Duncan Stewart was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, on the 13th January 1863, the son, and youngest of six known children of Andrew Buchanan and Florence Jane Stewart (née Morrison). His father was an official assignee – an official of the Insolvency Court who dealt with bankruptcies, and later an auctioneer. The family moved to Montreal, Quebec, when Duncan was a child.
On completing his education, Duncan became a furrier, and on the 8th August 1892, he married Florence Jane Slessor in Montreal. The couple had three children, all daughters, and the family home was at 378. Grosvenor Street, Westmount, Montreal.
In the spring of 1915, he set out from Montreal to England on business for his firm, James Coristine & Co. Ltd., furriers of Montreal, having booked saloon passage on the Lusitania’s May sailing, through agents W. H. Henry, of Montreal.
Having arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, he boarded with ticket number 13166 and was escorted to his accommodation in room B97. This room was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Thomas Dawes, who came from Walton, a district of Liverpool.
Duncan Stewart would have had his last sight of North America just after mid-day as the liner made her delayed departure from the port at that time and just six days later, he was dead - killed after the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that stage, the Lusitania was within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Duncan Stewart was aged 52 years at the time, and as his body was never recovered from the sea and identified, he has no known grave, although his family later had a gravestone erected in his memory at Cimetière Mont-Royal, in Montreal, which survives today.
Like Duncan Stewart, Bedroom Steward Dawes also perished in the sinking and never saw his Liverpool home again.
James Coristine & Co. Ltd., Duncan Stewart’s employers, submitted a claim for compensation with the Canadian Commission for reimbursement of his travel expenses from Montreal to Liverpool ($147.80), pocket expenses ($100), and his monthly salary of $125. The Commission disallowed their claim in December 1926, stating that any claim should be submitted by his family.
His wife had also submitted a claim for compensation with the Canadian Commission which awarded her $15,000 to financially compensate her and their three daughters.
Montreal Canada non-Catholic Marriage Index 1766 – 1899, Quebec Canada Notarial Records 1637 – 1935, 1871 Census of Canada, 1881 Census of Canada, 1891 Census of Canada, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of Canada, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 800 & 843, Montreal Star, The Gazette, PRO 22/72, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/336, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.