Ernest Thomas was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 1879, the son of David and Ann Thomas (née Llewellyn). The family home was at 16, St. John Street, Whitland. His father was a cabinet maker and Ernest was one of fifteen children, although by 1911, only Ernest and eight of his siblings were still living. On completing his education he became a bricklayer.
In the summer of 1903, he married Mary Hannah Jones in Bridgend, Glamorganshire, and in the summer of 1904, their only child, a daughter named Kaziah Ann, was born. Unfortunately, Kaziah died in early 1905.
On the 10th May 1907, the coupled boarded the Victorian at Liverpool, disembarking in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on the 17th May. They settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where siblings of both Ernest and Mary Thomas had settled.
As well as working as a bricklayer, Ernest and his wife ran a boarding house, or temperance hotel, at 318. Notre Dame Street, from 1910 until August 1914. They then moved in with a sister of Mary Thomas at 473. Notre Dame Street.
In the spring of 1915, they decided to return to Wales for a holiday and consequently booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, from New York to Liverpool, joining the liner at Pier 54 in New York harbour, on the morning of 1st May, in time for her last
ever sailing out of the port, just after mid-day.
When the Cunarder was sunk, six days later, both of them were killed, but only the body of Ernest Thomas was recovered and identified afterwards. On 23rd May, 1915, his body was discovered in the sea by a steam trawler named Shark, off the southern Irish coast near Ballinskelligs, in County Kerry, about 80 miles around the coast from where the Lusitania had gone down. Discovered with it was the body of a fireman member of the crew whose identity could not be established.
Both bodies were despatched to Queenstown where that of Ernest Thomas was given the reference number 235 in one of the temporary mortuaries there. It was then buried in a private grave, Row 15, Grave 5, in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, on 24th May 1915. This fact was telegraphed to his family the following day. Ernest Thomas was aged 36 years at the time of his death.
His body lies there today, under a white marble headstone. The inscription is picked out in lead letters, most of which have now disappeared. It states: -
IN
MEMORY OF ERNEST THOMAS
SON OF
DAVID AND ANN THOMAS
ST. JOHN ST. WHITLAND
S. WALES
ALSO
MARY HIS WIFE
WHOSE BODY WAS NOT FOUND
BOTH WERE VICTIMS OF THE
ILL-FATED LUSITANIA
MAY 7TH 1915
Personal items recovered from the body, were sent to his father in South Wales, on the 22nd June. Cunard records at the time described them as: -
Property. 1 fountain pen, 1 pipe, 1 silver match case engraved “Presented to E. Thomas by St. David’s Society, Winnipeg, Ap. 15th 1915”; 1 pencil case, 1 gold keyless watch, hour and second hand missing (spring on coils), 1 large silver watch (Waltham), apparently stop watch, seconds hand missing, 1 double Albert chain (heavy and hall marked) with pendant and chain attachment in centre, 1 solid gold signet ring (hall marked) engraved “E.T.” on outside, worn 3rd finger left hand, 1 gold ring hall marked with one large stone (pink) apparently lady’s presentation ring which was worn on the right hand, 1 pair of gold sleeve links, 1 small bag, 1 shirt stud, 1 cigar cutter chain and small trowel, 1 book playing card in Morocco leather, 1 cent Canadian postage stamp, 1 small pocket book, 1 pig skin purse with 2 coins (1 ten cent Canadian piece and 1 quarter dollar U.S.A.) 1 eight inch pocket book, ten Bank orders on Imperial Bank of Canada, each for 100$, one address
Mrs. Eleanor Jones
Tronierin
Llanelly R.S.O.
Cardiganshire.
On opposite side
Mrs. Maria Davies
90 Southwork Bridge Road,
London.
1 address, Joseph Lewis
90 Balmoral Street,
Winnipeg
1 address book, 2 pocket knives, 1 tobacco pouch, 1 alien restriction landing order, 3 receipts for passengers luggage, 1 brown tweed suit on body, tan boots, black stockings, fully dressed, no hat. 5 $10 Bills, 1 $50 Bill, 2 $5. Draft Imperial Bank of Canada for £704.
He is buried next to two other Lusitania victims, ship’s doctor Surgeon James Farrell McDermott, who originally came from Cork City, and second cabin passenger James Anderson Beattie, who was also travelling from Canada. The body of the unidentified fireman recovered at the same time as Ernest Thomas’ body was buried on the same day in Mass Grave A, Fifth Row, Lower Tier, in the same cemetery.
When Ernest Thomas’s will was proven in London, on 22nd July 1915, probate was granted to his father. His effects amounted to £736-12s-5d, (£736.63p).
His eldest brother, Christmas Richard Thomas, who was also living in Canada, and was the administrator of his brothers estate in Canada, filed a claim with the Canadian Commission seeking $1,846.00 in compensation for the loss of the couples personal effects as a result of the sinking. In March 1926, the Commission awarded him the full amount of the claim.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Cork Examiner, Western Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Tribune, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/380, UniLiv PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Elaine Davies, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.