Arthur Hoskins was born in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, on the 19th November 1867, the son of William Henry and Emily Hoskins (née Alibone). At the time of his birth, his father was a draper and milliner, but in later life, he became the manager of a number of shoe stores.
On completing his education, Arthur joined his father in business, and in 1891, he married Ellen Edith Drage in Kensington, London. The couple had one child, a son named Douglas Vernon, who was born in 1893.
In June 1910, Arthur and his family went to Georgetown, Ontario, Canada, however, in April 1911, Arthur and his wife, Ellen, returned to England, leaving Douglas in Canada, where he found work as a florist. Ellen Hoskins died in London in 1913, and Arthur returned to Canada in 1914, settling in Montreal Quebec, where he became the manager of Goodwin’s Store in Montreal.
In November 1914, Arthur was residing with his son at 189. Addington Avenue, Notre Dame de Grâce, Montreal, when his son decided to enlist in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. As 2019 Private Douglas Hoskins, he was assigned to the No. 6 Canadian Field Ambulance as an ambulance driver, and in April 1915, he embarked on the S.S. Northland, bound for England, in preparation to be sent to the Western Front.
As Arthur still maintained a home at 21, Coombe Road, New Malden, Surrey, he decided to travel there to be nearer to his son, and his parents and siblings.
Consequently, he booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania from New York. He thought that going to America’s largest city would be quicker and safer than sailing from Montreal, and as a result, he joined the liner at Pier 54 on the morning of 1st May 1915, before she left New York City for the last time.
The liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing was then delayed until the afternoon as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner
Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship, at the end of April. The
Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May; she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20. At that point, she was off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and only 250 miles hours away from her Liverpool home port and destination.
Arthur Hoskins was lucky enough to be counted amongst the survivors of the action, however, and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he managed to get back to his home at New Malden, on Sunday 9th May. Once back, he related the story of his survival to his parents, and this was published in the local newspaper,
The Surrey Advertiser and County Times, the following Saturday, 15th May. It stated: -
When the liner was sinking, he and several other passengers discovered a water-logged and abandoned boat lying alongside, still attached to the vessel by ropes. They succeeded in getting safely down the side of the ship and into the boat from which they baled out the water as well as they could.
As none of the men, however, possessed a knife, they were at a loss to know how to get their boat free from the fast sinking vessel, until one of their number found a hatchet. With this, the men hacked away at the thick rope and succeeded in parting the strands. Then, just before the liner heeled over, the men in the boat pushed off and were able to get clear.
Mr. Hoskins and his companions remained in their boat for nearly four hours before they were picked up by one of the tugs engaged in the work of rescue.
He also gave another account to a reporter of The Surrey Comet and this stated: -
At the time of the explosion of the first torpedo, he was sitting reading but in a few seconds all was commotion. One of the torpedoes burst in the stokehold and a man was blown right up through one of the funnels, but strange to say, was ultimately saved.
Mr. Hoskins is confused at this point, as there were two explosions, but only one torpedo, which did not explode anywhere near the stokehold. Furthermore, although three passengers and one crew member are known to have been sucked down the funnel of the sinking liner and then blown out again, for anyone to have been blown through a funnel via the stokehold, he would have had to have gone through the furnace and boiler first - an obvious impossibility!
As a liner was sinking, the sights on looking over the side were too terrible to describe - the water was absolutely crowded with human beings, and their cries and shrieks of the children and women were pitiful. Hoskins and others came to a waterlogged boat attached to the sinking liner. They climbed in, and although waist deep in water, endeavoured to cut the boat clear, but penknives were not on much avail on two inch ropes. One of the party found an axe in a receptacle beneath a seat and hacked through the ropes with frantic haste, and succeeded in clearing, just as the giant vessel disappeared from sight.
For four hours this unhappy boatload drifted, and when picked up by a tug, it was another three hours before they were landed at Queenstown. Via Holyhead, Mr. Hoskins reached Euston, and from there travelled to Ealing to a brother's house, where his parents saw him.
His parents, knowing that he had intended sailing on the Lusitania, had feared the worst when the read the news of the sinking in their newspaper on the morning of Saturday 8th May, but their despond was turned to joy when they had then received a telegram sent from Queenstown, which simply stated: - ARTHUR SAVED.
The Surrey Comet article concluded with the cheerless comment: -
All his possessions on the boat including several articles of considerable value are, lost - even the clothes he wore when he reached London were given him at Queenstown.
Douglas Hoskins served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps on the Western Front, being awarded a good conduct badge, and in May 1918, he transferred to the Royal Air Force, where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, and where as it is not known whether or not he completed his training as a flight cadet and flew operations in the R.A.F. before the end of the war, he did survive the war unscathed.
Arthur Hoskins married Dora Jupe in Croydon, Surrey, in 1917, and the couple had a son named Roy the following year.
Arthur and his wife resided at 4. St. Mary’s Street, Wallington, Berkshire, until his death on the 28th August 1944, aged 66 Years. He was still working as a manager in the footwear trade up to the time of his death. His wife inherited his estate of £4,199-18s.-8d. (£4,199.83½p).
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 - 1960, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, Canada WWI CEF Personnel Files 1914 – 1918, Surrey Advertiser and County Times, Surrey Comet, Probate Records, PRO 22/71, Graham Maddocks, Peter Threlfall, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.