Frederick Skelton was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in 1885, the son of Frederick and Sarah Elizabeth Skelton (née Cryer). He was one of seven children and his father, for many years was a file cutter, before becoming a fish fryer. The family home was at 69, Valley Road, Keeley, Sheffield, Yorkshire.
On completing his education, he became a coal miner, and later a stone cutter. Then, in April 1913, he arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on board the Hesperian, having sailed from Liverpool. He already had an older brother living in Canada.
In the spring of 1915, he had been working in a motor works in Hamilton, Canada, and decided to return home to get married to his fiancée in Sheffield. As a consequence, he booked a third class passage out of New York on the Lusitania and joined her before she left Pier 54 just after mid-day, on 1st May 1915.
He was killed six days later after the ship was torpedoed and sunk. As no trace of his body was ever seen and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 30 years. About five weeks after the sinking, a local trawler, the Standard, recovered a badly damaged trunk belonging to Fred Skelton which contained his clothing and other personal possessions which were in a very bad condition.
In the summer of 1915, his mother successfully applied to The Lusitania Relief Fund, administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, for financial assistance to help alleviate some of the loss she had incurred as a result of her son's death. This fund had been set up after the sinking by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other members of the
Liverpool business community, to give financial assistance to survivors and relatives of the dead. She applied on the grounds that she had been totally dependant on her son for financial support and was subsequently awarded the sum of £0-3s-0d., (£0.15p.) per week.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, England Select Births and Christenings 1538 – 1975, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield Independent, Western Mail, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/119, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.