James Paul Gray was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 24th April 1849, the son of William and Elizabeth Gray (née Paul). His father was a grocer, and the family resided at Graham Street, Airdrie. James had an older brother named William, and younger siblings named Agnes, Jane, Robert, Thomas, and Elizabeth. Robert died in childhood.
By 1871, his family had moved to Edinburgh, Midlothian, and that same year, James had emigrated to the United States of America, settling initially in New York City, where he worked as a dry goods clerk in one of the Lord & Taylor luxury department stores. He resided at 304. West 13th Street, New York City.
On the 7th August 1877, he married Caroline A. “Carrie” Beach, in Washeo County, Nevada, and they set up their home in the nearby mining town of Grass Valley, Nevada County, California. Living with them were his wife’s parents, Hirem and Amelia Beach, and James and his father-in-law ran a dry goods store in the town. James and Carrie had two children – William Hiram and Ethel Elizabeth.
As the years went on, James and his family moved to Oakland, Alameda County, California, where he became an adjuster to The San Francisco Board of Trade. His wife’s parents continued to live with them at 539. 41st Street, Oakland, California.
Some time in the spring of 1914, his wife, Carrie, had travelled to Edinburgh for a year’s stay with her daughter, Ethyl, whose address there was at 2, Oliver Crescent. Ethyl, had married David James Graham, who was a medical doctor, in New York City in 1905, and the couple lived in Scotland where her husband was attached to Craigleith Hospital in Edinburgh, before enlisting in the British Army for the duration of the War.
Perhaps because of the war, James Gray decided to travel to Edinburgh himself to bring his wife back home, and it was decided that his daughter-in-law, Terence Gray, and his grandson, Stuart, should go with him, and on their arrival, Terence and Stuart would stay there for a six month’s holiday. It was also decided that his son, William, should travel with them as far as New York. As a result, James Gray booked second cabin passage from Oakland, for the three of them to travel to Scotland, via New York and Liverpool. Thus the party left San Francisco on 22nd of April 1915 and travelled by train across the country to New York, where, on the morning of 1st May 1915, they boarded the
Lusitania for what became her final voyage ever across the Atlantic Ocean!
Six days later, after the liner had been torpedoed and sunk off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20, James Gray was lucky enough to be counted amongst the survivors although his daughter-in-law and grandson were both lost. Having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown, where he needed medical attention before he was able to resume his journey back to his native home.
Whilst there, he told a reporter from The Cork Examiner of his experiences and these were published in the edition of the newspaper for Monday 10th May 1915: -
We thought this ship could not possibly be torpedoed. When I heard a great thud I came up on deck and then fell about thirty feet. When I came to my senses I caught hold of a rope, and then I was struck on the chest. I was carried along then by a man and then I was next in the water where I remained for half an hour when I was picked up by a boat. I lost consciousness and thought my time had come. ..... It was a most cruel thing and the man who would say a good word about Germany after this ought to be shot. What will America think of it.?
To get him back home, Cunard gave him a boat and rail ticket to Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotland and £0-1s-0d., (£0.5p.), travelling expenses for the journey. Presumably the paucity of the amount must have been because he had money of his own.
He made this journey by train to Dublin, by boat to Holyhead in north Wales, by train to Birkenhead in Cheshire, by Mersey ferry to Liverpool and then by train to Glasgow and Edinburgh. He arrived home either late on the evening of Monday 10th May or early in the morning of 11th. While in transit, he stayed overnight in the Exchange Hotel in Dublin, where he refused to pay his bill! The hotel owners later sued him but it is not known what the outcome was.
Once back in Edinburgh, he told a reporter from the local newspaper, The Edinburgh Evening News
more about his ordeal: -
He said he didn’t remember how he was rescued. He fell 30 feet before he struck the water and the fall left him unconscious. He was picked up by a boat. “When we were leaving New York, we gave preference” he said, “to the Lusitania, thinking it was ‘it’ as the Americans say, but it was not the ‘it’ we thought it was.”
In neither account did he mention Terence or Stuart Gray and no trace of either of them was ever seen or heard of again!
Later in the summer James Gray successfully applied for help to The Lusitania Relief Fund of Liverpool. This fund had been set up immediately after the sinking by The Lord Mayor of that city and other local dignitaries from the business world, to provide cash grants to those survivors or their relatives who found themselves financially distressed as a result of the sinking. James Gray was granted the sum of £25-0s-0d., to pay his doctor’s bill and to provide him with some new clothing. The application from him came from an address in San Francisco, California!
In September 1915, James Gray and his wife boarded the New York at Liverpool and had an uneventful trans-Atlantic voyage to New York City. On disembarking there, they made their way back to their home in Oakland.
James P. Gray died on 13th September 1922, still suffering the effects of the injuries he sustained in the sinking. The Mixed Claims Commission later awarded his widow, Mrs. Carrie Gray, the sum of $10,000.00 in compensation for his injuries. James Gray had submitted the claim himself, but by the time it was decided, payment was made to his widow.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1564 – 1950, Western States Marriage Index 1809 – 2011, 1851, California Death Index 1905 – 1939, Census of Scotland, 1861 Census of Scotland, 1880 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Freedman’s Bank Records 1865 – 1871, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2557, Liverpool Record Office, Edinburgh Evening News, Cork Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D/92/1/1, UniLiv.D92/1/6, UniLiv D92/2/206, UniLiv D92/11, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.