Frederick George Lewin, known as “Guy”, was born in London St. Giles, London, England, on the 2nd October 1869, the son of William and Sarah Ann Lewin (née Steers). His father was a cab driver, and the family resided at the Model Lodgings for Families, Streatham Street, Bloomsbury, London. He was the third youngest of nine known children.
In late 1893, he married Eleanor Agnes Carter in Brentford, Middlesex, and the couple had two children – Frederick Walter Guy, and Henry Stanley Guy. Their family home was at Hyde Cottage, The Hyde, Hendon, Middlesex, England.
He was an engineer by profession which he had first begun at Chiswick, Middlesex, when he became a cycle maker. In connection with this, he won many prizes at Putney Velodrome and was a member of Chiswick and District Cycling Club.
Eventually he became a prominent automobile engineer and dealer, as F. Guy Lewin Ltd., with premises in Albany Street, Regents Park, London. Recognising the worth of the American motor trade, however, he had travelled to Detroit, Michigan, in the United
States of America, to purchase an extensive stock of American motor cars for his business. It was reported that he was the largest importer and dealer of American automobiles in London by 1915.
In February and April 1915, he had travelled to Detroit, Michigan, in relation to his business, and returning from his second trip there, and business in New York City with the firm of Thomas and Pierson, of 17 Battery Place, he had booked as a saloon passenger on the Lusitania, scheduled to depart from New York harbour on the morning of Saturday, 1st May. Once no board, with ticket number 46156, he was allocated room A5, which was under the personal supervision of First Class Bedroom Steward Edward Bond, who came from Anfield, a district of Liverpool.
He did not survive the sinking of the liner, by the German submarine U-20, which happened just six days later, when she was just twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination. As his body was never recovered from the sea and identified, he has no known grave. He was aged 45 years.
As it was necessary to bury all the recovered bodies as soon as was practicable, they were all photographed in the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown before being buried. Anxious relatives of those missing were then invited to identify their loved ones through these photographs. This was difficult in certain cases because of injuries they had received as a consequence of the sinking or because they had been in the water for a long time.
At first, the corpse numbered 12 at Queenstown was wrongly identified as Guy Lewin, but later research proved it to be that of second cabin passenger Frank Lancaster from Ealing Common, Middlesex, England.
Administration of Guy Lewin’s estate was granted to his widow Eleanor at London, on 5th June 1915, and his effects amounted to £320-10s-0d, (£320.50). His company was either sold, or taken over, and re-named Barningham Ltd.
May 1915 was a tragic month for the Lewin family for Guy Lewin’s favourite son Stanley had died only a few days before his father, from meningitis.
Bedroom Steward Bond, who had looked after Frederick Lewin in room A5, did survive the sinking, however and eventually made it back to his Liverpool home.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, London England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1917, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Chiswick Times, Detroit Free Press, Liverpool Echo, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 180/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, UniLiv D92/2/338, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly