Frances Annie Oakes, always known as ‘Annie’, was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire, England, on the 22nd March 1881, the daughter of Joseph and Susannah Fanny Oakes (née Patrick). Her father was a general labourer, and the family home was at 147, Windmill Lane, Smethwick.
In 1907, she married Albert Palmer in Smethwick, and in late 1908, she gave birth to their first child, a son named Edgar. 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, her husband 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 Annie and their children.
In May 1912, Annie 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.
In the spring of 1915, the family decided to return home and consequently booked as second cabin passengers on the May sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York at 10 a.m. on 1st May 1915. Having left Toronto some time in April, the family arrived at Cunard’s berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city in time for this sailing but then had to wait until 12.27 p.m., before the ship actually left.
This was because she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of the previous month. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
None of the family survived this action and Annie's body and that of baby Albert were eventually washed up on the beach at Schull, County Cork, about 50 miles around the coast from where the liner had foundered.
In his book Lusitania, published in 1972, author Colin Simpson states: -
The author found a report by Sergeant Phelan of Schull, County Cork, who on 12 May 1915 found two bodies on the beach. They were of a woman and a six-month-old baby boy strapped together with an officer's Sam Browne belt. The bodies were unidentifiable but the woman wore a jacket supplied by T. Eaton and Co. of Winnipeg, and in the lapel of the coat was a small ruby and brilliant badge of the 6th Winnipeg Rifles. They are buried together in a mass grave at Queenstown, Grave B, seventh row, lower tier, where they are listed as unidentified victims 179 and 179A.
Because of the Sam Browne belt and the 6th Winnipeg Rifles brooch, Simpson obviously assumed that the female body was that of Mrs. Annie Matthews, wife of Lieutenant R. Matthews of the 60th Rifles, but in fact Mrs. Matthews' body was never recovered and identified and she had no child with her anyway. In fact, she was not even Mrs. Matthews!
Simpson is also wrong that the bodies of the female adult and male child were unidentifiable, as both were positively identified as Annie Palmer and baby Albert Palmer - but it is not certain exactly when this identification was made.
It is possible, however, that the Sam Browne belt had belonged to Lieutenant Matthews as he was the only British Army officer known to have been travelling second cabin on the Lusitania and perhaps he had strapped baby Albert to Annie Palmer before the liner took her final plunge. When Lieutenant Matthews’ body was recovered from the sea, however, he was found to be wearing civilian clothes, and not his Army uniform, but it is still possible that he had got his Sam Browne from his cabin specifically to bind Annie and little Albert Palmer together!
The body of Mrs. Palmer was later described in Cunard records as: -
Woman about 33 years and child 6 months. (Woman 5’ 5½” 33 years, full oval face, light blue eyes. light brown eyebrows, slightly turned up nose, large quantity light brown hair, false teeth upper jaw, thick bone, second finger, left hand with scar at end, striped cotton blouse, white bone buttons and white collar, fastened by brooch pin, blue corded skirt, black leather belt, and leather buckle, light brown check tweed jacket fastened by brown leather buttons, black stockings, black patent leather buttoned boots, broad wedding ring on marriage finger, also keeper ring, apparently gold, with 2 pearls and imitation ruby.
Mother and son were both buried in the same coffin, on 15th May 1915, in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown in Mass Grave B, 5th Row, (not the seventh row, as Simpson states) Lower Tier. Edgar Palmer was buried on the same day in the same mass grave, but on the Upper Tier. The bodies of her husband, Albert, and daughter, Olive Palmer, were never recovered and identified.
On 21st May, a letter was received at the Cunard offices from someone described as Annie Birch's brother, a Mr. Birch, of 1136, Ossington Avenue, Toronto, Ontario
which described her as :-
Height 5ft. 5 in. Fresh Complexion, Brown hair Blue eyes. Two middle fingers on both hands have been lanced.
Obviously, Mr. Birch can not have been a brother, as Annie Palmer's maiden name was Oakes but he might have been a brother-in-law, but his description, particularly of the lanced fingers, may have aided the identification of mother and son!
False hopes that Annie Palmer might have survived were brought to her mother's house at Windmill Lane, by a former Smethwick resident and second cabin survivor, Mr. F. J. Lucas, on Monday 10th May 1915. He had met the family on board ship and was actually playing cards with Albert Palmer when the torpedo struck.
He was able to tell Annie Palmer's mother, Mrs. Oakes, that the family had survived the explosion and that he thought he had seen and heard Mrs. Palmer calling for her husband on the quayside at Queenstown after he had been landed there. This was obviously a tragic mistake, however, given the circumstances of the recovery of Mrs. Palmer's body and that of her son.
Property recovered from her body was eventually forwarded to her mother, at Windmill Lane, on 18th September 1915.
Annie Palmer's brother Joseph Oakes was a Regular Soldier who served in the Great War and having survived many engagements unscathed since the Battle of Mons, he was gassed in early May 1915. His mother received this news on the morning of 7th May and heard of the sinking of the Lusitania that afternoon!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 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, Cunard Records, Smethwick Telephone, Lusitania, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv. PR13/6, 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.