Annie Louisa Gray was born in New Zealand, in 1877, the daughter of John and Margaret Gray (née Dingwall) of Pine Hill, Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand. In 1893 she married James Andrew Gardner, and the couple had three sons, Leonard James Wesley, born in 1894, and who in 1915, was a fruit farmer in Nelson, Dunedin, Eric Clarence, who was born in 1898, and William Gerald, born in 1901.
She was a prominent member of the local Methodist Church in Dunedin, as was her husband James, who was a hosiery manufacturer.
In 1902, however, her husband decided to leave New Zealand and settle in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he later acquired a large share in a costume manufacturing concern. By 1915, however, he had disposed of this and intending to return to Dunedin, to settle near their eldest son, he first booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania
for England, where he wanted to set up some business agencies. Consequently, in April 1915, the family set off for Europe and having travelled from Toronto by rail to New York, they arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54, on the morning of 1st May and boarded the liner for her 10.00 a.m. scheduled sailing. This was then delayed so that the liner could embark passengers, crew and cargo from Anchor Liner, the S.S.
Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service at the end of April. Just after mid-day, however, the
Lusitania slipped out into the North River and then began her last ever crossing of the Atlantic.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20, only twelve miles off the southern coast of Ireland and only 250 miles away from her destination. Both Annie Gardner and her husband James lost their lives as a result, but the two boys survived the sinking. Annie Gardner was aged 37 years.
Captain Frederick D. Ellis in his book The Tragedy of the Lusitania, published not long after the sinking in America told of what happened: -
Young Gardner, sixteen years old, said that when the Lusitania was struck by the torpedo his mother fainted. In spite of all efforts to restore her, she did not revive and she sank with the steamship. The youth also went under, but came to the surface, and seeing an upturned lifeboat, swam for it. He failed to get hold on this boat, but, seeing a boatload of survivors nearby, he swam to it and was taken on board. In this boat the youth found his father lying prostrate in the bottom in a collapse. Efforts to revive the elder Gardner were unavailing and he died.
Captain Ellis must have been mistaken about James Gardner dying in the bottom of the lifeboat however, because his body was not buried afterwards. It is inconceivable that this would have been the case had it been landed at Queenstown and it certainly would have been, had he died in the bottom of the lifeboat. This, of course, puts the rest of Ellis’s story into question.
As Annie Gardner’s body was never found and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She left behind four married sisters in New Zealand, Mrs. McEwen in Gore, Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. Simon in Dunedin and Mrs. Matthews in Wanganui.
The New Zealand Newspaper The Otago Daily Times said of her in its edition of 12th May 1915: -
Mrs. Gardner ..... was a lady of engaging personality, who was regarded with deep affection by her many friends.
Her son, Eric Clarence Gardner, only survived her and his father’s death by just over two years as he too perished at the hands of Imperial Germany. Having enlisted under age in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, perhaps to try and avenge his family’s losses, and whilst serving as 30932 Lance Corporal E.C. Gardner of the 3rd Battalion, The Auckland Regiment, he lost his life in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on the Western Front, on 15th October 1917, during The Battle of Passendaele.
Her eldest son, Leonard also served in the Army during the Great War. As 2007 Sergeant L.J. Gardner, he served with ‘C’ Squadron of The Canterbury Mounted Rifles. This unit served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, and in May 1915, Leonard Gardner was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. He suffered a gunshot wound to his right thigh and shell shock in October 1917, and following treatment, he was returned to New Zealand where he returned to fruit farming.
Cunard records state that Annie Gardner’s name was ‘Edith’, but this was an error.
New Zealand Birth Index 1840 – 1950, New Zealand Marriage Index 1840 – 1937, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Otago Daily Times, Tragedy of the Lusitania, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Trevor Richards, Stuart Williamson, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.