Alice Schofield was born in Ramey, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, on the 26th October 1890, the daughter of James Arthur and Mary Ann Schofield (née Tweedale). She was one of nine children, and her parents had emigrated from Rochdale, Lancashire, England, some years before she was born. However; in 1894, her family had returned to England and settled in Middleton, Rochdale, Lancashire. Her father worked as a coal miner.
On completion of her education, Alice found work as a cotton winder in one of the local cotton mills. In 1926, she married a local man, Harold Smethurst, who also worked in the cotton mills.
On the 14th January 1914, the couple boarded the Merion at Liverpool, and disembarked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, five days later. Their destination was New Philadelphia, Ohio, where Alice had a married sister. Presumably, Harold intended to find work in the area, however; in the spring of 1915, Alice was pregnant, and the couple decided to return to Middleton. Consequently, they booked third class passage on the Lusitania, from New York to Liverpool. They joined the vessel at Pier 54 in New York, before she sailed from there for the last time, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915.
When the vessel was sunk, six days later and just hours away from Liverpool, both the Smethurst’s were fortunate enough to survive. Alice Smethurst was put into one of the lifeboats which were successfully launched and her husband was picked out of the water by another. Having been landed at Queenstown, they eventually made it back to Rochdale. Whilst still in Queenstown, they were interviewed by a reporter from local newspaper The Cork Examiner about their experience of the sinking and this was published in the edition of Monday 10th May. It stated: -
Mr. H. Smethurst together with his wife were passengers on board, and he did not notice anything wrong until the vessel was struck and she began to settle. After three minutes, she had listed so much that some of the passengers thought she was going to capsize. Yet some of the people did not appear to realise that the Lusitania could be sunk.
He got his wife into one of the lifeboats and waited on deck himself. Mrs. Smethurst appealed to him as she was going away to come with her, but he said the women and children should go first. He remained on board and got a lifebelt, and later slipped into the water and was picked up by one of the boats. They were rowing about for, he thought, between two and three hours, and then they saw the different steamers which came to their assistance. They were then taken on board one of the steamers and treated very kindly.
Once back in Rochdale, the Smethurst’s applied for financial assistance to The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up not long after the sinking by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local businessmen, to help survivors or relatives of those killed, who had encountered difficulties as a result of the outrage.
The awards committee granted them an initial payment of £5-0s-0d, and then followed
this up with a second payment of £3-0s-0d, as Mrs. Smethurst’s health had deteriorated after her return as a result of experiences she had suffered during and after the sinking.
Alice gave birth to a son, named Albert, in August 1915, and had three more children – Jack, born in 1919, Marion, born in 1920, and Nora, born in 1926. The family resided at 4. Valley Road, Royton, Oldham, for many years, and were residing here when Harold Smethurst died on the 25th August 1951, aged 63 years.
Alice Smethurst died in Doncaster, Yorkshire West Riding, on the 7th October 1969, aged 78 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878 – 1960, Pennsylvania Passenger and Crew Lists 1800 – 1962, Cunard Records, Cork Examiner, NGMM DX/2085 (photo), Liverpool Record Office, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/11, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.