Kenneth Hamilton Stewart Robson was born in Broughton, near Stokesley, Yorkshire, England, in 1885, the son, and only child, of Reverend William Thomas and Caroline Emily Robson (née Gripper), of The Rectory, West Rounton, Northallerton, West Yorkshire.
On completion of his education, Kenneth became a solicitor’s clerk, and later an audit clerk.
In March 1910, he sailed from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on board the Victorian. From there, he travelled on to Grimsby, Ontario. In December 1910, he returned to his home in England, suggesting that he had travelled temporarily to Canada in connection with his profession.
In May 1911, he again crossed the Atlantic Ocean, his destination being Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he was working for the Dominion Express Company. He returned to England for a five week holiday in 1914, and by this time he was working in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to come back to England where he intended to find employment in the munitions industry. He booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, which was scheduled to sail from New York just on the morning of 1st May 1915 for Liverpool. He booked his ticket in Mount Vernon, New York, but it is not known whether he was just passing through there when he made his booking, or whether he was working there at the time.
On arrival at New York harbour on the morning of the 1st may, he discovered that the sailing had been postponed until the early afternoon whilst the liner loaded cargo and took on board passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia which the
British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours away steaming time away from her Liverpool destination.
Kenneth Robson did not survive this action and his body was never recovered and identified afterward. Kenneth Robson was aged 29 years.
Ironically, there was another passenger travelling second class on the Lusitania whose journey also commenced at Mount Vernon. She was Miss Annie Robson, but there is no evidence that she and Kenneth were related. Annie Robson also died as a result of the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Leeds Mercury, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, Whitby Gazette, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/309, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.