John Semple was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, either late 1914, or early 1915, the son of Andrew and Agnes Semple (née Gilmour). His parents had emigrated from Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1911, and his father was a carpenter. The family home was at 119. Yorkville Avenue, Toronto..
In the spring of 1915, his mother decided to return home for a holiday and take John with her. As a result, at the end of April 1915, they both travelled to New York and boarded the Lusitania as second class passengers, at the Cunard berth at Pier 54, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Her sailing was then postponed until 12.27 p.m., so that she could load cargo and embark passengers and crew from the Anchor Lines ship the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop.
After a fairly uneventful voyage, in the early afternoon of 7th May, six days out of New York, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, and only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port.
Unfortunately, both son and mother lost their lives as a result of this action and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered and identified afterwards, neither has a known grave. John Semple was not yet one year old at the time!
Cunard 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.