Albert Ernest Johnson was born in All Saints, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, in 1887, the son of William Henry and Louisa Johnson (née Sabin). His father was a groom and gardener, and he had at least two older brothers – Frederick John, and Francis Edward.
As a teenager, Albert started his working life as a servant on a large farm in neighbouring Leicestershire.
In 1915, he was living in Alberta, Canada where he worked as a coal miner and in the spring of that year, he decided to travel back to England, with the intention of enlisting in the British Army, being mindful of his patriotic duty in view of the war raging in Europe. Consequently, he booked third class passage on the May sailing of the
Lusitania for the voyage from New York to Liverpool.
Little else is known about him except that he would have left Alberta some time in April 1915 to arrive at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Having boarded the vessel, he would have had to have waited until 12.27 p.m. before she actually left the port, because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and some crew members from the Anchor Liner S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk within sight of The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her home port.
Albert Johnson was a victim of this action, and he lost his life as a result. As his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 27 years.
A list of passengers and crew published by The Cunard Steam Ship Company in March 1916 lists Albert Johnson’s age as being 72 years, but this was obviously a transcribing error which was rectified on a further list now held in the archives of The Public Record Office in Richmond, Surrey and updated to February 1917!
His brother, Frederick, who had also emigrated to Canada, and had settled in British Columbia, submitted a claim for compensation for the loss of Albert’s life and personal possessions as a result of the sinking of the
Lusitania with the Canadian Commission, which had been established to deal with such matters. Frederick claimed that their widowed father, who was living in Sowerby, Leicestershire, was dependant on his sons for financial support, and in his evidence stated that Albert was earning $1,000 per annum as a coal miner. The Commission awarded him $1,300 compensation.
Frederick Johnson served as a private with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the War, and on enlisting in 1916, he was attached to the Yukon Infantry, but later was transferred to the Mobile Machine Gun Corps. He survived the War unscathed. Albert’s other brother, Francis Edward, also emigrated to Canada, where he settled in Cymric, Saskatchewan.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 817, 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.