Annie Walker was born in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, in 1885. Nothing is known of her family or her life, except that she was a domestic servant.
By 1914, she was employed in the household of Sir Montague and Lady Allan, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a maidservant. Her particular duties were to look after the Allan’s teenage daughters, Anna, aged 16 years and Gwendolyn, aged 15.
Sir Montague Allan was vice-chairman of The Allan Shipping Line and in early 1915,
was in England on business and his wife decided to join him with her daughters and two maids, Annie and Emily Davis, who was Lady Allan’s maid servant. Consequently, the party of five left Montreal at the end of April 1915 and having booked as saloon cabin passengers on the Lusitania, (ticket No. 12933), through local agents Robert Reford and Co., arrived in New York in time to board the liner on the morning of 1st May 1915. Annie Walker and Emily Davies were allocated room B79, not so far away from the Allan family who were in rooms B47 and B49.
For the next six days, the two maids enjoyed the journey and the company of George Slingsby and another gentleman’s valet. Slingsby was well known to the Allan family as he was valet to Sir Frederick Orr-Lewis, who, with his wife, were great friends of Sir Montague and Lady Allan.
Then, on the afternoon of 7th May, with the liner only hours away from her Liverpool destination, the idyll came to an abrupt ending with sinking of the vessel.
Just before the torpedo struck, the two maids had met George Slingsby and another valet friend, who was probably Ronald Denyer, another ‘gentleman’s gentleman’, and valet to millionaire Alfred Vanderbilt, for dinner in the second class dining room. Just as their lunch order had been taken, the ship was struck. George Slingsby later described the moment to his daughter, Nina Slingsby-Smith, who wrote about it in her biography of him, Memoirs of a Gentleman’s Gentleman, which was published in 1994. It states: -
The impact was so violent that the great ship seemed to lurch out of the water. Up on the balcony, the orchestra was playing a lively rendering of 'It's a long way to Tipperary' when the explosion occurred, and the grand piano was flung through the balustrading, to land with a discordant crash in the middle of the dining saloon. There was an ear-splitting sound of breaking glass and crockery and a pall of scalding steam billowed in through the doorway. Black smoke and dust descended in a choking cloud and the ship took on a steep list to starboard, making it difficult to stay on one's feet. Seconds later came another loud explosion, presumably a second torpedo, and the list worsened, throwing everyone in a heap. They clawed at one another in fear and desperation and George struggled as hard as any.
Whilst George Slingsby was looking for his master, Annie Walker and her fellow maid, Emily Davis, managed to find Lady Allan and the two girls and as they had no chance to get into a lifeboat, when it was obvious that the liner was going down, they all joined hands and jumped into the sea.
Eventually, both maids managed to get into a lifeboat, after which they were plucked from the sea by the Greek steamer Katerina which was outward bound from Havana, Cuba, with a cargo of sugar and just happened to be passing the scene of the disaster. The same vessel then rescued Lady Allan who had suffered a broken collar bone when she had been struck by the keel of a lifeboat, after jumping into the sea. Both Anna and Gwendolyn Allan perished!
When Annie Walker was landed at Queenstown, she briefly told her story to a reporter of local newspaper The Cork Examiner: -
She said when the party saw that the ship was going down, they all joined
hands and went down together with her, but got separated in rising again. She was in the water for a considerable time and the one thing that impressed itself on her mind was the constant moaning of the people in the water. She was picked up by one of the boats, and at present does not feel any ill effects from her trying experience.
Despite her medical optimism, she was suffering from exposure, as was Emily Davis, and the two were admitted to Queenstown hospital where they came across Lady Allan who was being treated there for her broken collar bone. All three eventually made a complete recovery.
Annie Walker continued to be employed by Lady Allan for some time after the sinking of the Lusitania, although it is not known for how long.
She submitted a claim with the Canadian Commission for the loss of her personal effects and money, and in 1926, the Commission awarded her the sum of $1,500.
In some reports and documentation her name is stated to have been “Annie E.” and in others “Annie H.”, but it is not known if either is correct.
Nothing further is known about her.
1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 845, Cork Examiner, Memoirs of a Gentleman’s Gentleman, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.