David Todd was born in Tealby, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, in 1887, the son of George and Betsy Todd (née Stamp). His home was at ‘Park Cottage‘, on the Bayons Manor Estate, Tealby, the seat of the Tennyson d‘Eyncourt family, where his father was a gardener. He was a florist and had begun his trade after leaving school, as a gardener’s boy in the company of his father when they had worked together on the estate.
Following this employment, he left for nearby Horncastle and then to Lincoln, where he worked for two years for the firm of Messrs. Pennells. During this time, he lodged with his sister, a Mrs. Hunter, at 8, Saville Street. Following this, he took up a position in Scotland and after a year’s work there, in 1911, his employer decided to go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, and David Todd determined to accompany him there.
Once there, he gained employment with George Huber Conservatories of 54th Street and Grays Avenue and lodged with the Davies family of 5540, Chester Avenue. Whilst living there, he became engaged to May Davies the daughter of the house.
In the spring of 1915, because of the Great War, he decided to return home to enlist in H.M. Forces - another source states that he was returning home to visit his mother, who had become ill. Either way, he booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania and having left Philadelphia at the end of April, he joined the liner at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for her delayed sailing which began just after mid-day. The delay was caused because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the Old Head of Kinsale, in southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20. David Todd was one of the passengers killed as a result, and as his body was never recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 27 years.
On 22nd May 1915, local newspaper The Louth & North Lincolnshire Advertiser published the gist of a letter sent to Market Rasen inhabitant Mr. James H. Nettleship from The Reverend J.L.N. Pheasant, who was vicar of North Kelsey, in Lincolnshire. Lusitania survivor Martin Payne was his nephew and he had befriended fellow second cabin passenger David Todd on the journey. The Reverend Pheasant had written: -
The last words that Todd said to him were, “Well I can’t swim, so suppose I must go under.”
The article concluded: -
He (David Todd), had sent a postcard to a brother at Hainton, (Lincolnshire) that he was coming to enlist, and that he would arrive in a
few days after the postcard. This led his parents to think he was a passenger on board the ill-fated ship, and upon communication with the Cunard Company, their worst fears were realised.
David Todd is commemorated, on the village memorial in Tealby, where he lived. The memorial takes the form of a white stone Saxon-style cross with four main panels, placed over an ornamental base. The panel which bears his name simply states: -
D × TODD
DROWNED ON LUSITANIA
His name also appears on an embroidered memorial inside Tealby Parish Church.
In an article written after his death in the Lincolnshire newspaper, The Scunthorpe Star,
it was said of him: -
Among all with whom he mixed, the deceased was very popular, always having been a sturdy fellow with a genial disposition.
In March 2002, local Lincolnshire author Jim Murray told Graham Maddocks that he had met a Miss Hunter, a former nun, who was a relative of David Todd and who had claimed to have seen the Lusitania’s victim’s ghost on a number of occasions!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Pennsylvania Passenger Lists 1800 – 1962, Cunard Records, Louth & North Lincolnshire Advertiser, New York Times, Philadelphia Public Ledger, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/1/2, Graham Maddocks, Chris Bailey, Jim Murray, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter K