Elizabeth Sarah Mainman, always known as “Bessie”, was born in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, on the 4th October 1907, the daughter of Alfred Reid and Elizabeth Sarah “Bessie” Mainman (née Dowsett). She had a twin brother named Edwin Richard, and two older brothers, John V., and Alfred Shaw, and an older sister, Mary Frances. In 1915, the family home was at 10535, Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada..
The family had originally come from Exeter, Devonshire, England, but in the spring of 1915, Bessie’s grandparents in Exeter had died and the family was requested to go there to wind up the family estate. Consequently, at the end of April 1915, they left Edmonton for New York where they joined the Cunarder Lusitania as second cabin passengers, at Pier 54, before she left there, for her last ever time, on 1st May 1915.
Just six days later the family virtually ceased to exist after the liner was sunk, for out of seven family members who boarded her at New York, only three survived. These were Mary, Edwin, and Bessie. All the others were killed.
It is probable that the three children were put into a lifeboat together, which is how they survived and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, they were all three taken to Canterbury in England, presumably to family members there.
During the summer of 1915 an application for aid was made on their behalf to The Lusitania Relief Fund, set up and administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local dignitaries to alleviate financial loss and distress amongst the surviving passengers.
In response to this request, the sum of £25-0s-0d was sent to a Mrs. Ellison of 2, Princess Avenue, Liverpool, Lancashire, on their behalf. It is probable that she was a relative as her husband also took charge of property recovered from John Mainman’s body, in June 1915. A suit of clothes was also paid for out of the fund, for the surviving three children, who stayed with the Ellison’s for a short time.
When her father’s will was eventually proven, his estate was valued at £2,306-19s-2d., (£2,306.95p.), which provided for the education and maintenance of Bessie and her brother and sister in the following years.
In 1936, Bessie married John William Kennedy in Liverpool, Lancashire. Her husband was a marine insurance clerk, and for some years, they lived at 45. Druidsville Road, Liverpool.
Bessie Kennedy died on the 21st December 1983, aged 76 years. Her residence at that time was Silver Howe West, Grasmere, Cumbria. She left an estate of £974.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1911 Census of Canada, 1939 Register, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Probate Records, Edmonton Journal, The Age, 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.