Isabella Dhenin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, in the United States of America, in late 1912, the daughter of Thomas and Evelyn Dhenin (née Thomson). She had a brother, also named Thomas, who had been born in 1904. The family had immigrated to Brooklyn, New York City in 1906, where Isabella’s father had found employment as a printer.
In early 1915, Isabella’s maternal grandmother had been taken seriously ill, and the family decided to return to England, to visit her. As a result, they booked third class passage on the
Lusitania’s last ever voyage from New York and were given ticket number 1965. Then on the morning of 1st May 1915, they boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York port in time for her scheduled 10 o’clock sailing and had to wait until the early afternoon before she actually sailed, as she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of the previous month.
Then, six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine
U-20, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger off the southern coast of Ireland, only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
When the liner was struck, Isabella and her brother were playing out of sight of their parents, but they were both discovered after the parents divided and went in two different directions. When the order came to put the women and children into the boats, Isabella and her mother and brother were put into one of the lifeboats which was then lowered towards the sea.
That was the last that was ever seen of them and it can only be presumed that their lifeboat was one of those which later capsized and they must all have been thrown into the sea.
Isabella’s father did survive, however, and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he searched in Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man for any news of his family, but none was ever forthcoming. As a result, Isabella’s body was never recovered and identified and she has no known grave. She was only two years of age.
New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Olivia Isherwood, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.