Lamond Walker Proudfoot was born at his family home at Buttery Row, Gartness village, Shotts, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1885, the son of James and Jane Wilson Proudfoot (née Walker). His father was a coal miner, and Lamond was the fourth eldest of eleven known children in the family.
He became a miner, like his father and most of the men in the area, and in May 1909, he left Glasgow, Lanarkshire on board the Anchor Lines vessel the S.S. Caledonia for the United States of America, arriving at New York on the 18th. From there, he travelled to Belle Vernon, in the coalfields of Pennsylvania, where he carried on working in the same trade.
In 1912, he had returned to Scotland for a holiday, and in the spring of 1915, he decided to return for another holiday, and as a consequence, he booked passage with the Anchor Lines from New York on the S.S. Cameronia to Glasgow, at the end of April. However, the liner was requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship, and her passengers, cargo and some of her crew were transferred to the Lusitania instead.
As a result, Lamond Proudfoot was allocated a second cabin berth on Lusitania, which, after waiting to accommodate cargo and personnel, actually left the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city just after mid-day. It was to be her 101st and last Atlantic crossing!
On that afternoon, Lamond Proudfoot only had another six days to live, as he was killed on the afternoon of 7th May, when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger. At that stage of her voyage, she was steaming past The Old Head of Kinsale, in southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port!
Lamond Proudfoot was aged 30 years and single at the time of his death and his body was never recovered and identified after the sinking, he has no known grave.
He left his estate, which amounted to £5, to his brother, Robert Proudfoot.
1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, New York Times, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.