Although the name of Mrs. Alexandria Munro appears on the official lists of passengers and those passengers who were lost in the sinking of the Lusitania, most researchers agree that no person of this name was actually on board when the Lusitania departed from New York harbour on the 1st May 1915.
She had arrived in New York City with her husband, Charles Munro, on board the Lusitania, on the 26th March 1915, and they had booked a return ticket (number 6348), intending to return on the sailing of the same vessel on the 1st May. Her husband had found it necessary to travel to New York City to conduct business, and Alexandria had accompanied him.
The couple stayed in the Manhattan Hotel, and Mrs. Munro had actually returned to Great Britain, when she sailed from New York City on board the Anchor Line s.s. Transylvania, arriving in Liverpool on the 19th April 1915.
After the sinking of the Lusitania on the 7th May 1915, her name appeared on official passenger lists, and her cabin listed as being A.28, which was widely published in the newspapers, but not on the lists of survivors or recovered and identified dead. Her name even appears in the official list of saloon passengers, published by the Cunard Steam Ship Company Limited on the 1st March 1916, and again she is not included in the list of survivors or recovered and identified dead.
If she had been on board, it is likely that as her husband was a well-known and successful businessman in Edinburgh, Scotland, there would have been widespread coverage of her fate, survivor or victim, in the Scottish newspapers; however, apart from her name appearing on published passenger lists, no further mention of her was made.
In addition, no correspondence concerning her was received after the sinking by Cunard, nor were there any claims filed seeking compensation for her death, or for the
loss of the personal belongings she would have had in her possession, had she been on board.
She was therefore not on board, nor was there any person with a name in any way resembling hers, on board.
Alexandria Munro, whose name before her marriage is unknown, was born in Scotland in March 1884. She was married to Charles Munro, and in 1915, the family home was at Castlehaven, Ferry Road, Edinburgh, Midlothian.
She returned to New York City with her husband on at least three later occasions, in 1916, 1928, and 1934, and continued to live at her home at Castlehaven, Ferry Road, Edinburgh, until at least the mid-1960’s
New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Edinburgh Scotland Electoral Registers 1832 – 1966, Cunard Records, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.