Frank Barncastle Tesson was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the United States of America, on the 14th January 1866, the son of Frank Honore and Emily Duncan Tesson (née Barncastle). His father was a pilot for steam boats navigating the Mississippi River, and Frank was the second youngest of five known children in the family.
He became a shoe salesman for the Famous Shoe & Clothing Company, and on the 28th August 1895, he married Mrs. Alice Atkins (née Lowe) who was a divorcee.
Until 1900, they lived in Alton, Illinois, after which Frank Tesson began working for the firm of John Wanamaker of Philadelphia. Their family home there was at 605, South Street. They had no children, but Alice did have three children from her first marriage, one of whom, Roy, was a cripple and resided with the couple as he was unable to earn a living himself and required some amount of care, which was provided by his mother.
Frank was a buyer for John Wanamaker and was also vice president of the Wanamaker Board of Trade and vice president and treasurer of The Anatomick Footwear Company of New York. In 1909, he was transferred to the main Wanamaker store in New York, where he eventually was promoted to assistant manager of the shoe department, and as a consequence, the family moved to 593, Riverside Drive, there. In the spring of 1915, despite the war in Europe, Frank Tesson decided to combine business with pleasure and travel to England on a buying trip and holiday and take his wife Alice with him. Consequently, saloon passage was booked for them both through the New York office of the firm at Astor Place, on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool on the first stage of their journey.
The couple arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. Having boarded (with ticket number D1344) they were escorted to their accommodation in room D10, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward William Fletcher who came from Wallasey in Cheshire, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
The Lusitania’s departure was then was delayed until the afternoon as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship. The Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she within
sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from her home port and destination.
Both Frank and Ellen Tesson were killed as a result of this action and as neither body was recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. Frank Tesson was aged 49 years.
Bedroom Steward Fletcher, who had looked after Frank and Ellen Tesson in room D10, did survive the sinking, however and eventually made it back to his Wallasey home.
On Monday 17th May, 1915, a memorial service was held for both Frank and Alice Tesson at The Chambers-Wylie Memorial Presbyterian Church on Broad Street, Philadelphia.
Despite the fact that neither body was recovered and identified, in Alton Cemetery, Alton, in Madison County, Illinois in the U.S.A., there is a dressed stone memorial which bears the embossed inscription: -
IN MEMORY OF
FRANK B. TESSON
AND WIFE
ALICE
WHO WERE LOST WHEN
THE LUSITANIA
WAS SUBMARINED IN THE
IRISH SEA
MAY 7. 1915
Presumably, this must be a memorial stone only, and Cunard records show Mrs. Tesson’s name to be Ellen, not Alice, which must also be an error as an article in The New York Times just after the sinking also shows her forename to have been Alice! The cemetery’s location obviously points to the Tesson family’s Alton connection.
In the years following their deaths, a legal battle was fought between Alice Tesson’s children and the mother and siblings of Frank Tesson over his estate, which ended up in the highest Court in New York State. The decision of the Court was that as both were presumed to have died simultaneously, Frank Tesson’s estate, the net value of which amounted to $22,828.80, was to be distributed by the administrator of his estate to his immediate family, thus excluding Alice’s children. Each of her three children did, however, receive $1,800.00 each from her separate estate. Frank’s estate was distributed equally, in four parts, to his 85-year-old mother, his brother John Williamson Tesson, and his two married sisters, Bertha Angeline Montgomery and Lillian Josephine McKinney.
On 21st February 1924, the Mixed Claims Commission awarded Frank’s mother the sum of $3,000.00, as she was deemed to be partly dependant on him at the time of his death.
1870 U.S. Federal Census, 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. 217, 293, & 544, 1887 St. Louis City Directory, Alton Evening Telegraph, New York Times, Philadelphia Public Ledger, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.