Albert G. Palmer was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire, England, on the 4th October 1886, the son of Samuel and Mary Ann Palmer (née Willetts). His father was a general labourer. He was the youngest of six children, and when he left school, in his early teenage years, he worked as a brewer’s errand boy, before becoming a fitter with a gun manufacturer.
In 1907, he married to Frances Annie Oakes in Smethwick, and in late 1908, their son, Edgar, was born. While living in Smethwick, Albert Palmer was a collector for The Smethwick Fresh Air Fund, a scheme to take poor children out of the city and to the countryside as often as possible.
By 1911, the family was residing at 2. Oliver Street, Coventry, Warwickshire, and in the summer of 1911, they welcomed their second child, a daughter named Olive.
In October 1911, Albert immigrated to Canada when he boarded the Corsican at Liverpool and sailed to Quebec, Canada. From there, he travelled overland to Toronto, Ontario, where he found employment as a millwright. As soon as he had established himself in Toronto, he sent for his wife and children.
In May 1912, his wife and their two children joined him in Toronto, where they lived at 9. Earlsdale Avenue, in the city. Their third child, a son named Albert, was born in Toronto on the 28th February 1915.
For some reason, following the birth of Albert Jr., the family decided to return to Smethwick, probably because of the war, and set sail from New York on 1st May 1915 as second cabin passengers, on what proved to be the Lusitania's final trans-Atlantic crossing.
According to another former Smethwick resident and second cabin survivor, Mr. F. J. Lucas, Albert Palmer was playing cards with him when the torpedo struck and he further stated that all the family survived the initial explosion.
However, none of them survived the subsequent sinking and although the bodies of Annie Palmer and the male children were recovered from the sea and buried at Queenstown, no trace of Albert Palmer or his daughter Olive was ever found.
As a result, neither of them has a known or identified grave. Albert G. Palmer was aged 28 years.
Administration of his estate was granted in London on the 9th January 1917 to his brother, George, who was described as a machinist. His estate amounted to £36!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Smethwick Telephone, Lusitania, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/139, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.