Retta Cohen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States of America, on the 29th March 1872, the daughter of Wolf and Sarah Cohen (née Auer). Her father was a cloth
merchant, and Retta was the youngest of eight known children.
On the 1st October 1986, she married Victor E. Shields and in 1915, the family home was at 3406, Burnet Avenue, Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.. Her husband ran a wholesale liquor business at 119 to 121 East Pearl Street, Cincinnati, and they had no children.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to travel to Great Britain on business and consequently booked saloon passage for himself and his wife to Liverpool on the May sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York on the morning of 1st May 1915.
He had made their booking through the First National Bank of Cincinnati, and having arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in the port, with ticket number 46145 they boarded and were escorted to room D53, Rita Shields being in berth 1 and her husband in berth 2. Room D53 was under the personal supervision of First Class Bedroom Steward Edwin Huther who came from Liverpool.
The liner’s departure for Liverpool was actually delayed until the early afternoon, so that she could take on board passengers, cargo and crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship at the end of April. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank just eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was only 250 miles from the safety of her home port.
Both Retta Shields and her husband perished as a result of this action and although Victor Shields’ body was later recovered and sent home to Cincinnati, that of Retta Shields never was, despite a photograph of her with her description on the reverse being sent to the Cunard office in Queenstown. She was aged 43 years.
Bedroom Steward Huther who had looked after the couple in room D53 also perished in the sinking and never saw his Liverpool home again.
On 8th May 1907, Retta and her husband made wills in which they named each other as sole beneficiaries. Both had extended families, and following their deaths a legal battle ensued between both families over their estates. Victor’s estate amounted to $100,000.00, and life insurance of $40,000.00, while Retta’s estate amounted to $20,000.00 and $10,000.00 life insurance. It is not known how their estates were divided, but both extended families also filed a claim for compensation for their deaths with the Mixed Claims Commission. As none of the claimants were dependant on either of the deceased, no award was made.
Ohio U.S. County Marriage Records 1774 – 1993, 1880 U.S. Federal Census, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 404 & 405, Ohio Wills and Probate Records 1786 – 1998, New York Times, Owensboro Messenger, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, New York Times, UniLiv D92/2/258, 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.