John Charles Wolfenden was born in Mossley, Lancashire, England, on the 16th December 1862, the son of Samuel and Betty Wolfenden (née Gledhill). He was the second eldest of five known children in his family and his father was a cotton winder in one of the local cotton mills.
After completing his formal education, John Wolfenden followed his father into the cotton mills and became a piercer – a person who “pieced together” broken cotton threads on the looms!
On the 23rd January 1893, he married Dora Roberts (née Mills), a widow who had previously been married to a Mr. Roberts. Dora had four children from her first marriage, although one had died in 1891, and another died in November 1893.
John and Dora Wolfenden had two children – Bertha, born in 1896, and Therza, born in 1901; however, Therza died in 1904.
In April 1908, John Wolfenden and his brother-in-law, Joseph Mills, boarded the Saxonia in Liverpool, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of a better life. On arrival in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, they made their way to Central Falls, Rhode Island, where they had a relative, who no doubt assisted them in finding work. John Wolfenden found work as a dyer in a cotton mill.
Once John Wolfenden had established himself in Central Falls, he sent for his wife and daughter to join him, which they duly did in October 1908. The family resided at 623. Dexter Street, Central Falls. In October 1913, John Wolfenden applied to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, his application being successful in January 1914. Curiously, at the time of his application he stated that he had no children, and as no trace can be found of his daughter, Bertha, after arriving in Boston with her mother in October 1908, it is likely she had died prior to the recording of the 1910 U.S. Federal Census.
In the summer of 1914, John Wolfenden returned to Mossley for a short holiday and having returned to Pawtucket, in the spring of 1915, perhaps because of the war, he decided to return to England with his wife and settle down in Ashbourne. Consequently, he and Dora Wolfenden booked as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania, and boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York port, before she left there for the last time, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915.
She had been scheduled to leave the Cunard berth at Pier 54 at 10.00 a.m., but her sailing had to be delayed whilst she took on board passengers, some crew and some cargo from the Anchor Lines vessel Cameronia, which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days later, the liner was sunk by the German submarine U-20, off the coast of southern Ireland and John Wolfenden was killed, although his wife was saved, largely because her husband literally threw her into one of the last lifeboats to leave the stricken ship. Once in Ashbourne, at the home of her son Arnold in St. John Street, she related her story and the fate of her husband, to a member of the local press. This was published in The Stalybridge Reporter on 15th May 1915 and stated: -
We had no idea of any danger until we had just finished lunch shortly after 2 o’clock on Friday, May 7th. My husband who had just shaved, was in his shirt sleeves when the first explosion occurred. We joined in the general rush for the deck.
Just as I was getting on deck, my foot slipped and I fell back into the bottom. My husband returned and helped me on to the deck, which we reached just as the last boat was being lowered. Within two or three minutes of the first explosion a second occurred, and everyone felt that the ship was doomed. I said to my husband, “We’re going down.”
I wanted to stay with him, but he pressed me to go, and at last threw me over into the boat, where the crew safely caught me. Neither of us had a life-belt; there was no time to get one. I kept calling for my husband to come, but he refused as there were still women and children to be saved. By this time the ship had listed very heavily, and the deck sloped as steeply as “Jacob’s ladder” (a very steep bank in Mossley). My husband waved his hand to me, and said “Good-bye,” and then disappeared with the ship.
After being landed at Queenstown and taken to a hotel for the night, Dora Wolfenden
then tried the obvious, though harrowing way, of searching for her husband: -
On Saturday morning I went to view the dead bodies which had been brought ashore. It was a terrible time, and my husband was not amongst them.
No trace of his body was ever found and identified thereafter and as a result, he has no known grave. He was aged 52 years.
The Wolfenden’s had $400.00 in cash with them on the Lusitania which was lost as a result of the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1915 Rhode Island State Census, Rhode Island State and Federal Naturalization Records 1802 – 1945, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Ashbourne Telegraph, Oldham Evening Chronicle, Stalybridge Reporter, (Photo), Staffordshire Weekly News, 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.