William Leyland was born in Eccleston, St. Helens, Lancashire, England in 1870, the son of William and Eliza Leyland (née Ramsdale). His father was a joiner, and William was the eleventh of fourteen known children.
On leaving school, William followed in his father’s footsteps and became an apprentice joiner. Having served his apprenticeship and qualified as a joiner, he worked in his native St. Helens until 1907, when he, and two of his friends left St. Helens and travelled to Liverpool where they boarded the Tunisian, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. On arrival in Halifax on the 2nd March 1907, they stated that it was their intention to travel onward to San Francisco, California, in the United States of America.
Having successfully reached San Francisco, William found work and by 1915 was residing at 2689, Sutter Street. In early 1915, he decided to return to Lancashire to visit
his parents and was making for the home of Mrs. Joanna Hulse at 51, Halefield Street, St. Helens, who was probably a sister, when he lost his life.
Having booked as a third class passenger on the Lusitania, which left New York just after mid-day, on May Day 1915, he never arrived back home, for he was killed when the Cunarder was sunk just six days out of New York and only hours away from her Liverpool destination, off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20.
Once it was known that he was missing, his brother, Mr. J. Leyland of 19, Emily Street, Levenshulme, Manchester, Lancashire, sent a description of items that he was known to be carrying or wearing, to the Cunard Office at Queenstown to help identify any body thought to be his. This description stated: -
Gold watch and chain with the initials 'W.L.',
Signet Ring with initials
Diamond tie pin, Full set. False Teeth gold mounted.
Some money in belt carried under clothing.
Despite this, however, none of the recovered bodies matched this description. He was aged 44 years.
Once news of his loss became known in California, however, friends in San Mateo told of a prophetic nightmare he had suffered before his departure from that town. This experience was reported in The San Francisco Chronicle on 18th May 1915, and stated: -
Friends of William Leyland, a Lusitania victim who formerly lived in San Mateo, today related a story that Leyland had a presentiment of his fate.
According to William Spencer and Percy Bradshaw, friends of William Leyland, Leyland came to San Mateo the day of his departure and told of a horrific dream in which he saw the British ship he was on, sink. His friends advised him to cancel his passage on the Lusitania but he refused.
On the 13th April 1915, before leaving San Francisco on his journey back to England, William Leyland made a Will, appointing his friend, William Spencer, as his executor. He left his estate, which amounted to an amount less than $1,750, to be divided equally between his sister, Mrs. Louisa Leyland Seddon, of 135. Exeter Street, Newtown, St. Helens, Lancashire, and his brother, James Ramsdale Leyland, of 19. Emily Street, Levenshulme, Manchester, Lancashire. No mention was made of any of his other siblings.
In June 1919, his sister, Mrs. Louisa Seddon wrote to Cunard seeking compensation, or at least an insurance pay-out, as she stated that he was known to have had a considerable amount of property with him when the ship was sunk.
Cunard wrote her the standard reply at that time, that the responsibility for the sinking rested fully with Germany and that any claim had to be made with the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, War Claims Department, in London.
Mrs. Hulse also applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, for compensation stating that she was dependant on him. Her case could not have been considered a very strong one, however, for the fund declined to make her any payment, stating that there was ‘no apparent need’!
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, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, California U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1850 – 1953, St. Helens Newspaper & Advertiser, San Francisco Chronicle, PRO BT 180/345, UniLiv.D92/1/1, UniLiv D92/2/332, UniLiv. PR13/6, Graham Maddocks, Nyle Monday, Robert O'Brien, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.