Audrey Warren Pearl was born on the 5th February 1915 in New York City, in the United States of America, the third daughter of Frederic Warren and Amy Lea Pearl, (née Duncan). She had a brother named Stuart, born in 1910, a sister named Amy, born in 1912 and another named Susan, born in 1914.
The family home was at 20. Lowndes Square, Belgravia, London, England, but the family also maintained a home at 375 West End Avenue, New York, N.Y. U.S.A., but by the time she was born, her parents, both who were of independent means had taken to travelling in Europe, despite the Great War, which had been raging since August 1914. To help them look after their four children, her parents had engaged Alice Lines, who came from Folkestone, in Kent, in England and Greta Lorenson, who came from Skagen in Denmark, and the two of them travelled everywhere with the family. Alice Lines had first been taken on after the birth of Audrey’s sister, Susan, in 1914, and this began an association which would last for the next 83 years!
By the spring of 1915, both of Audrey Pearl’s parents wished to become involved in the Allied war effort against the forces of The Central Powers and as a consequence, decided to travel to Belgium and join Doctor Antoine Depage, a renowned surgeon at The Queen’s Hospital, which he had set up at La Panne, to help wounded Belgian soldiers. Frederic Pearl wished to use his surgical skills and his wife was eager to help in any way that she could!
As a result, they booked saloon passage for all the family and the two nursemaids on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool on the first stage of their journey. They all boarded at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in the port on the morning of 1st May 1915 and were escorted to their respective rooms. Audrey’s parents took over suite E51, Alice Lines took Amy and Susan into room E59 with her, and Greta Lorenson took Audrey and Stuart into room E67. These latter two rooms were the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Alf Wood who came from Liverpool. The ticket for the family party was numbered 46071.
As far as the Pearl children were concerned, the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was fairly uneventful as they enjoyed the attentions of not only Miss Lines and Miss Lorenson, but the Cunard nursery staff as well. On the afternoon of 7th May 1915, just before 2pm, the three older children had been taken to the first class nursery to be fed, leaving Audrey asleep in room E59. Once this had been done, Greta Lorenson remained with Amy and Susan and Alice Lines took Stuart back to the cabin to wake Audrey up and feed her too.
She had no sooner put Stuart to lie down on one of the beds and begun to feed Audrey, when the liner was hit by a single torpedo fired by the German submarine U-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. The Cunarder was actually within sight of the Old head of Kinsale in southern Ireland at the time and a mere twelve to fourteen hours sailing time from the safety of her home port.
Realising immediately what had happened; Alice Lines immediately put baby Audrey in a shawl and tied her around her neck as if a sling. She then took a tight hold of Stuart’s hand and rushed out of the cabin onto the boat deck. On her way to the lifeboats, she met a distraught Greta Lorenson who had already placed baby Amy in the care of a stewardess and still had hold of little Susan.
Alice Lines then placed Stuart into a lifeboat, but when she tried to get on board herself, she was stopped by a crew member who told her that it was full. She then watched in some dismay as it was lowered into the sea. Realising by now that the Lusitania was in imminent danger of sinking and with the knowledge that she did not even have a life jacket, she nevertheless jumped in to the sea with Audrey still firmly tied around her neck. As she hit the surface, her long auburn hair splayed out in the water and she was spotted by a woman passenger in the lifeboat who grabbed hold of it and dragged her and Audrey with her, into the boat. It was the same lifeboat in which she had placed Stuart, and they were soon re-united.
All three of them were extremely fortunate that it was one of the few which were successfully launched, but unfortunately this good fortune was not shared by Miss Lorenson and Amy and Susan Pearl. Their lifeboat was badly lowered and all three perished after it tipped all its occupants into the sea, drowning many and causing others to be hit by falling debris!
Eventually, Audrey Pearl, her brother, and her nursemaid, were rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, where they were eventually reunited with Audrey‘s parents. At first they were taken to a nearby hotel, not knowing if any other family members had survived, but they were found there not long after midnight, by Audrey’s father who, having been reunited with his wife, was, by that time, scouring the town for any sign of his children. Audrey Pearl was just three months old at the time of the sinking. First Class Bedroom Steward Wood, who had helped to look after her in room E also survived the sinking and eventually made it back to his native Liverpool.
Finally accepting that Amy, Susan, and Miss Lorenson had perished, Major and Mrs. Pearl travelled safely to London where they lived, on and off, for the rest of their lives. Ever conscious of the debt they owed to Alice Lines, she continued to serve the family for many years and she and Audrey Pearl became almost inseparable.
Audrey was privately educated in England and joined her mother on some of her frequent trans-Atlantic visits to New York, taking advantage of the fact that Cunard gave all Lusitania survivors a 25% discount on their voyages. In fact, on one of these, on board the R.M.S. Queen Mary, in the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of another world war, they were served by one of the bedroom stewards who had looked after the family on that fateful day in 1915. This must have been either Vincent Settle or Alf Wood, and both would have been aged 74 years at the time!
On the 18th July 1946, Audrey Pearl married The Hon. Hugh Lawson Johnston at the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster Abbey, London, and they had three daughters, all of whom married, producing ten grandchildren altogether, all of whom Alice Lines - the Lusitania saviour - helped to nurse! Her last link with her remarkable nurse was
at the latter’s funeral in November 1997, in her 101st year!
Audrey Lawson Johnson died, aged 95 years, on the 11th January 2011, at Melchbourne, Bedfordshire, England, and her remains interred in Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, Surrey. She was the last survivor of the sinking of the Lusitania!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, New York U.S. Birth Index 1910 – 1965, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, New York Times, Seven Days to Disaster, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Audrey Lawson Johnston, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.