Pawel L. Malicz is believed to have been born in Tsarist Russia in 1881.
At some stage, before the outbreak of the Great War, he had travelled to the United States of America, probably in the search for work or a better life, and settled in Chicago, Illinois.
In the spring of 1915, however, he decided to return home, perhaps for patriotic reasons as the Russian Army was not faring particularly well in its battles with the forces of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front.
Consequently, for the first part of his journey, he booked third class passage on the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool and having left Chicago at the end of April, he boarded the liner on the morning of 1st May 1915 at her berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour. Her sailing was then delayed until the afternoon, as she had to wait to embark passengers’ cargo and crew from the requisitioned Anchor Lines ship the S.S. Cameronia and she finally got under way just after noon.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 within sight of the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her destination.
There were 69 Russian nationals who were passengers on board the Lusitania when she was sunk. Pawel Malicz was one of only 29 who survived. He was rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown but it is not known what happened to him after that or if he ever made it back to Russia or then survived the war.
Some Russian nationals were later to complain to their embassy in Liverpool of the poor treatment they had at the hands of Cunard officials at Queenstown and it is to be hoped that Mr. Malicz was not one of those!
Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.