Bernard Critchison was born in January 1914, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the only son of Stanley and Lillian Critchison (née Hayes). His parents were originally from Sheffield, Yorkshire, England and in 1913, had immigrated to Hamilton, where his father had found work in his trade as an electrician.
In the spring of 1915, however, the family decided to return to England, possibly because of the Great War, and Stanley Critchison booked second cabin passage for the three of them on the
Lusitania. Leaving Hamilton at the end of April 1915, they arrived in New York in time to catch the liner's last ever sailing from the Cunard berth there, which commenced in the early afternoon of 1st May.
Six days later, Bernard Critchison was killed after the liner was torpedoed only hours away from her Liverpool destination. His mother Lilian was also killed, only his father surviving from the family party!
His father later told a reporter from Irish newspaper, The Cork Examiner, how he had been separated from his family before the torpedo had struck and it reported his experience thus: -
Some time before the terrible explosion, he had gone below to pack up as they had been instructed to have everything in readiness by nine o'clock. When the terrible crash came, he rushed on deck to find his wife and child whom he had left sitting there. He went all round the decks, but failed to find them, and then he moved to the starboard side of the boat.
He never saw either of them again, either alive or dead despite having toured the temporary mortuaries in Queenstown looking for them. As a consequence, Bernard Critchison has no known grave. He was only fourteen months old!
Cork Examiner, Cunard Records, 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.