Thomas Henry Dunn was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England, in 1880, the son of William Henry and Mary Ann Dunn (née Treloar). He was one of a family of fourteen children, and the family home was at 13, South Row, Roose, Barrow-in-Furness. His father was an iron ore miner at the time of Thomas’ birth, but later in life became a coal dealer and then a farmer.
After leaving school, Thomas worked on the family farm.
On the 13th May 1913, he arrived in Quebec, Canada, on board the Virginian, and stated that his intended destination was Vancouver, British Columbia; however, immigration records state that he had gone to the United States of America. Most of his brothers and sisters also lived abroad, some in America, some in Canada, and one sister in West Africa.
Thomas travelled to Seattle, Washington, where his brother, William, lived, and he found work on a farm in the area. In December 1913, he had returned to British Columbia, but returned to Seattle in February 1914. Presumably, he was visiting some members of his family during this period.
In February 1915, Thomas Dunn’s father, who had also been engaged in the greengrocery trade, had died after a short illness and as Thomas was the only unmarried son, his mother had cabled him in America to ask him to return home and find work in Barrow, so that he could be a support to her. He must have wound up his affairs in America to comply with this request, for in April 1915, he cabled her to say that he was returning to Barrow and having travelled first to Canada, no doubt to see some of his relatives, he made his way to New York, where, on 1st May 1915, he boarded the Lusitania as a third class passenger for the liner’s morning sailing to Liverpool.
This sailing was delayed until the afternoon as the vessel had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner vessel the Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work at the end of April. The Lusitania finally left the port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that point, she was only twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and only 250 miles away from her destination.
Thomas Dunn was killed as a result of this action and as his body was not recovered from the sea and identified, he has no known grave. He was aged 34 years.
At first, his mother did not realise that he was on the ship, but then, on Monday 10th May, she received a letter posted in New York which stated: -
If all goes well I will be with you in two or three days after you receive this letter.
It did not state, however, when he had booked his passage across the Atlantic or on what liner he intended to sail!
No doubt frantic with worry having by that time heard of the Lusitania‘s sinking, his mother immediately wrote to the Cunard office in Liverpool seeking news of him. The Barrow News of 15th May reported the sad reply from the shipping company which stated: -
We have yours of the 10th inst., and beg to inform you that Thomas H. Dunn appears on the third class passenger list as having sailed from New York on the Lusitania. We regret to inform you, however, that we have had no further information concerning him, but should we hear any news, we will immediately communicate with you.
The Barrow News further reported that: -
Mrs. Dunn says that she would not have felt the loss of her son so keenly if he had been killed fighting on the battlefield. Her trouble has been great, poor woman, and much sympathy will be felt for her in the sad calamity which appears to have visited her.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Barrow News, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to the U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard 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.