William John Pierpoint was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 5th April 1864, the son of Henry and Sarah Pierpoint (née Williams). His father was a watch case maker.
He joined the Liverpool Police Force on the 18th September 1888 at the age of 24 years, before which, he had been a steward and a clerk. He was 5’ 11” in height.
On the 12th September 1896, he married Edith Thompson at St. Mark’s Church, Lyncombe, Bath, Somerset, and they eventually set up their home in Chetwynd Street, Dingle, Liverpool, where they brought up four children, Edith Thompson – known as ‘Poppy’, born in 1898, Margery Sarah, born in 1902, Olive Tempest, born in 1906, and George William, born in 1909.
By 1915, he had achieved the rank of detective inspector with the Liverpool City Police, and on 17th April 1915, he boarded the Lusitania in Liverpool to travel to New York City in the United States of America, in connection with a criminal case, arriving there on 24th. The nature of his case is not known, but it must have been important and may have been connected with the war effort, as he was booked as a saloon passenger for the return journey! His business presumably completed, he arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in the west side of the city on the morning of 1st May, in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock departure for his voyage back to Liverpool. Once on board, he was allocated Room A1, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Edward Bond.
The liner finally left port at 12.27 p.m., after a delayed start brought about because she had to embark passengers, crew, and cargo from the Anchor Lines ship Cameronia, which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for service as a troop ship at the end of the previous month. Not long after sailing, Inspector Pierpoint was involved in one of the most puzzling events surrounding the Lusitania's last voyage, as told later by second cabin passenger survivor Edward Barry in The Bradford Daily Telegraph of 10th May 1915. It involved the capture and arrest of alleged German spies and stated: -
The affair is really full of mystery, for nobody seems to know exactly what happened.
After we had left New York two days, three men, who were alleged to be German spies and concerning whom very little was known by the passengers, were arrested. They were arrested by Scotland Yard men, of whom there were several on board. They were put into irons and imprisoned somewhere in the bottom of the ship.
Since landing, I have heard that they all went down with the Lusitania.
Edward Barry was mistaken about the incident being two days out from New York, however as it occurred not long after the liner had sailed. It was also mentioned by a few other passengers and is still surrounded in mystery, all these years later.
Barry was probably wrong, also about there being several Scotland Yard officers on board although there is no doubt, that one police officer involved in the incident, although not of Scotland Yard, was Inspector Pierpoint.
In their book, Seven Days to Disaster, published in 1981, authors Des Hickey and Gus Smith related the experience of saloon passenger Charles Hill, who came from New York, when they stated: -
During the customary search for stowaways after the liner sailed, the master-at-arms had surprised three men in a steward's pantry near the Grand Entrance on the shelter deck. Staff Captain Anderson confronted the men, demanding to know who they were, but they refused to give him any information. Suspecting they might be Germans, he sent for the ship's detective William Pierpoint and the interpreter Adolph Pederson.
Anderson knew of the German threats to the Lusitania, but nothing of the espionage ring. When Pierpoint formally arrested the men, Anderson decided to take them to Liverpool for questioning by the authorities. After Pederson confirmed they were Germans the men were locked in the ship's cells. Pierpoint questioned them again later, but was unable to learn if there had been an attempt to plant explosives on the Lusitania.
Charles Hill had been chatting with Anderson when one of the masters-at-arms had come hurrying along the deck with the news of the men's discovery. Hill asked the Staff Captain what had happened. “We have arrested three German suspects,” Anderson admitted, “and locked them in the cells.” Why hadn't they been ferried to the Carmania or sent back to New York Hill wanted to know. Anderson dodged the question. “Our cells,” he assured Hill with good humour. '“are the most comfortable on the Atlantic.”
The Carmania was armed merchant cruiser H.M.S. Carmania, the former Cunarder once commanded by William Turner, which together with H.M.S Bristol and H.M.S Essex, was waiting outside New York harbour, and American territorial waters, to stop the sudden exit from the port of any interned German ships. The Lusitania hove to, half a mile from the cruiser to take on board mail from her and it would have been relatively easy to transfer the three captured stowaways at the same time.
To his family in later years, William Pierpoint confirmed the arrest of the alleged German spies and also related that when the ship was sinking, he had attempted to release the trapped prisoners, but by the time he had got below decks, the water level was already so high that the ship's brig was already under water and the prisoners would already have perished.
No evidence exists today as to the identity of the alleged spies, or their nationalities, despite thorough checks with official German archive sources. The most likely explanation is that they were patriotic German citizens acting on their own initiatives - initiatives which would lose them their lives in the most distressing of circumstances! It is also difficult to understand what they had hoped to achieve, as
once they had arrived at the Lusitania's Liverpool destination, they would have found themselves in a country actually at war with their own! It is thus more likely that they had boarded the vessel during the natural confusion which surrounded her loading and impending departure and had intended to leave before the sailing, but for one reason or another, were unable to do so!
The sinking of the liner took place six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May 1915, by the German submarine U-20, when the liner was steaming past The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, and probably only about 250 miles away from home. Once the liner had foundered, William Pierpoint was involved in another of the most fascinating stories of the sinking!
In an article published in The Manchester Guardian on Monday 10th May 1915, a story was told of a man who was sucked down one of the Lusitania's funnels and who was well known in official quarters in Liverpool, and this was also Inspector Pierpoint. The article related: -
During his journey from Ireland to Liverpool tonight, a Liverpool survivor who is well known in official quarters in Liverpool described to a representative of the 'Manchester Guardian' a remarkable incident in which he and two other passengers were concerned, just as the vessel sank.
"We were sucked down into one of the funnels," he said, "and just as suddenly we seemed to be thrown up again. It was an awful experience. As the ship went down, the boat into which I had jumped was carried under the water owing to the fact that it was fast to the davits. A second or two later, I rose to the surface of the whirling water, and at the same time I saw the yawning mouth of the funnel falling over towards me. Three of us were borne by a rush of water into the funnel, and I thought that this must be the end. I seemed to be taken deep down and my mouth was full of cinders and dirty water. Then I felt an upward movement, and I saw a glimmer of light. Once more I was whirled round on the surface and at last, a big wash swept me quite near to a upturned boat, on which there was a steward.
I yelled to him and he was just able to grab my wrist and help me to climb on to the boat. Soon we picked others up out of the water. One young woman was unconscious, but we held her over the boat to get water out of her mouth. She revived but became hysterical and it was difficult to keep her on the boat.
We picked up another young woman only to find that she was dead. People were struggling in the water all around us, but we could do nothing more. The scene was awful enough to make one go mad. After some time we were rescued by a destroyer. I believe both the others who were sucked into the funnel, one a woman and one a steward, were saved.
These latter two were second cabin passenger Mrs. Margaret Gwyer and First Class Bedroom Steward Edward Bond, who had coincidentally looked after the Inspector in
room A1. Another person who suffered a similar fate was third class passenger Harold Taylor. All four survived their ordeal and eventually reached their destinations.
According to the book, The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, by Adolph and Mary Hoehling, Captain Turner witnessed the incident: -
William Pierpont (sic) of Liverpool had the same bizarre experience. He was swimming near Captain Turner when the latter saw Pierpont suddenly swallowed by a disappearing funnel. Next the “Inspector”, as Turner called the gentleman, shot forth again, while the “air rushed out with a terrible hissing sound”. Turner watched incredulous, though he obtained a measure of grim humour from the sight. As Pierpoint hit the water and struck out he seemed to be “swimming like ten men, he was so scared”.
Saloon passenger J.W. McConnel from Manchester told of his experience of the sinking in The Manchester Guardian on his return to his native city. He was pulled out of the sea by two seamen onto the upturned keel of a lifeboat and thereby saved. He stated: -
I think that the only other personal incident is that I was as black as a collier and my hair plastered with black mud. This was not from the first blast, as I had my shooting hat on then. It must have been got in one of my diving trips, and makes me partly believe the story of two of my companions on the boat keel - viz., that they had gone down one of the funnels and had been blown out again.
If McConnel was correct, then it is possible that one of his companions was William Pierpoint.
Having been rescued from the sea, Inspector Pierpoint was landed at Queenstown and admitted to hospital, and it was not until several weeks later that he was fit enough to return to Liverpool. He still carried with him, in one of his pockets, the last news bulletin issued on board the Lusitania, and Edith Pierpoint had this framed and it was a treasured family possession for many years. He also regretted the loss of a rocking horse which he had bought in America for his daughter, Olive, which went down with the ship.
The ordeal of the sinking affected him quite badly, however and he never really recovered from its shock.
After his return to Liverpool, he continued to serve in the Liverpool City Police Force until he retired with the rank of Superintendent, at the age of 60 years, on 8th April 1924. To mark his retirement, he was presented with an inscribed clock in recognition of his 35 years of service to the people of Liverpool. The silver plate which was mounted on this clock is still in the possession of his family.
Some time after this, the family moved across the River Mersey to the Wirral Peninsula and settled in a house they named ‘Chetwynd’ in Guffitts Rake, Meols.
Tragedy struck the family on 2nd July 1931, however, when their only son George William, who had decided to make the sea his career, died of peritonitis whilst away on a voyage. William Pierpoint himself died in a nursing home in Meols, aged 86 years, on 8th May 1950, one day after the 35th anniversary of the sinking. His wife Edith survived him until 10th January 1962, when she too died, also aged 86 years.
They are both buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard, Hoylake, Wirral, Merseyside, in grave 649/50. There is no mention of William Pierpoint’s Lusitania ordeal on the headstone.
Buried not far away from him is the body of 99 year old Marian May Walker, who as Stewardess Marian May Bird, also survived the sinking of the Lusitania. She too, died in 1950.
One version of the Cunard passenger lists show the Inspector as William H. Pierpoint, but this is a mistake.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Lancashire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1911, 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, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Massachusetts passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Bradford Daily Telegraph, Manchester Guardian, Last Voyage of the Lusitania, Seven Days to Disaster, PRO 22/71, Graham Maddocks, Caroline Riddle, Joe Symon, Tony Mossman, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.