John Elmore Pells was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on the 15th February 1915, the son of Cyril Elmore and Mary Anita Pells (née Reeves). His father was a salesman, and his parents had immigrated to Canada from England. He was an only child.
Because of the war, Cyril Elmore Pells decided to return to England to join the Army and the family set off from Vancouver, British Columbia, in Aril 1915, to return home.
They were travelling as second cabin passengers on board the Lusitania when the ship was torpedoed on the 7th May. Not able to get into a lifeboat, John's father was forced to jump into the sea with his son in his arms and although his father survived, John was swept away and drowned. His body was never recovered and identified later. He was less than three months old.
His mother, too, survived the sinking.
The effect of his loss naturally enraged his father with hatred for the Germans and in early 1917; he joined the British Army to gain vengeance. He too, however, was killed, by the Germans, fighting north of the River Aisne, in France, almost exactly three years after the Lusitania went down.
In his book Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, published in 1927, the author R.A. Colwill relates the circumstances surrounding John Pells' father's death: -
Another officer who was popular with the Company was Lieut. C.E. Pells. He had, in his heart, bitter hatred for the Germans, for his only child was drowned when they sank the Lusitania. And all that morning he seemed to take fiendish delight in mowing them down with a rifle. He moved about, cheering the men and showing them how to take better cover. Then he was killed.
One can only imagine the effect that this double tragedy had on Mary Pells!
Cunard Records, Roots and Branches of a Pells Family, Through Hell To Victory: From Passchendaele To Mons With The 2nd Devons, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, James Maggs, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.