William Robert Grattan Holt, known as ‘Bobs’ Holt, was born on the 2nd March 1900, in Quebec, Canada, the son of Sir Herbert Samuel and Lady Jessie Bernie Holt (née Paton), who in 1914, lived at 297, Stanley Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Sir Herbert Holt was a millionaire banker who in 1915 was Canada’s richest man. It is possible that Bobs Holt’s nickname was taken from that of Lord Roberts V.C., a hero of British India who had first been nicknamed ‘Bobs‘ by the men of the British Army. Lord Roberts was Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in South Africa from 1898 until 1900 - the year of William Holt’s birth!
In May 1914, Bobs Holt had been sent to Marlborough College, in Wiltshire, England, and presumably returned home for the summer. When the Great War broke out on 4th August, however, his parents feared that a German invasion of Britain was a distinct and real possibility and therefore decided not to send him back to continue his education. However, by the spring of 1915, they thought that the threat had sufficiently receded to risk sending him across the Atlantic Ocean and consequently, saloon passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania was booked for him through A. & A. Allan of Montreal and having left there at the end of April, he arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing for Liverpool.
Once he had boarded - with ticket number 46130 - he was escorted to room B28 which was in the care of First Class Bedroom Steward James Grant, who came from Liverpool. The Lusitania’s departure for Liverpool was actually delayed until the early afternoon, so that she could take on board passengers, cargo and some of the crew from the Anchor Lines ship the S.S.
Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship at the end of April. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the
Lusitania was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine
U-20, and sank within 18 minutes. At that stage of her voyage, she was only 250 miles from the safety of home port.
On the voyage, Bobs enjoyed the company of fellow Canadians, Frederick Orr-Lewis, Miss Dorothy Braithwaite, Mrs. Frances Stephens, and Lady Allan and her two daughters. They would have all known one another prior to the voyage, their families being prominent in Montreal commerce and society. Frederick Orr-Lewis, in a letter to his family shortly after his return to England gave this enlightening account of both his and Bobs survival following the sinking: -
All the way over I slept every morning until about eleven, but on the Friday morning I found it impossible to sleep and was up on deck early. I met Lady Allan and the children and we sat around and chatted and walked etc, until lunch time. We had a table by ourselves, composed of Lady Allan, Mrs. G.W. Stephens Senr, Miss Dorothy Braithwaite, Gwen, Herbert Holt’s son, Anna and myself. The foregoing are the seats they occupied all the way over.
I cannot say that any of the people on the ship were feeling very bright on Friday. We finished our luncheon and went upstairs to the Lounge, had our coffee and were smoking our cigarettes when like a bolt from the blue, a torpedo struck the ship and my servant, George, and Lady Allan’s and the children’s maids, who were taking their luncheon at the time, saw the torpedo coming towards the ship and did not know what it was. There was no cry, no noise and no one, outside of the above that I met, saw the torpedo.
We rushed out on deck at once and I got them all together, put life-belts on them and went over to the starboard side to see what was being done with the boats, but she gave such a terrible lurch that I came back and started about getting them in a boat on the port side. Two were launched but the man in charge of the rope at the stern of the first one let go when she was full of people, with the result that they all tumbled out into the water and I think the great majority of them were killed.
The next boat fared almost the same fate, with the exception that the man in the bow let go. It all happened within probably two minutes, when the staff captain appeared on the top deck of all and called out forbidding the launching of further boats and stated that the ship was alright. It is quite true she did straighten herself on a more even keel and we all began to hope that she would not sink.
Our cabin steward then came up and stated that the water tight compartments had all been closed and that the boat was all right, but she began to lurch so much to the starboard side that the boats on the port side could not be launched and this had the effect of placing the boats on the starboard side so far away that it was impossible to get into them, so there was nothing to do but wait, when in the twinkling of an eye, she took the most awful dive and we all went down with her. I had Gwen by the hand and Lady Allan had Anna and the two maids were next and Mrs. Stephens with Chatham’s baby. Miss Braithwaite somehow became separated from us. How far we went down or what happened nobody will ever tell. Only those apparently were saved who were not killed in the water as the ship went down and the only reason, I should judge, why anyone is here to tell the tale, is an account of the explosion of the boilers which sent us up to the surface, and I came up alone near an upturned boat, which I got on to and as far as I can remember I was the first on it.
After looking around I saw Herbert Holt’s boy and I had him swim over and get on the boat. Lady Allan had already been put on the forward part of the boat. We gradually took on the people as they came to the surface until we had 59 people on the boat. Some were seated in water up to their waists, - others were standing up and I was one of the latter and holding on to people. The water was up to my knees and every minute we thought we would all go down again.
Bobs Holt was reading a book in the first class lounge when the torpedo struck and later remembered the sound as a
dull crash. He then managed to get off the stricken liner before she sank and was narrowly missed by one of her funnels as she went down. He then swam in the sea until he was able to get onto an upturned lifeboat which was floating nearby. He and the other occupants of the lifeboat were eventually rescued from this by the steamer
Westborough, which, at the time, was masquerading as a Greek steamer named Katerina. She was outward bound from Havana, Cuba, with a cargo of sugar and had been diverted from Queenstown, where she intended to re-coal, to seek survivors. Her master, Captain E.L. Taylor had deliberately disguised her as a Greek merchant ship, in the hope that German submarines would respect her supposed neutral status! Bobs Holt was just fifteen years old at the time of his
Lusitania experience.
After he had been landed at Queenstown, Bobs Holt eventually made it to England and Marlborough College. He spent most of his time there in Preshute Boarding House, and his academic record at the school shows that he was not a brilliant student! On his arrival in 1914, he was just over 5’ 3” tall and weighed eight stone six pounds and when he left in December 1917, he had grown to 5‘ 7“ and eleven stone two.
His size obviously best suited him as a rugby forward, and he played for the college first XV in that capacity in the autumn of his last year there. The College magazine
The Marlburian made a slightly unflattering reference to his rugby prowess in its edition of 5th February 1918, when it stated that he was: -
A big heavy forward, who is very useful in the scrum. He is rather slow-thinking and so is not always there to help in the open.
His slow-thinking not withstanding, after the Great War, he went on to become one of Canada’s leading financiers. Before this, however, he attended the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1921, was commissioned as a Lieutenant, attached to the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. Having transferred to the army reserve, he qualified as an accountant, and went to work with the firm of P.S. Ross and Son, and later with Harris Forbes and Company.
On the 21st April 1922, he married Mary Lucille Jeffrey, and the couple had three children – Peter Grattan, born in 1923, Osla Jane (known as Pamela), born in 1924, and William Robert Grattan junior, born in 1929. Unfortunately William died twelve days after his birth.
Bobs Holt later entered the brokerage firm, as a partner, of Holt, Rankin and Childs, members of the Montreal Stock Exchange and the Montreal Curb Market, and also held various positions in the Atlas Press Ltd., the Noorduyn Aviation Company, the Canadian Arena Company, among others.
In November 1926, the Canadian Claims Commission awarded Bobs Holt $600 in compensation for the loss of his personal effects in the sinking of the
Lusitania.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Bobs was commission as a Captain in the Royal Canadian 22nd Regiment, and served overseas for the duration of the war. He was awarded an M.B.E. in the King’s birthday list in June 1943, and he was also promoted to the rank of Major at some stage.
His eldest son, Peter Grattan Holt, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941, on completing his schooling. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and on the 30th May 1943, while serving with 44 (RAF) Squadron, the Lancaster aircraft he was flying, was shot down over Holland by a Luftwaffe night fighter. Peter Holt and his crew of five men, all holding the rank of Sergeant, were killed. Their bodies were recovered and buried in Jonkerbos War Cemetery, near Nijmegen, in the Netherlands.
Having survived the war, Bobs Holt returned to his family and business interests in Montreal.
He died suddenly at his summer residence at Les Noix, Ste. Marguerite, Quebec, on the 11th September 1947, aged 47 years. His funeral took place at St. George’s Anglican Church in Montreal, after which, he was laid to rest at Mont-Royal Cemetery in Montreal.
Some accounts of his experiences on board the Lusitania state that he was accompanied to England by two other ‘Malburians’, but if this was so, it has not so far been possible to identify them! Bedroom Steward Grant, who had looked after Bobs Holt in room B28, also survived the sinking and eventually got back to his Liverpool home.
Quebec Canada Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection) 1821 – 1968, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of Canada, 1921 Census of Canada, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 837, Marlborough College, Marlburian, New York Times, The Gazette, Seven Days to Disaster, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, PRO BT 100/345, Terry Rogers, Graham Maddocks, Terry Rogers, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.