William Spencer Hill, always known as just Spencer Hill, was born in Kingswood, Gloucestershire, England, on the 31st January 1886, the son of William and Sarah Jane Hill (née Hunt). His father was a tinplate worker, and then a shoemaker and colliery worker. While he was still a child, the family moved to Nantyglo, Aberystruth, Monmouthshire, before finally settling in Aberbeeg, Monmouthshire, South Wales.
He worked as a hewer in a colliery before becoming a professional musician, being the piano accompanist for a troupe of choristers from South Wales known as The Royal Gwent Male Voice Choir, or sometimes, The Royal Gwent Glee Singers. He had gone to the United States of America in the autumn of 1913 with the choir, and they had toured that country and Canada extensively.
The tour had ended in April 1915 and the fourteen members of the choir had booked their return passage across the Atlantic from New York, on the Anchor Lines vessel
Transylvania, which was due to sail in the first week of May 1915. However, when they arrived in New York, they discovered that the
Lusitania was about to sail and as she was a bigger, faster vessel, nine of the choristers decided to join her instead as second cabin passengers, to get back to South Wales at least one week early. They also thought, wrongly as it transpired, that she would be less liable to U-Boat attack because of her superior size and speed!
Thus, Spencer Hill and the other eight, G.F. Davies, D.T. Hopkins, I.T. Jones, W.G. Jones, G.B. Lane, D. Michael, J.P. Smith and T. Williams boarded the liner on the morning of 1st May 1915 and just after mid-day, when she slipped her moorings at the Cunard Berth in New York harbour, they lined the deck and sang the American national anthem
The Star Spangled Banner as a farewell gesture.
Thereafter, each night, as the steamer crossed the Atlantic, the choristers gave a concert performance in each of the saloons in aid of seafarer’s charities in England. When the ship was torpedoed and sunk, six days later, three members of the choir perished, and the other six survived.
Spencer Hill only survived when the vessel was sunk, because having jumped into the sea, and swimming around for some time, he was pulled on top of an upturned lifeboat by Gwyn Jones, a tenor singer from the choir, who had recognised him in the water. From there, he was eventually rescued, with the others, by the Royal Naval patrol vessel H.M.S.
Indian Empress and landed at Queenstown. Once there, he had scoured the temporary mortuaries in the town with the other surviving choir members, seeking the bodies of the three missing members. These were George Davies, David Hopkins and Ike Jones, of whom no trace was ever found!
Once back home in South Wales, Spencer Hill described his experiences of the sinking to a reporter from the local newspaper
The Western Mail and these were published in the edition of the paper for Monday 10th May 1915: -
After we had been floating about for some time, some of the members of our party started singing 'Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow' and I don't think I have ever heard it sung with more feeling.
Then some of the women began to cry and as that would not do, we struck up with 'Tipperary,' and they all laughed. It was remarkable how 'Tipperary,' went. It seemed to cheer us, and the tune was taken up by several people in the other boats which were floating about. Altogether it was an experience I don’t want to have a repetition of.
Referring to his experiences, Mr. Hill said that the scene baffled all description. He took a hand at assisting women and children to get into boats and then when the ship had tilted so much that the stern was about 60 feet above the water, he made what he described as “a mad leap into space.” And he was none too soon for when he regained the surface, the Lusitania and its human freight had disappeared.
Swimming round, he got hold of a floating table, but this means of support did not avail much, as the table turned turtle and he again had to depend on his swimming capabilities. “There was a good deal of crying and shouting”, proceeded Mr. Hill, “but above it all I heard Gwyn Jones shouting ‘Swim over here.’ His voice was never more welcome and I swam towards him and in a few minutes noticed that he was safe on an upturned boat. He gripped me by the head and actually pulled me on the boat with him.
I shell never forget the sight we witnessed. Gwyn has told you how the raft was made and how we were eventually picked up. Tom Williams, Pontymister, was with us and after the Lusitania was struck, he concluded that the end had come. He gripped me by the hand and said, ‘Good-bye Spencer; it is all over.’ Fortunately, we were saved and got to the boats. Some of the women were very plucky and cool, and others when in the small boats took off their skirts and put them around other women who were cold and half-drowned.
Spencer Hill eventually reached Cardiff, in South Wales, on Sunday 9th May, from where he made it home to Aberbeeg.
Spencer Hill never married, and on the 9th January 1947, he died at Abertillery District Hospital, Aberbeeg, aged 60 years. His address at the time of his death was 11. Brynawel Terrace, Aberbeeg. He left his estate of £719-12s.2d. (£719.61p.) to his brother Arthur, who was a school teacher.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Bradford Daily Telegraph, Western Mail, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.