George Benjamin Lane was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on the 17th June 1889, the son of George and Clara Lane (née Asprey). His father was a furnace man in a steel mill, and the family home was in Bilston Road, Wolverhampton. He was one of eight children.
When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to 97. Victoria Avenue, Maindee, Newport, Monmouthshire, and on completion of his education, George became a shop assistant. He was also a talented singer!
He became a professional bass singer with the Royal Gwent Male Voice Choir - sometimes known as The Royal Gwent Glee Singers, which had been performing in the United States of America and Canada. George Lane had initially gone across the Atlantic to perform in 1912, with the first tour, and had stayed behind in New York when they had gone home.
He then joined the second tour in the Autumn of 1913, when the choir had arrived in New York, and when that tour had come to an end in April 1915, he had booked with the rest, to return to South Wales on the Anchor Lines ship Transylvania. However, when the party arrived at New York, the Lusitania was about to sail and being a faster and supposedly safer ship, nine members of the choir, including George Lane, took a fateful decision and transferred to the more prestigious ship as second cabin passengers! The other choir members who boarded with George Lane were G.F. Davies, S. Hill, D.T. Hopkins, W.G. Jones, I.T. Jones, D.T. Michaels, J.P. Smith, and T. Williams.
As the Lusitania left her moorings at Pier 54, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915, the choir had sung The Star Spangled Banner, and each night had given a concert in each of the saloons on board the vessel in aid of seafarers‘ charities in Liverpool. When the liner was torpedoed and sunk, six days later and only hours away from that port, three members of the choir perished and six survived.
George Lane was one of those who survived and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he eventually got back to Newport on Tuesday 11th May, where he gave an interview to a reporter from the local newspaper, The Western Mail, in
which he outlined his experiences. He said: -
I went to the States two and a half years ago with the first tour of the choir and did not return with that party. I remained in New York, teaching music for some time and rejoined the choir when they came out afterwards.
On Friday afternoon when the sun was shining beautifully and I was leaning over the side of the ship remarking to some friends upon the beauty of the scene, there was an enormous crash forward and splinters flew up into my face. Directly afterwards there was another crash, accompanied by a deluge of dirty water from the funnel which almost blinded the lot of us. I thought that this second blow must have hit the engines.
There was no panic. I went to one of the cabins to get some lifebelts, but there had already been a great demand for them and then I went to ‘A’ deck and made my way to the first cabin. By this time the ship had taken a considerable list and some of the boats were down to the water’s edge. A lady slipped on the deck and I just had time to catch her before she sustained a bad accident.
About a dozen women and some babies who I believe were without their mothers were placed in one of the boats and the officers told me to follow into the same boat. We managed to push off, with altogether over fifty people in the boat. Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour later I noticed the Lusitania was down slightly by the head and her stern stood clear out of the water. People seemed to be falling from the stern like dead flies, some of them striking the rudder and other parts of the ship in their fall.
The scenes baffled description. Women were crying and bewailing, not because of their own peril but more particularly for their children’s safety, and I cannot help shuddering now at the memory of such a terrible scene. One woman died before we got to land. A boat came along and wanted to know if we wanted assistance. The man in charge of our boat told the inquirer that assistance was more needed at the scene of the disaster. We were landed at Queenstown about ten o’clock at night, cold and very exhausted.
Once landed, George Lane was taken to one of the town’s hotels, which was so full that he had to share a room with four other people. Then: -
A gentleman he did not know at the time exclaimed, “Thank God I have found my daughter!” Mr. Lane inquired of him who his daughter was, and he replied “Lady Mackworth,” and that his name was D.A. Thomas, of Llanwern. Mr. Thomas feelingly described his anxiety for his daughter, and seemed so grateful that she had been saved. “I fancy now it is all one ghastly dream,” he said. “It is altogether too horrible to realise.”
Saloon passenger survivor David Arthur Thomas, later Viscount Rhondda of Llanwern, was a millionaire owner of coal mines in South Wales.
Out of the nine Welsh Glee Singers who had boarded the Lusitania in New York, apart from George Lane, S. Hill, W.G. Jones, D.T. Michaels, J.P. Smith and T. Williams survived, but G.T. Davies, D.T. Hopkins and I.T. Jones, perished.
In July 1915, George returned to the United States of America on board the St. Paul, and settled in Chicago, Illinois. He resided at 3146. Sheridan Avenue, in the city, and earned his living singing, and giving singing lessons.
Then, in February 1918, he travelled to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was posted as a private to the 2nd Depot Battalion, 1st Central Ontario Regiment. On completion of his basic training in September 1918, he sailed with his regiment to England on board the Mauritania, and was promoted to the rank of acting Sergeant, but reverted back to the rank of private shortly afterwards, presumably because the war was coming to a conclusion and his battalion were not being sent to the front. He returned to Canada in June 1919 where he was demobilised on the 6th July and returned to Chicago.
In October 1927, George became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He married Kathleen Ryan in Chicago on the 23rd April 1930, and the couple had one child, a son named George Benjamin, after his father.
George became a school teacher, and he resided with his wife and son at 715. South Humphry Avenue, Oak Park, in the suburbs of Chicago. He died on the 17th March 1953, aged 63 years. He was buried in Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery, Hillside, Chicago.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Cook County Illinois Marriage Index 1930 – 1960, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Canada WWI CEF Personnel Files 1914 – 1918, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards 1942, Roll of Honour, Chicago Tribune, Western Mail, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Peter Patrick, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.