Dora Millicent Richards was born in Butte, Silver Bow, County, Montana, in the United States of America, on the 17th September 1913, the daughter of Thomas Henry and Phillipa (Phyllis) Richards, (née Conner), who had originally come from Cornwall, England and had settled in Butte not long after their marriage, in 1907. Dora had two brothers, Thomas Percy who was born in 1908 and Cecil, who was born in 1911. The family home in Butte was at 2210, Yew Street, and her father was a carpenter in a local quartz mine.
In the spring of 1915, however, her parents decided to return home to Cornwall, perhaps because of the war and possibly, also because of a family feud which had developed in Butte. Consequently, they booked second cabin passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool on the morning of 1st May 1915.
Having left Butte at the end of April, the family arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on that morning in time for the liner’s scheduled departure. This sailing was then delayed, however, as the Lusitania had to embark passengers, cargo and crew from Anchor Liner, the S.S. Cameronia, which had been requisitioned as a troop ship by the British Admiralty at the end of April 1915. Even though Dora Richards was born in Butte, and her father had adopted United States nationality in 1906, the whole family appear as British on Cunard’s passenger records. They were
accommodated in room D.80.
Six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk, by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only hours away from the safety of her home port and within sight of the southern coast of Ireland.
Thomas Henry Richards later wrote of the family’s experiences to his sister, Mrs. Harry Skewes, back in Butte and this letter was later published in The Butte Miner and stated: -
We left New York at 12:30 o'clock Saturday. We were late owing to the fact that we had to take on the Lusitania the passengers for the Camperonia, a Red Star Liner, that was ordered to Halifax to take on troops or something. Everything went very well until Friday. Had a lovely voyage - could not have expected better. Well, we were at dinner at the second seating. We went to dinner at 1:40 in the afternoon. We had just finished and I was folding my napkin when the fateful shot came. Everyone was on their feet in a second and rushing from the dining room. I am thankful to say I kept my cool and sat there for a minute and asked others to sit still for a while until the rush was over. Then all of a sudden, the Lusitania went down on one side and everything was swept from the tables. “Now,” I said, “Let's go” - there not being much of a crush. We went to our room hearing the words. "Women and children first in the boats.”
Well I thought that Phyllis and the children might be in the boat all night and, if so, would be cold, so I said to put on her fur coat. Then we put on the four life preservers and made for the deck. There were only four preservers in each room, none for Dora and she was too small had there been one there.
I had a boy in each hand and Phyllis had Dora in her arms. We climbed up four flights of stairs, then we saw an officer and asked him what he thought about it. He said: “There is no danger yet.”. Also, he told us the best thing to do was to go up on the next deck and get into a boat. That stairway was full and how we got up it alive I don't know. I pulled the boys up and my wife followed. We were not there more than a half a minute when the Lusitania was almost perpendicular, going down bow first, with the propellers in the air. We were standing on the side of the lounge room, going down with the Lusitania. When the lounge reached the water we all floated off.
We left the children go then - could not hold on to them any longer, until we came to the top of the water again. The first thing I saw was Percy and Cecil quite close to me. I caught Cecil, but Percy was too far from me. Could not see mamma. Well, I managed to get to a boat with Cecil and caught hold of it, bottom side up, with some men on it, and they helped Cecil up on top. I looked around again and saw mama holding on to the same boat and I asked the men to help her, which they did. “Now,” I said, “Give me a hand.”
Well, we were on the boat looking around for Percy and Dora, but could not see them. My watch stopped at 2:34 o'clock, when we were taken off by the Indian Empire, a mine sweeper. We started for Queenstown at 6:10 o'clock by the clock on the boat.
Well, I should have said that the first one I saw on the Indian Empire was Percy calling “Papa”, but not crying. We got to Queenstown at 9:45 o'clock that night.
The first thing I did was to cable Charles and father. Then we got a bed and had our clothes dried. All next morning I spent hunting about Queenstown for Dora, but could not find her dead or alive. I viewed all the bodies, some 130 altogether. It was now 2:30 o'clock Saturday afternoon.
As the liner began to sink, Dora was being carried by her mother but as the Cunarder began her final plunge, the swell literally washed her out of her mother’s arms and she must have drowned! Her body was not recovered and identified afterwards. She was four months short of her second birthday.
All of the rest of the family survived, however and having been rescued from the sea, were landed at Queenstown. Once there, the adults would have undertaken what must have been a gruesome search of the temporary mortuaries there to look for Dora‘s body, but to no avail. As a consequence, she has no known grave.
On the eventual return to Cornwall, Dora’s parents had another daughter, whom they named Phyllis Millicent, but she also, tragically died young, aged four years in 1922. She and Dora, along with other members of the family are commemorated on the family grave in the churchyard of St. Breaca’s Parish Church in Breage.
The pertinent inscription which applies to Dora states: -
ALSO
OF DORA MILLICENT
..... WHO
WAS DROWNED THROUGH THE
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
MAY 7TH 1915 AGED 20 MONTHS
Suffer The Little Children To Come Unto Me.
Montana U.S. County Births and Deaths 1830 – 2011, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 5590, Butte Miner, West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Dennis Osbourn, Jean Timmermeister, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.