Catherine Harris was born in Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 27th June 1872, one of eleven children of John and Margaret Isabel Harris (née McKechan). Her father was a coal miner, and Catherine had six brothers and four sisters.
In 1887, when Catherine was aged 15 years, her family immigrated to the United States; however, Catherine had returned to Scotland by 1891 and was working as a domestic servant for a medical doctor’s family in Saltcoats.
On the 23rd December 1892, she married her first husband, Robert Pennell in Stevenston. Her husband was a blacksmith, and the couple lived at 7. Union Street, Saltcoats. On the 14th September 1903, she arrived in New York City with her husband on board the Columbia. They were travelling with a number of Catherine’s siblings, and their destination was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the men hoped to get work in the local coal mines. According to family sources, Robert Pennell died on the 8th November 1903, but the circumstances of his death are unknown. There were no children as a result of their union.
Following the death of her husband, Catherine returned to Saltcoats and met James Gill. The couple married in Stevenston on the 19th January 1906, and in 1909, they went to Gillespie, Macoupin County, Illinois, where James Gill found work as a miner. They returned to Saltcoats in 1911, and remained there until they boarded the Cameronia at Glasgow on the 25th April 1914, on the first stage of their journey back to Gillespie.
James Gill found work in one of the local coalmines; however, he was killed in a mining accident on the 14th July 1914. Like her first marriage, Catherine’s second didn’t result in any children.
Following the death of James Gill, Catherine took over the household duties in the homes of some of her siblings who were also residing in Gillespie.
In 1915, Catherine decided to travel home to Scotland, although it isn’t known if she was returning for a holiday, or returning to Scotland permanently. As a consequence, she booked second cabin passage on the
Lusitania. Having left Gillespie for the last time at the end of April 1915 - it had probably taken her the best part of a year to gather together the fare - she joined the liner at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May. She was accompanied on her journey by her first cousin Mrs. Elizabeth McKechan and Elizabeth’s two sons, James, who was aged five years, and Campbell, who was an infant. The McKechan family was also originally from Stevenston, and also lived in Gillespie, Illinois. The McKechan’s were travelling on holiday to Scotland, where Elizabeth intended to introduce her two children to her relatives and friends.
The liner’s departure was delayed until just after mid-day because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Lines ship the
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service at the end of April. Just six days later, in the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20, just off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours from her Liverpool destination.
When the Cunarder was first struck, Catherine Gill was looking after her second cousin, James McKechan, and neither she nor the little boy survived the sinking and although his body was never found and identified, that of Catherine Gill was. In fact, it was one of the first ones to be recovered from the sea and landed at the temporary mortuary set up by the side of the Cunard office at Lynch’s Quay in Queenstown, where it was given the reference number 1. There it was identified by Elizabeth McKechan, who noted that her cousin had sustained injuries which may well have been the cause of her death!
Catherine Gill’s body was buried on 10th May 1915, in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, in Mass Grave C, 1st Row, Lower Tier, where it lies today. It was on this day that most of the victims of the sinking were buried, after a long funeral procession which began at Lynch‘s Quay on the waterfront.
Part of the property recovered from the body was given to Elizabeth McKechan at Queenstown on behalf of Catherine Gill’s sister Mrs. Mary Lawson, of New Street, Stevenston, just after the sinking. The rest of it, which included banker’s drafts to the sum of £485-4s-0d., (£485.40p.), was sent to Mrs. Lawson on 14th June 1915.
Elizabeth McKechan and her son, baby Campbell, survived their ordeal and managed to continue their journey to Scotland. They returned to Gillespie in August 1915, where baby Campbell died on the 15th September as a result of injuries, probably received during the sinking of the Lusitania.
Sometime after the sinking, Peter W. Harris, individually and as administrator of Catherine’s estate, filed a claim with the Mixed Claims Commission in an effort to obtain compensation for the loss of her life and her personal belongings. As there was no indication of any American citizen being financially dependant on her, the Commission declined to make any award in her case.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1564 – 1950, Illinois Wills and Probate Records 1772 – 1999, 1881 Census of Scotland, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, UK Outward passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2490, Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald, Kilmarnock Herald, Kilmarnock Standard, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv./PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Carol Michaels, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.