Montague “Monty” Tassell Grant was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England, on 28th March 1868, the son of Thomas George and Henrietta Maria Letitia Grant (née Dilke). His father was superintendent of the Royal Victoria Victualling Department in Deptford, Kent.
On the 25th November 1891, he arrived in New York City on board the White Star liner,
Majestic. He settled for a time in Baltimore, Maryland, working as a clerk. He resided at 800. Madison Avenue, in the city, for many years.
On 13th April 1893, he had married Chastina Bull of Virginia and in 1906, they made their home in Chicago. He was now working as a salesman and a representative of The American Can Company of Chicago, Illinois. In 1915, the couple lived at 1412, Hyde Park Boulevard, Chicago.
His sister Jessie M. Grant lived at ‘Glendower’, Brittany Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, and in the spring of 1915 he decided to go to England to visit her. As a consequence, he booked saloon passage for himself and his wife from Chicago, on what proved to be the Lusitania’s final voyage. They boarded the vessel at New York (with ticket number 26005), on the morning of 1st May 1915, before she sailed on her appointment with destiny and were allocated room D39, which was under the personal supervision of First Class Bedroom Steward William Barnes. He came from Wallasey in Cheshire, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
Six days after the liner had left New York, both of them were dead, killed after the
Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20. Although Chastina Grant’s body was picked up shortly after the sinking, her husband’s was not recovered until a fortnight later. It was taken from the sea off the coast of County Kerry about 80 miles from where the
Lusitania had sunk.
It was then transported to Queenstown by the harbour tender Flying Fish
and on Saturday 22nd May, was landed at the Cunard wharf, where it was placed in a coffin in one of the temporary mortuaries set up in the town. It was also given the reference number 230 although its identity had been established by then, probably from documents recovered from it and it was described by Cunard as: -
Montague T. Grant, Saloon, 60 years, 6ft.
Found in possession, 5 sovereigns, 1 half sovereign, 2 £5 Bank of England
notes, 13/- in silver, 1 light long gold neck chain with gold seal
attached, 1 keyless gold watch, 1 silver watch initialled M.T.G., 1
gold ring, 6 gold studs, 1 gold scarf pin, 1 fountain pen, 1
penknife in case, 1 match box, 2 photos on passport, 1 gold pencil
case with knife attached to ring, initials M.T.G. on knife, 19
penny stamps, some papers, small binocular case, Alien
Restriction Order, 2 bunches of keys, spectacles, card bearing
name, 1 cigar cutter, 1 pair of scissors, 1 pocket book, 1 note
book, 2 nail files.
It was then despatched to London on 24th May 1915, and eventually buried in Deptford, Kent, England.
The previous day, a cable was received at the Cunard offices in Queenstown from their office in New York, which simply stated: -
LUSITANIA. WERE REMAINS SALOON MONTAGUE TASSEL GRANT RECOVERED?
The property recovered from his body was despatched by Wesley Frost, the American Consul in Queenstown, to Grant’s sister’s home, in St. Leonards-on-Sea, on 28th May. Montague Grant was aged 47 years.
In a newspaper account syndicated all around the world just after the sinking, fellow saloon class passenger James H. Brooks spoke of the Grants and said: -
Among friends he has lost in the disaster, Mr. Brooks mentioned Mr. Montague T. Grant, (a representative of the American Can Company), who was on a trip with his wife to visit friends or relatives at Eastbourne. He last saw them on the Marconi decks when the torpedo struck, and as they had not arrived at Queenstown at the time he left, he fears both drowned.
Eastbourne is about twelve miles around the coast from St. Leonards-on-Sea.
At the end of June 1915, identification of Mrs. Grant’s jewellery led to a positive identification of her body, which had been buried - unidentified - in one of the mass graves outside Queenstown on 10th May 1915. As a result of this friends and relatives and the executors of Chastina Grant’s estate wrote to Cunard requesting that her body be exhumed and buried alongside that of her husband Montague. However, this was impossible after being buried for over a month in the lower tier of the mass grave.
Bedroom Steward Barnes, who had looked after the Grants in room D39, survived the sinking and eventually returned to his Wallasey home.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, Virginia Select Marriages 1785 – 1940, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 - 1957, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO 22/71, San Francisco Chronicle, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Yorkshire Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.