Phyllis Bailey Fenn was born on 15th June 1890, at Glebe Hill Lodge, Lee, London, England, the daughter, and one of seven children, of Joseph and Alice Voss Fenn (née Tugwell).
On the 12th April 1910, her sister, Beatrice, married Basil Guildford Wickings-Smith and three weeks later the couple immigrated to British Columbia, Canada. Phyllis became engaged to be married to Guildford’s brother, Cyril, and then, in January 1911, Cyril travelled to Canada to join his brother and look at business opportunities there. Whereas it is believed that Phyllis originally had no intention of going to Canada, she decided to follow her fiancé when he opened a post office and grocery store in Victoria, British Columbia.
She boarded the Royal George at Bristol, Gloucestershire, on the 15th May 1912 on the first stage of her journey to British Columbia. She was accompanied by another one of her sisters, Evelyn, and having disembarked in Montreal, Quebec, they continued their journey overland to Victoria.
On the 28th August 1912, she married Cyril Wickings-Smith in St. Mark’s Church, Vancouver. A daughter, Nancy Eileen Fenn, known as ‘Nan’, was born to them on 4th September 1914.
In early 1915, her husband decided to return to England to obtain a commission in the British Army and his brother Guildford, who was already a serving soldier in the 48th Canadian Infantry, decided to accompany him, for the same purpose. Consequently, Cyril having sold his business, the two brothers and Phyllis and Nan, all set out from Victoria, British Columbia to cross the Atlantic as second cabin passengers on what proved to be the Lusitania’s final voyage. Guildford’s wife and daughter had originally intended to travel with them, but illness prevented them from taking passage with the others.
The family party arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915 in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure, but had to wait until just after mid-day for her to sail, as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Cunard liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship, at the end of April.
Six days out of New York and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, only hours away from her Liverpool destination. As she was sinking, Phyllis and Nan were put in one of the lifeboats, believed to have been Lifeboat No. 11, which was lowered into the sea. As the ship went down, her husband dived into the sea, and swimming to the same lifeboat, he was able to clamber into it to join them. No trace was ever found, dead or
alive, of Guildford Wickings-Smith.
Once they had been rescued and landed at Queenstown, they were able to make for the home of Phyllis’ mother at ‘Clovelly’, Winchester Road, Walton, Surrey.
Despite surviving the terrible ordeal of the Lusitania’s sinking, Phyllis Wickings-Smith died tragically young at the age of 29 years, on 19th January 1920. She had developed multiple sclerosis, which her family believed was brought upon as a result of the trauma she had suffered because of the disaster. She was especially badly affected by the memory of seeing some of the people struggling in the water being beaten away with oars from the lifeboat, to prevent them from climbing on board and swamping it. She was buried in Hither Green Cemetery, Lewisham.
Her husband Cyril, who later re-married, died on the 3rd April 1965, and their daughter, Nan, in May 1993.
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 England & Wales, UK Outgoing Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, National Archives of Canada, Surrey Advertiser, Paul Wickings, Mary Wickings-Smith, Jane Woods, Richard Woods, Bronwen Woods, James Maggs, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.