Thomas Henry Robinson was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England, on the 1st June 1887, the son of James Henry and Margaret Robinson (née James). He was the eldest of nine children in the family, and his father was a labourer, and later a brass finisher. Thomas qualified as a carpenter, and in the early summer of 1910, he married Edith Alice Baum in Sunderland.
Shortly after their wedding, Thomas immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to seek work. He had left his wife back in England, and having established himself in Vancouver, he returned to England in November 1910, to enjoy a holiday, and make preparations to return to Canada with his wife. They subsequently travelled to Canada at the end of March 1912.
In the spring of 1915, perhaps because of the war, they decided to return to England, and as a result, booked as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania, which was due to leave New York on 1st May 1915. They left Vancouver at the end of April and joined the vessel before she left the Cunard berth at New York just after mid-day, on that date.
Six days later, after the liner had been torpedoed, although his wife Edith was rescued and survived, Thomas Robinson was killed.
The Yorkshire Post of 11th May 1915 published an interview with Edith Robinson
concerning her and her husband’s fate, given after her return to the family home. It reported: -
Mrs. Robinson said that her husband was also a passenger, and she has the gravest doubts for his safety. When the liner was torpedoed, her husband, after being pitched downstairs, secured two lifejackets. On deck they assisted each other to put the jackets on and he jumped into the sea, saying “Follow me.”
She did not do so, but watched him re-appear and then disappear. She thought he had struck something in the water.
As his body was never recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 27 years.
Some time later, in the early summer of the same year, his widow applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund for help in respect of a Banker’s Draft which he had had on him for the sum of £51-0s-0d. She hoped to recover this sum in the future but needed help with her finances until then. She was residing at 28, St. Luke's Terrace, Pallion, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, at this time.
The Relief Fund had been set up after the sinking by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen to provide financial relief to those survivors and relatives of the dead who had suffered as a result. In Mr. Robinson’s case, the award committee deferred making a decision and it is likely that Mrs. Robinson was eventually paid out by the bank upon which the draft had been drawn. However, the Committee did eventually grant her a payment of £0-5s-0d per week for a period of twelve months.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, Yorkshire Post, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/11, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.