Mabel Frances Smith was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, in 1879, the daughter of Charles Mayvore and Grace Matilda Smith (née Wroughton). Her father was an evangelist, and Mabel was the third youngest of twelve known children.
On the 30th May 1898, she married Charles Albert Neville and they had three children, Evelyn Mabel, born in 1901, Charlie Chamiere, born in 1902, and Muriel Elfrida, born in 1909.
Originally, the family had lived at 133, High Street, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, where Albert Neville was a fishmonger and poulterer, but in 1913, they had immigrated to Canada and settled firstly in Vancouver, British Columbia. Then, in August 1914, they had gone to Toronto, Ontario, where Mabel Neville had a sister and where her husband Albert found employment in the insurance industry.
However, in the spring of 1915, they decided to return to Berkhamstead and having booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, left Toronto at the end of April and joined the vessel in New York on the morning of 1st May, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. This was then delayed until 12.27 p.m. and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the liner was torpedoed within sight of the southern Irish coast, by the German submarine U-20. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about 250 miles away from her home port of, Liverpool.
The family was actually on the boat deck when the torpedo struck, but soon lost young Charlie. Herbert Ehrhardt, an 18 year old second cabin passenger who was also travelling home from Toronto had befriended the Neville children on the voyage over. In later life, he was to write about the situation just afterwards, although he erroneously referred to Charlie Neville as Robert: -
I went to my cabin and found that somebody had taken my life jacket ..... so I went up onto the boat deck. Here I found the Neville family very much concerned that the boy Robert was missing. I went to look for him and found that taking advantage of the general confusion he had gone to look at the passenger lists in the first class section of the boat. I brought him back to his family.
This act of kindness on the part of Herbert Ehrhardt did not help to save Charlie Neville’s life, however, for when the ship eventually sank, only Mabel Neville survived the sinking out of the whole family. All the others were killed! As none of their bodies was ever recovered and identified afterward, she did not even have the comfort of laying any of their remains to rest with a decent burial!
Having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, she was taken to the house of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Coke in Queenstown, having, not surprisingly, been made very ill by her experiences.
Herbert Ehrhardt later described her situation on Sunday 9th May: -
Later in the afternoon, I was told that Mrs. Neville had been taken to the Admiral’s house where she was very ill and had been asking for me. On calling there, I was told that they thought she was too ill to see me but if I would stay for dinner they would talk to her and decide which would be better, whether to let her see me, though I had no news for her, or leave her hoping for some news later. I saw her for a few minutes but she was too dazed to ask any questions.
Later, Mabel Neville was met in Queenstown, by a brother, who later related his sister’s experiences in a letter to another sister, a Mrs. Chilton, who lived in Watford. He wrote that: -
She roused up sufficiently to give him a very clear account of what happened. It appears that they were altogether (sic) on deck when the torpedo struck the vessel. Albert ran and got lifebelts ..... .
There was not one for baby so Mabel took her in her arms and Albert stood at the back of her with his arms round the other two. Mabel looked round just after, and he was missing. Then the vessel stood right up on end and there was a terrific explosion, which shot Mabel right clear of the vessel, and she went right down. .....
She held the baby in her arms for three hours and she saw two boats, and asked them to take her, but they wouldn’t, and just after they had passed, the baby died in her arms. After that, she lost consciousness. When she was taken out of the water the child was missing.
Although the Neville’s youngest child Muriel was aged five years, she was obviously still regarded as baby.
Having eventually returned safely to England, Mabel Neville was granted administration of her late husband’s estate at London on 27th September 1915. His estate amounted to £844-14s-0d., (£844.70).
In February 1916, Mabel returned to the United States of America, sailing from Falmouth to New York on the Nieuw Amsterdam.
Her stay in the United States of America was brief; however, as she travelled on to Victoria, Australia, where she married Samuel Walter Digby-Best, on the 24th June 1916 in Melbourne. Her husband worked as a photographer and originally came from Gosport, Hampshire, England.
It is unknown when she returned to England, but she died in The Watford Infirmary, Watford, Hertfordshire, on the 8th November 1922, aged 42 years. She left her estate of £399 to her husband, Walter Best.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, England Select Marriages 1538 – 1973, Victoria Australia Marriage Index 1837 – 1950, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Brotherton Library UniLeeds, West Hertfordshire & Watford Observer, The Argus, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.