Isabel Eloise Wise was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, in 1856, the daughter of James Laurence and Elizabeth Sarah Wise (née Deane). Her father was a barrister and landowner, and also a prominent member of the Church of Ireland.
Isabel became an Anglican deaconess, and around 1890, she travelled to Jamaica, where she resided at 93. Hanover Street, Kingston, which was the site of the Church of England Deaconess House. She was one of the first members of the church to be sent there, and her duties included training local women to become nurses and parish welfare workers. As a deaconess, she was known as Sister Isabel. She was unmarried.
She made a number of trips back to Great Britain and Ireland between 1894 and 1912, usually travelling through New York, and on at least one occasion through Boston, Massachusetts.
In the spring of 1915, she booked passage from Jamaica to England, and on the 22nd April, she arrived in New York City on board the Zacapa from Kingston. She remained in New York City until the morning of 1st May 1915, when she went to Pier 54 in New York harbour to catch the 10.00 a.m. sailing of the Lusitania as a second cabin passenger to Liverpool. The liner’s sailing was then delayed until just after noon when she finally left the port.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the southern Irish coast about 250 miles away from her destination.
Sister Wise was killed as a result of this torpedoing and as her body was never recovered and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 59 years.
Probate of her will was granted to Fanny Catherine Burke at Dublin and then on 28th February 1916, her will was sealed at London, her effects amounting to £8-16s-8d., (£8.83p.).
1881 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, Belfast Newsletter, Belfast Telegraph, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.