Alfred Reid Mainman was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, on the 4th August 1859, the son of John and Mary Ann Mainman (née Reid). His father was a post office official. He had an older brother, also named Alfred, who was born in 1856, but died the same year, aged 6 months. He also had an older sister, Alice, born in 1857, and a younger brother, Edwin John, born in 1865.
On leaving school, Alfred became a grocer’s assistant in the little village of Llanycil, Merionethshire, Wales. Then, in 1882, he immigrated to Australia, settling in Prahran, Melbourne, Victoria, where he worked as a butcher. In 1893, he married Elizabeth Sarah “Bessie” Dowsett in Melbourne, and the couple had three children – John V., born in 1894, Alfred Shaw, born in 1895, and Mary Frances, born in 1898.
In July 1904, the entire family sailed on the Persic from Australia to England, arriving on the 3rd August. Presumably, they spent time with Alfred’s family, but it’s unlikely that he found any work, for in April 1906, the family immigrated to Canada.
They first went to Saskatchewan, but then moved to 10535, Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. Although he began life as a grocer, he later qualified as an accountant and was employed in this capacity by Edmonton City Council in the treasury department there. In 1907, Bessie Mainman gave birth to twins – a boy named Edwin Richard, and a girl named Elizabeth Sarah.
In March 1915, his father and mother had died in strange circumstances. Living in Wonford Road, Exeter, where they had purchased a house and retired to, they were both discovered literally starving to death in the house, and despite medical attention, both died before they could be saved. Shortly afterwards, Alfred Mainman received a telegram from solicitors in Exeter, which requested that he return there to wind up the family estate. The solicitors informed Alfred that they had found approximately £1,000 in gold, hidden in small packages throughout their home!
Consequently, the couple disposed of any assets they wouldn’t need, and left their home in Edmonton, to return permanently to England with their five children. They travelled to New York where they joined the Lusitania as second cabin passengers, in time for her sailing from there, at mid-day on 1st May 1915. This was scheduled to leave port at 10.00 a.m., but had to be postponed until then whilst the liner embarked passengers some crew and cargo from the Anchor Lines vessel the S.S. Cameronia, which the British Admiralty requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
When the liner was torpedoed and sunk, just six days out of New York, by the German submarine U-20, Alfred R. Mainman was killed, along with his wife and their two eldest children. At the time she was struck, the Lusitania was steaming past the Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and was only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port!
As his body was never found and identified later, he has no known grave. He was aged 55 years.
On 18th May 1916, just over a year after his death, limited administration of Alfred Mainman’s estate was granted at London to Miss Mary Norrington. His effects amounted to £2,306-19s-2d., (£2,306.95p.). Most of this was his father’s estate, for his father had made a will leaving everything he owned to his wife, but as she had
died only a few hours after him, Alfred became the sole beneficiary, as his older sister had died in 1904, and his youngest brother had died in 1873, aged 7 years. On Alfred’s death, his estate went to the upkeep and education of his three surviving children.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Manchester England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1915, Victoria Australia Marriage Index 1837 – 1950, 1861 Census of England & Wales, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of Canada, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Edmonton Journal, The Age, Western Daily Press, Liverpool Record Office, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/198, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.