Percy W. Seccombe was born in Walton, near Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on 4th March 1895, the son, and youngest child, of Captain William Simpson and Hannah Jane Seccombe (née Tyson). His father was a former Cunard Steam Ship officer who emigrated to the United States of America in 1895 and settled in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America on the 18th May 1898, and served as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War of 1898, before being honourable discharged in 1899.
Percy, his mother, and most of his ten older siblings, joined his father in Peterborough in 1896. Percy, his mother, and most of his siblings became American citizens as a result of his father’s naturalization, although his oldest sister, Elizabeth, was over the age of 21 years, and therefore remained a British subject.
In 1915, Elizabeth and Percy decided to travel to England and enlist in the Red Cross – Elizabeth being a qualified nurse.
Leaving Peterborough by rail at the end of April 1915, he and Elizabeth travelled via Boston, Massachusetts, to New York, to board the Lusitania at the Cunard berth at Pier 54, on 1st May 1915, in time for the liner‘s scheduled 10 o‘clock departure. Once on board, he was allocated room B35, which was next door to his sister’s, and was under the personal supervision of First Class Waiter James Holden, who came from Liverpool. Although a waiter, Holden was serving as a bedroom steward on the vessel’s last voyage across the Atlantic. This did not commence on schedule, but actually got under way just after mid-day, because the Lusitania had to wait to embark passengers, some of the crew, and the cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship at the end of April.
Like his sister, Percy Seccombe was killed when the ship was lost six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, having been sunk by the German submarine U-20. On the morning of 10th May, however, his body was taken out of the sea by the crew of the fishing vessel Village Maid - another account states that it was the fishing vessel Antoinette - off the coast, somewhere between Baltimore and Castletownshend, about thirty miles from where the Lusitania had gone down. His was one of seventeen corpses recovered by the vessel on that morning and it was then taken to Queenstown
by the harbour tender Flying Fish and deposited in one of the temporary mortuaries there, where it was given the reference number 169, and described as: -
Man, Percy Seccombe, (card on body) Saloon. Blue eyes, regular nose, fresh complexion, regular face, fairly stout make, fair hair, very slight fair moustache, couple of days growth, dressed in brown overcoat, blue serge suit, about 22 years of age, wore brown soft shirt collar, about 5’ 7”. New brown shoes with rubber soles and heels and brown socks.
He was aged 20 years at the time of his death.
On 9th May 1915, Cunard’s Boston office cabled Queenstown to give a description of Percy Seccombe’s sister Elizabeth, but also stated: -
Percy blue eyes very fair hair, thick set five feet five inches age eighteen.
Local newspaper The Cork Examiner published a description of the body, soon after it was landed, however, and although at that stage it had not been conclusively identified as Percy Seccombe, there is little doubt that it was in fact he. The description stated: -
Regular nose, fresh complexion, fairly stout make, fair hair and a very slight fair moustache, recently cropped. The remainder of the face was clean shaven. He was about 5ft 7in high, and about 22 years of age.
He was dressed in a brown overcoat and a blue serge suit, jacket make. He had new brown shoes, rubber soles and heels and brown socks. He had in his possession a memorial card with “Miss Elizabeth Anne Seccombe” marked on it. He also had a watch which had stopped at half past two - what appeared to be a Waltham watch. On the lower right hand corner of the card was West Hill Peterborough.
The writer of the report must have been mistaken that the card with “Miss Elizabeth Anne Seccombe” marked on it was a memorial card, as although undoubtedly prophetic, as Percy Seccombe’s sister Elizabeth Anne also perished in the sinking, she was obviously alive and well when the card was printed! The description continued: -
He had a leather pocket book with several cards. One was “Nathaniel Hartwell junr, 31 Mills Street, Boston Mass, c/o Messrs Mutual Life Insurance Co.”. He had two passenger railway tickets, Boston to New York, numbered respectively 8330 and 83301 line No. 1480. He had an alien registration landing order, and travelled saloon on the Lusitania.
He had two photographs - one of a middle aged stout lady, wearing a large check three-quarter length belted coat, white cuffs, her hands in the pockets, dark skirt; another appears to be a family group of seven - one an old lady in black, two middle aged, two young girls and a boy about three years, young girls and boy dressed in white.
He had £6 in British gold. He had a leather purse with 22s 9d. in silver and copper, a knife and a mother of pearl tooth pick.
The body of his sister had already been recovered by this time, and on 14th May 1915, was buried in Mass Grave B, in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown.
On 12th May, however, a cable was sent from the family attorney, a Mr. H.T. Patten of 926-7 Scolloy Buildings, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. to Queenstown, which read: -
CREMATE AND RETURN NEW YORK QUICKLY ASHES PERCY SECCOMBE ALSO ELIZABETH IF IDENTIFIED. FAMILY SOLICITORS GEORGE F. BRENNAN LIVERPOOL.
As Elizabeth's body was not buried until the 14th May, the cable must have arrived late or was simply not processed immediately because of the great volume of cable traffic arriving at the Queenstown office. Nevertheless, once it was realised that Elizabeth Seccombe had already been buried, it was obviously not thought expedient to disinter her body for the purposes of cremation.
By this time, Percy's body had also been identified and was duly sent, via George F. Brennan, to Liverpool Crematorium, where it was cremated on 18th May. His ashes were despatched to New York on the S.S. Lapland, the following day.
However, maybe his mother began to experience disquiet about the identification of those ashes, for on 25th May, the following cable was received from Mr. Patten: -
"FAMILY REQUEST CABLE HOW PERCY SECCOMBE IDENTIFIED AND WRITE ANY DETAILS."
The company was able to send back a cable on 28th May, however, which stated the following: -
"PERCY SECCOMBE IDENTIFIED BY VISITING CARDS AND RAILWAY PASSES BEARING HIS NAME FOUND ON BODY. ALSO IDENTIFIED BY SECOND STEWARD CHISHOLM."
Second Steward Chisholm was R.D.F. Chisholm who did yeoman service in the Queenstown mortuaries, identifying quite a few of the bodies.
On 8th July 1915, property taken from Percy Seccombe's body was despatched on the S.S. Orduña bound for New York and on 27th July, two days before his sister's property arrived there, it was handed over to Mrs. Seccombe at the New Hampshire address, by attorney Mr. Patten. It included a card with the name of Miss Elizabeth Ann Seccombe printed on it (not a memorial card), a gold watch, which had stopped at 2.30 - just after the liner had foundered - a purse with assorted British coinage in gold, silver and copper, a pocket book, a pair of cuff links, four keys on a ring with a metal chain attached to them, two photographs, four railway tickets from Boston Main Railway, a white handkerchief embroidered with the letter A, a white collar marked with the letter K47 and six assorted calling cards, one of which was that of Miss May Huben, hairdresser, of the Hotel Bernasset.
The handkerchief, keys, collar studs, and cufflinks, were not taken from Percy Seccombe’s body, but were recovered from the sea after the sinking and handed in at the Cunard office at Queenstown.
First Class Waiter Holden also perished in the sinking but his body was never recovered and identified.
Percy’s father had died in 1910, and after the conclusion of the war, the Mixed Claims Commission awarded her mother the sum of $10,000.00 in compensation for the loss of her daughter and son.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England & Scotland Select Cemetery Registers 1800 – 2016, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 267, Cork Examiner, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, UniLiv D92/2/71, UniLiv D92/2/350, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.