Thomas "Tom" Boyce King was born at his family home at Lea House, Fulstone, New Mill, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, England, on the 9th December 1865, the son of Dr. James and Mrs. Mary King (née Armitage). He was the second youngest of seven children, and when his father, who was a medical doctor, died in 1871, his mother took the family to Shepley, Yorkshire.
His eldest brother, Samuel, was a woollen manufacturer in Shepley, and Tom King learned all about the woollen trade from his brother before emigrating to the United States of America in 1893. In 1899, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
On the 8th March 1902, he married Anna Loretta Monaghan, who was 13 years his junior, in Manhattan, New York City, and they had one son – Thomas Boyce King Jr., who was born in 1903. The family home was at 8. Chester Avenue, White Plains, Westchester, New York.
He was a director and partner in the firm of Brokaw Brothers, Woollen Merchants and Wholesale Clothiers, of 22, Astor Place, New York, U.S.A., whose Huddersfield branch was Messrs. H.S. Atkinson & Co., in John William Street.
He was a frequent trans-Atlantic traveller, and in the spring of 1915, he had booked as a saloon passenger on board the Lusitania in order to visit Huddersfield, to buy cloth for the forthcoming spring trade. Consequently, he joined the ship on the morning of 1st May (with ticket number 46064) at her berth at Pier 54, before the liner left New York harbour for the last time. He was allocated room B14, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward William H. Williams. Tom King was accompanied on his journey by James Leary, who also worked for Brokaw Brothers and was allocated room B16, which was next door to his.
The Lusitania’s sailing from the harbour was delayed, because she had to embark passengers, cargo and some crew from the Anchor Lines steamer Cameronia, which had been requisitioned for war work by the British Admiralty at the end of April, but she finally left her moorings and slipped into the North River just after mid-day. Six days later, she was torpedoed and sunk off the southern coast of Ireland and only about 250 miles from her Liverpool home port, by the U-20. Tom King was not listed amongst the survivors. He was aged 49 years.
His body was one of the earliest to be recovered from the sea, however, and it was landed at Queenstown, where, before it was positively identified, it was given the reference number 61.
Fellow Brokaw employee James Leary, in an account published in The New York Times of 10th May 1915, described being with Mr. King when the torpedo struck. He stated that he did not see him alive again, but was later able to identify his body in a Queenstown mortuary.
He is also quoted in The Tragedy of the Lusitania, written by Captain Frederick D. Ellis and published in 1915, in which he stated: -
I was standing with T.B. King, a director of Brokaw Brothers whose body I have just identified, when I felt the shock of the first torpedo. The captain ordered an examination. On receiving the report he said in our hearing that he had closed certain bulkheads, which would render the ship seaworthy long enough to reach an Irish port.
Tom King’s body was later embalmed, and on the authority of the American Consul at Queenstown, it was shipped back to New York, to Messrs. Brokaw Brothers, on 14th May on the S.S. New York. There, on 25th May 1915, it was buried in Greenwood Union Cemetery, after a funeral service held at Christ Church, Rye.
Although his widow was not travelling with her husband on the Lusitania, she must have gone to Queenstown, because Cunard records show that she was being temporarily sheltered by Major and Mrs. Wade when her husband's property was handed over to Major Wade in his capacity on the General Staff, S.I.C.D., Queenstown.
Bedroom Steward William H. Williams, who had looked after Mr. King in room B14, survived the sinking and eventually returned to his Liverpool home.
On 23rd August 1915, Tom’s widow, Anna, married Samuel Stansfield, a British subject. As a result of this marriage, she relinquished her American citizenship. The marriage was of relatively short duration, however, as Samuel Stansfield died on 24th January 1923.
The Mixed Claims Commission awarded Thomas King Jr. the sum of $20,000.00 in compensation for the loss of his father, and his father’s estate, of which Thomas Jr. was the only beneficiary, was awarded $1,500.00 in compensation for the loss of his personal belongings in the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, West Yorkshire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1910, New York Extracted Marriage Index 1866 – 1937, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1905 New York State Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2560, Bradford Daily Argus, Holmfirth Express, New York Times, Tragedy of the Lusitania, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 180/345, UniLiv PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.