Mabel Elliott was born in Ulverston, Lancashire, England, in August 1886, the daughter of Timothy George and Margaret Ann Elliott (née McDonald). Her father was a cabinet maker and Mabel was the eldest of three children in the family.
In April 1907, the family had boarded the Empress of Britain at Liverpool, and on their arrival at St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, they travelled overland, across Canada, to settle in Victoria, British Columbia.
The family established their home at 2846. Graham Street, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and took in a lodger – George Edward Stokes, who was a building contractor and had emigrated from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, also in 1907.
On the 28th November 1911, she married George Edward Stokes and they had one child – a son named William, who was born in late 1912.
In the spring of 1915, the family decided to travel to Great Britain, perhaps to visit relatives, and consequently they booked passage on the May sailing of the Cunard Steam Ship Company liner, R.M.S. Lusitania. Having arrived in New York during the last few days of April, they went to Pier 54 on the morning of the 1st May to board the vessel in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock sailing. On arrival at the Cunard berth, they were shown to their second class cabin, and had plenty of time to settle in to their surroundings as the liner’s departure was delayed due to the transfer of passengers, cargo, and some crew members from the Anchor Lines vessel, Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship. Thus, it was almost 12.20p.m. when the Lusitania finally left her berth and proceeded out of New York harbour on her 202nd trans-Atlantic voyage. She would never make port and complete this voyage.
Following an uneventful and relatively pleasant journey, the Lusitania arrived off the southern coast of Ireland on the morning of 7th May. As she progressed along the coast, within sight of land, she was intercepted by the German submarine, U-20, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walter Schwieger who fired a torpedo which struck the
great liner on her starboard side, causing catastrophic damage. The damage was so severe that the Lusitania sank within eighteen minutes, with the loss of 1,198 lives.
Among those lost were the entire Stokes family, and none of their bodies were every recovered and identified. They have no known grave.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of Canada, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Daily Mirror, Times Colonist, UniLiv. D92/2/359, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.