Sidney Taft was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, in 1883, the son of George and Eleanor Eliza Taft (née Leech). His father manufactured bicycles and Sidney was one of eleven known children in the family.
On completing his education as a young teenager, Sidney worked in a bicycle factory,
probably for the same firm as his father, and then worked in a factory manufacturing brass bed frames. In the summer of 1912, he married Alice Parry; however, Alice died in November 1912 in the General Hospital in Birmingham. He resided at 144, High Street, Smethwick, Staffordshire.
On the 29th April 1913, he boarded the Franconia at Liverpool and sailed to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America. His brother, George, was married and working in Needham, Massachusetts, and Sidney went to live with him at 332. Hillside Avenue, Needham. He found work with the American Postal Machine Company at 290. Congress Street, Needham.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to return to England and booked as a second cabin passenger on what proved to be the Lusitania's final voyage, setting out from New York just after noon on May Day 1915. On the crossing, he met another 'Smethwickian' Mr. F. J. Lucas who was travelling from Pittsburgh, Massachusetts.
Sidney Taft survived the sinking and after being landed at Queenstown was delighted to meet his travelling companion Francis Lucas, who had also survived. Both were searching the town for fellow survivors and friends when they bumped into each other!
The two of them then travelled together from Queenstown to Kingstown by rail, and then to Holyhead by ship, where they were provided with breakfast and warm rugs by The Cunard Steam Ship Company.
They finally arrived at Birmingham on the morning of Sunday 9th May 1915 and then travelled independently to Smethwick.
Soon afterwards Sidney Taft applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for financial help. This fund had been set up immediately after the liner had been sunk, by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local business dignitaries to help second and third class passenger survivors and the relatives of those who had perished, who had come upon financial distress as a result of the sinking. It was thought that saloon class passengers were wealthy enough not to need help and each claim was met on its merits.
The awards committee granted Mr. Taft the sum of £8-0s-0d., to replace tools of his trade that he had lost as a result of the sinking.
Sidney Taft enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment, but later transferred to the Labour Corps and survived the war.
In late 1917, he married Frances “Fanny” Jones in Birmingham, and they had no children as far as is known.
Sidney and Fanny Taft emigrated to Fremantle, Western Australia, where Sidney found work as a fitter and was a member of the local branch of the Amalgamated Engineers Union. The couple resided at 70. King Street, East Fremantle.
On the 5th May 1943, Sidney Taft died suddenly at his home, aged 59 years. He was buried in Fremantle Cemetery on the 7th May, exactly 28 years after surviving the sinking of the Lusitania.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Australia Death Index 1787 – 1985, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Cunard Records, Liverpool Records Office, Birmingham Mail, Boston Daily Globe, Smethwick Telephone, Western Australian, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.