Robert ‘Bob’ Hebden was born in Waterfoot, Lancashire, England, in 1879, the son of Stephen and Betsy Hebden. His father was an engineer in a woollen factory and the family home was at Ashworth Street, Waterfoot.
On the 23d July 1906, he married Clara Dewhurst in St. Mary’s Church, Bury, Lancashire, and his parents’ home was at 25, Westgate, Barnoldswick. He and his wife were both weavers in the textile trade, which was the local area’s industry, and they were employed by Messrs. Whiteoak and Co., at their Westfield Mill.
In May 1908, they had their only child; a boy name William, but he died on 19th September 1911, aged only 3 years and 4 months, and was buried in the graveyard of the local church, St. Mary-le-Gill, Barnoldswick.
In 1913, the couple had gone to the United States of America to find security and financial stability and having settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, they carried on their work in the textile trade there.
In the spring of 1915, however, they decided to return home, to set up in business together and as a consequence, they left New Bedford at the end of April and travelled to New York by rail.
Once there, they boarded the Lusitania as third class passengers, at Pier 54, and left America for the last time, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915, as the liner slipped her moorings, and sailed out into the North River. They had not told their respective families in Barnoldswick of their intended return as they wanted it to be a surprise!
Six days later, after the liner had been torpedoed, although Clara Hebden lost her life, Bob Hebden survived the sinking and was eventually rescued from the sea. Having been landed at Queenstown, he was taken to The Westbourne Hotel, before beginning a vain search for his wife. Fearing the worst, he sent her mother in Federation Street, Barnoldswick, a simple telegram which stated: -
BOB PICKED UP; HEARD NOTHING OF CLARA YET!
Not long afterwards, however, his worst fears were confirmed when he found and identified her body in one of the town’s the temporary mortuaries there.
On Tuesday 11th May, he wrote from The Westbourne Hotel, to his mother in Westgate, simply stating: -
Just a line to let you know we were on the Lusitania. I am sorry to say Clara went down, and I was almost gone. I was picked up. The sight was awful.
They didn’t give the passengers a chance to save their lives. It went down in a quarter of an hour from being torpedoed. I am bringing the body back home. I shall start from Dublin, then sail to Holyhead by the midnight boat. You can make arrangements about the grave. There is another lady bringing a body on the same boat to Nelson.
The sight here is awful - thousands of people - broken hearted, some claiming wives, some husbands, some daughters and sisters or brothers. I shall be in Tuesday afternoon if everything goes well.
The lady bringing a body on the same boat to Nelson, was Elizabeth Duckworth of Blackburn, Lancashire and the body was that of Mrs. Alice Scott, who had perished in the sinking.
Upon his return to Barnoldswick, Bob Hebden was interviewed by a reporter from the local newspaper
The Craven Herald and Wenslydale Standard, in which he gave more details of his and his wife’s fate: -
I was walking round the lower deck, when the explosion took place - not a very loud crash - and never saw anything of my wife who was with another lady at the time.
I made my way to the second-class deck to one of the boats, but whilst it was being lowered, it tilted about six feet from the water, precipitating nearly all its occupants into the sea. Getting into another boat, the plug came out of the bottom and it filled with water so that we were scrambling for our lives all the time clinging to the boat, which kept reversing.
Eventually, we managed to climb on to the upturned boat and remained in that position for one and a half hours, thinking every moment would be our last. Subsequently, we got on to a collapsible boat from which we were rescued by a torpedo boat.
During all this, I never saw anything of my wife and was not aware that her body had been recovered until I identified it in the mortuary.
Having taken charge of property found on his wife’s body, he then arranged to have it shipped back to Barnoldswick, for burial, which eventually took place on 13th May 1915, in the same grave where their son had been buried almost four years before. Bob Hebden later made a successful claim to the Lusitania Relief Fund, set up by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other dignitaries to provide financial assistance to survivors and the relatives of victims who were in need of such assistance, to pay for the transportation and other funeral costs. He was awarded £15-16s-0d., the full amount of the expenses.
He was chief mourner at the funeral, which was attended by many people from the locality and two other survivors of the sinking.
These were fellow third class passengers Elizabeth Duckworth, and eight year old Arthur Scott from Nelson, Lancashire, the son of Alice Scott, whom Bob Hebden must have met on the boat from Dublin to Holyhead. It was Alice Scott’s body that had accompanied that of Clara Hebden on the journey back to Lancashire, mentioned in Bob Hebden‘s letter to his mother. Elizabeth Duckworth and Alice and Arthur Scott had shared a cabin together on the trans-Atlantic crossing.
At the time of the sinking, Robert Hebden was aged 35 years, eight years older than his wife.
The Westbourne Hotel in Queenstown, (now renamed Cobh), where Bob Hebden was taken after being landed in the town, still exists today, but is now a nightclub named The Cellar.
After returning home and possibly outraged by the loss of his wife to ‘German frightfulness’, Bob Hebden enlisted in the Army at Keighley, Yorkshire and was first posted to the 29th (Reserve) Battalion, (Tyneside Scottish) of The Northumberland Fusiliers. He was then transferred to the 22nd (Service) Battalion, (3rd Tyneside Scottish) of the same regiment.
On the 9th May 1916, he married Mary Ann Nutter at St. Mary-le-Gill, Barnoldswick, and they established their home at 41. Church Street, Barnoldswick.
Eventually in August 1916, having been further transferred to the 12th (Service) Battalion, as 29/618 Private Robert Hebden, he was sent to France. On 2nd April 1917, he was killed in action, aged 36 years.
At this time, his battalion was part of the 62nd Brigade, 21st Division, and was engaged in fighting the Germans in the early stages of The Battle of Arras. On 2nd April, the battalion was given orders to attack and capture a position across the main Croisilles to Henin road near the villages of Boyelles and Boiry-Bequerelles, and establish armed posts on it. As it advanced on the left of the main brigade attack, it encountered heavy resistance from the German defenders, who were from 2. Oberrheinisches Infanterie Regiment Nr. 99.
This resistance was soon overcome; however, the position was taken and then consolidated. During the course of the action, however, German snipers were very active, firing from Henin itself and it is likely that it was one of these who killed Private Hebden.
One of his officers, Second Lieutenant W. M. Barber wrote home to his second wife shortly after the action, giving a brief account of her husband’s death and this was published in
The Craven Herald and Wenslydale Standard on Friday 18th April 1917. It simply stated: -
Your husband was killed instantly whilst fighting bravely for his country. He was a most valuable soldier and is deeply mourned by his officers and comrades.
He was almost certainly buried at the time, but as his body was not found and identified after the war, he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing of that campaign in the Pas de Calais Département, in northern France.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Lancashire England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1936, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, Cunard Records, Craven Herald, Lancashire Daily Post, White Star Journal, Craven’s Roll of Honour, British Regiments 1914-18, 12th Northumberland Fusiliers War Diary, UK Army Register of Soldier’s Effects 1901 – 1929, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Liverpool Record Office, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Dennis Cairns, Peter Threlfall, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.