Sheila Mary Vivian Ferrier was born on the 14th April 1914, the daughter of Alexander Herbert Buxton and Beata Elizabeth Mary Hayter Ferrier (née Stevens) of Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.
Her father had been a fruit farmer in Penticton and in the spring of 1915 decided to return to Great Britain, having been born in Ireland, to apply for a commission in the British Army. As a consequence, the family left Penticton by rail at the end of April 1915 and joined the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, on the morning of 1st May. When the ship was sunk, just six days later on the afternoon of 7th May, she and her father were both killed, only her mother surviving.
Although her father's body was never found and identified, hers was taken from the sea and landed at Queenstown where it was laid out in one of the temporary mortuaries there and given the reference number 123.
Once it was positively identified, however, probably by Mrs. Ferrier, it was buried in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, on 10th May 1915, in Mass Grave C, First Row, Lower Tier. It was on this date that most of the victims were buried, after a long funeral procession which began at the Cunard Offices at Lynch's Quay. Sheila Ferrier was just thirteen months old!
She and her father are commemorated on a memorial stone, now broken, at the head of Mass Grave C, in front of the cemetery wall. The inscription on the stone states: -
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
HUBERT BUXTON FERRIER
DROWNED MAY 7TH 1915
ALSO TO SHEILA A. FERRIER
BORN APRIL 14TH 1914
DIED MAY 7TH 1915
_______ . _______
"THE BABY WEPT
AND GOD DID TAKE HER FROM
HER MOTHER'S ARMS
FROM PRESENT ILLS & FUTURE
UNKNOWN WOES
AND BABY SLEPT."
The inscription on the memorial stone is obviously incorrect, giving her father’s name as Hubert instead of his correct name, Herbert, and with the passage of time it will probably never be known who was responsible for this error.
The Chronicle, Cunard Records, White Star Journal, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/181, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.