly, the boat was smashed to pieces and the occupants were thrown into the sea.
The sea was perfectly calm and the sun was shining brightly. After looking on for a time, I was rather astonished it hear the staff captain give an order for the people to be taken out of the boats which had then been partially filled, as the ship as holding.
This was Staff Captain James Anderson who was seen and hear by many to inform passengers that there was no danger as the ship would not sink as he ordered them out of the boats. Henry Burgess continued: -
As for myself, I went to the Marconi house and asked if a message had been got away. The operator said “Yes, but you had better get hold of this, old man, (throwing me an office chair), as you may want it.” I did not take the chair but I went over to the starboard side and saw that now the water was nearly up to the level of the boat deck. Two or three minutes later there was another tremendous list - no doubt caused by the second torpedo, and it appeared clear to me that the ship was going down. The Marconi man came out of his office at that time and began to take photographs, which struck me as a cool proceeding. I don’t know whether he saved himself and his photographs.
Henry Burgess was mistaken, like many other passengers, about there being a second torpedo, as the log of the German submarine
U-20 confirms that only one was ever fired. The tremendous list in this case was due to the fact that the ship was still making headway whilst sucking in vast quantities of seawater. This
Marconi man was Telegraphist Robert Leith, who did survive the sinking. The photographs taken by him, however, did not. The account continued: -
The port side at this time was crowded with people who were protected by the deckhouses; otherwise they could not have kept their feet.
I made up my mind it was now time to go. Accordingly I jumped into a boat which at this time was level with the side of the ship. There were not many in this boat, and we were all greatly alarmed to see the vessel heeling over, with one of the great funnels immediately above our boat. If the stays had broken, the funnel must have crashed down on to us.. There were no hatchets, and we found it impossible to release the boat. I saw a steward, I think it was, trying to cut the rope with a penknife, an impossible task in such excitement.
The ship heeled over more and more, and a boat davit seemed to fall over on to the boat I was in. We all crowded into one corner of the boat to escape from being struck, and either I fell out of the boat or was thrown out. Fortunately I was able to seize a piece of wreckage and after a time I found myself alongside a lifeboat. I was told, however, that the boat was full, and was actually pushed away. Finding one of the boat wedges near me, I got hold of it, and found it to support me so comfortably that I nearly went to sleep. The water was quite warm.
As far as I can guess, I had been in the water about an hour when I found myself beside a collapsible boat. I am told that I begged very hard to be allowed to get into that boat. There was only room, apparently, for one man more, but I heard someone call out: "All right, Burgess; you are in a pretty bad way. We'll take you in a minute; hold on until we can get the girl over there who is without a lifebelt. We'll take her first and you next." The lady was keeping herself afloat with an oar. After getting her on board they picked me up, and said: "Now turn to and give us a hand."
It must have taken us half an hour to get the boat properly fixed. By pulling up the seats the sides are brought into place, and we found this a difficult job. We managed, however, in the end, and I found that altogether there were thirty-one of us in the boat. All round us were overturned boats, with many people clinging to them. These were afraid to approach lest they should swamp us, but Mr. Charles E. Lauriat of Boston, whom we had appointed captain of our boat decided that another man who was near, with only a lifebuoy for his protection, should be taken in and then we would row for the shore. Although eight miles away, we could clearly see the lighthouse in the Old Head of Kinsale, and we pulled towards it with all our power.
After a while we came near the fishing smack Wanderer from Peel, in the Isle of Man and we were taken on board - the third and last boatload picked up by this smack. Two other boats, one a collapsible and the other a lifeboat, we took in tow. Then a mine-sweeper came along, picked up the occupants of the two boats we had in tow, and went off in search of others.
We had been in the smack about an hour when a tug-boat took us off and landed us eventually at Queenstown. In the meantime, patrol ships and steamers of all kinds had arrived on the scene, but this was some two hours after the Lusitania had gone down.
At Queenstown everything possible was done to minister to the wants of survivors. Food and clothing was obtainable without any cost, the Cunard Company having evidently provided for this.
The tug-boat that took Henry Burgess from the collapsible lifeboat was the Queenstown harbour tender the
Flying Fish, and he was correct in his identity of the fishing smack Wanderer from Peel which is known to have picked up the survivors from Lauriat’s collapsible boat.
Welsh coal mine owner and former Member of Parliament David A. Thomas was also picked out of the sea by the
Wanderer, and Burgess described the re-union of him with his daughter Lady Margaret Mackworth at the Queen's Hotel, Queenstown, which he witnessed, as
very touching!
Having left Queenstown on Saturday afternoon, 8th May, on a steamer bound for Holyhead, he arrived in Bradford at about 11 o'clock on the Sunday morning. There he was met by Mr. William Wade and his son Norman.
Despite his ordeal, he felt well enough to return to business the following day. The Bradford Daily Times for Monday 10th May reported: -
The Bradford passenger on the Lusitania (Mr. H.G. Burgess) who had such a marvellous escape came to business today. In the afternoon he was present at the "Corner" at the Liberal Club and had a most enthusiastic greeting from his fellow members. Mr. Burgess told his enthralling story and was heartily congratulated on his safe return.
Henry Burgess started his journey home from Montreal, Ontario, Canada with five business friends, and out of the six, two were killed.
Henry Burgess was a successful business man who continued to make annual trans-Atlantic voyages in pursuit of his business interests, and was an active member of the Bradford Rotary Club, holding the office of president for the year 1927 – 1928. He eventually founded his own company – Henry Burgess & Co. Ltd., with an address at Vicar Lane, Bradford.
In 1938, suffering from ill-health, Henry and his wife retired to Collington Green, Bexhill-on-Sea.
Henry Burgess died suddenly on the 19th November 1940 at Oaks Villa, Allerton, Bradford, at the age of 64 years. His remains were cremated following a funeral service at Scholemoor Cemetery, Bradford, on Friday, 22nd November 1940.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO 22/71, Shipley Times and Observer, Bradford Daily Telegram, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Bexhill-on-Sea Observer, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.