Annie Keeley was born in Burwash, Sussex, England, in 1890, the daughter of William and Emily Ann Keeley (née Crundwell). Her father was a brick maker, and the family home in 1915 was at Claws Farm, Burwash, Sussex. Annie was the seventh of nine children.
In March 1912, Annie went to find work as a domestic servant in Toronto, Canada. She left from Liverpool on the S.S. Dominion, and disembarked in Portland, Maine, from where she continued to Toronto. By April 1915, she was living at 341. Bloom Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, when she decided to travel home, either for a visit, or perhaps because of the war situation.
Consequently, she booked second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania for the voyage from New York to Liverpool.
Little else is known about her except that she would have left Canada some time in April 1915 to arrive at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Having boarded the vessel, she would then ha
sailed, because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and some of the crew members from the Anchor Liner S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.
Then, six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20, only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port.
Annie Keeley lost her life as a result of this action and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave.
Her mother, Emily, and her sisters, Mrs. F. Oliver, 53. Alexandra Road, Uckfield, Sussex, and Mrs. Hook, 117. Priory Road, Hasting, Sussex, wrote to the Cunard Steam Ship Company following the sinking, seeking any information about her fate, but there was no information to give them.
On the 27th May 1918, her brother, 79009 Private Alfred William Keeley, 1st/4th Bn. Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed in action while serving on the Western Front. Like his sister Annie, his remains were also not recovered, or ever identified, and therefore, he also has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Soissons Memorial.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, U.S. Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists 1893 – 1959, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Kent & Sussex Courier, Sussex Agricultural Express, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/183, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.