Thomas “Tom” Snowden was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, on the 14th August 1884, the son of Charles Henry and Fanny Snowden (née Cooper). Like a lot of people in Leicestershire at the end of the nineteenth century, the family was involved in the manufacture of hosiery. He was the second youngest of six children, and his father died while Tom was still a young boy.
By 1901, Tom’s mother was operating her own grocery shop and Tom was working as a shoe cutter. Then, in August 1906, Tom boarded the Saxonia at Liverpool, and on reaching Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America a week later, he made his way to the home of his brother, Harry, who had emigrated there some years earlier.
He settled in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where a number of shoe factories were operating, and once he had settled in, he was joined by his mother and younger sister, Edith, in 1907. Also living with them were his sister, Harriet, and her husband Ernest Hunt.
On the 3rd July 1913, he married Marion Louise Delaney in Lynn, Massachusetts, and they lived at 23. Ridgeway Street, Lynn. They had no children.
In the spring of 1915, Tom Snowden decided to return to England, for a holiday and to
visit family and friends, although he later said that he also intended to enlist.
Consequently, he booked as a third class passenger on the May sailing of the Lusitania and having left Lynn at the end of April, he joined the vessel at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on 1st May 1915, in time for her delayed sailing from there, which commenced just after mid-day. The delay was caused because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service at the end of April.
Before he had left for New York City, he learned that an Englishwoman – Mrs. Eva Finch was also booked to travel on the same passage, although as a second cabin passenger, and he called to the Finch home, where he introduced himself to Eva Finch and her husband, William, who was also a shoe cutter. It is possible that he travelled by train to New York City with Mrs. Finch.
Six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from her Liverpool destination. Thomas Snowden survived the sinking, however and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he was eventually delivered safely to England and his former home town. Mrs. Finch was lost in the sinking.
Once there, he gave an interview to a representative of The Leicester Daily Mercury and this was published on 11th May 1915 and stated: -
I never want to go through such an experience again. To see men, women and little children drown in hundreds is a sight one will never be able to blot from one’s memory.
I have worked hard since I left Leicester, and with hundreds of others on the boat was looking forward to a happy holiday and a happy re-union with my friends. To think how happy we all were up to the moment of the disaster, and now - it seems like a horrible nightmare.
I had just got up from lunch and was making my way along the second-class deck when there was a terrible crash and the ship shivered, as it were, from stem to stern. In a moment there was pandemonium. People were running around in all directions, and probably the majority of them realised that the ship had been torpedoed. The captain and officers certainly realised it for steps were immediately taken to put the women and children, or as many as were possible, in the boats.
I and my friend did what we could in this direction and whilst we were assisting a very heavy lady, there was much screaming. I ran to the side and looked over. Then I knew the cause of the agonising cries. About 50 women and children were struggling in the water, appealing for help. It was heartbreaking to see them sink and disappear. The ropes of the boat had gone wrong, and the boat had been smashed against the side of the ship.
There was another crash. Everybody seemed to realise that it was a case of life or death. As many of the women and children were ‘collected’ as possible, but there were hundreds of poor things who never got a chance. I realised that the ship would sink, took my boots and coat and waistcoat off,
and when I felt her going - dived.
It seemed eternity before I struck the water. When I came up, I seized a piece of wreckage and held on to it. In the meantime the great ship disappeared. She went with a plunge - nose first. The horror of that scene! The heroic struggles of the crew to help the women and the children; the magnificent sacrifices of the mothers for their little ones. To think of it almost paralyses ones senses.
Some distance away, there was a life raft. When I reached it there were some twenty-four of twenty-five other persons on it. The number was gradually added to and eventually this too began to sink. Far out was an overturned boat. I jumped off and swam to it. Others were doing the same. I reached it and with help got it righted. Those who were with me then began to pick up others. Among those I helped to pull in was Lady Allan. Another man I pulled in was called Beauchamp. Eventually we found the third assistant engineer among us, and he took command.
Lady Allan was Marguerite Allan wife of Sir Montague Allan, vice chairman of The Allan Steamship Line, who was travelling with her two maids Emily Davis and Annie Walker and her two daughters Anna, and Gwendolyn. She was injured during the sinking. Although her two maids survived, Anna and Gwendolyn both perished. The man called Beauchamp was William Beauchamp, another third class passenger travelling from Otsego, Michigan, who also survived. The third assistant engineer was almost certainly Third Junior Third Engineer Richard Wylie, who came from Liverpool who also survived. The account continued: -
The boat contained seventeen men and five women and it was two and a half hours before we were picked up. What our condition was then, few can imagine. What our feelings were, no-one can express.
When in the water I saw the body of a young fellow - Charlie Hurley - float by, apparently dead. He was from Brockton, Mass., and was coming to Leicester to work. He told me he was going to a Mr. J. Wine, 132, Tewksbury Street, who I presume, is a relative. I have looked in the list of those saved and as I cannot find the name, I presume that he was drowned.
Charlie Hurley was fellow third class passenger Charles E. Hurley who indeed perished in the sinking. As his body was never recovered and identified later, Thomas Snowden must have been one of the last to recognise his body in the sea. His account continued: -
We were picked up by a Greek steamer, flying the Greek flag. She, too, was evidently expecting to be torpedoed, for her boats were kept ready to be launched. Eventually we were landed and among the first things we were asked was whether ‘Anybody had taken a snapshot of the sinking ship?’ Sure if that fellow had not gone by quickly, he would have been molested.
The Greek steamer was purportedly the S.S. Katerina, outward bound from the Caribbean, laden with sugar and diverted from Queenstown where she was going to re-coal. She was in fact, the Cardiff steamer Westborough, deliberately disguised by her master, Captain E.L. Taylor, as a Greek merchant ship, in the hope that German U-Boats would respect her supposed neutral status!
I lost everything except my watch and money.” Here Mr. Snowden pulled a gold watch out of his pocket. The face was badly water-marked, and the watch had stopped at 2.30. “I never thought we should get through. Our boat was fast making water, and could not have kept afloat half-an-hour longer. But we were very lucky, although luck is not the right word for it. You know what I mean. I am thankful, and so is one left back in America - my mother!”
Once he had settled down from his ordeal, he applied to the Lusitania Relief Fund, (which was administered by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool), for help. This fund had been set up just after the sinking to help survivors and dependants of those killed, who had encountered financial difficulties as a result of the sinking. On 29th May 1915, he was sent the sum of £1-0s-0d., given through a Charity Organisation. The fund must have considered that his distress and financial need could not have been too great, and noted that he was returning to his mother and wife in Lynn!
At that time, he gave his contact address to the fund, as c/o Mrs. W. Tomkinson, of 103, Sherrard Road, off St. Saviour's Road, Leicester, Leicestershire.
Later in the year, he returned to his wife and widowed mother in Lynn, probably at the expense of The Cunard Steam Ship Company.
In April 1916, Tom Snowden’s wife divorced him on the ground of cruel and abusive treatment, and stated, as she was leaving the Court after being granted her divorce that her husband was eloping with Eva Finch when they boarded the Lusitania. William Finch and Tom Snowden gave interviews denying this suggestion, as stated in a report which was published in the Boston Globe on the 12th April 1916: -
… William Finch, widowed husband of Mrs. Eva Finch, who lost her life when the Lusitania sank, vehemently denies there is any truth in the published statements that Thomas Snowden and Mrs. Finch intended to elope when they took passage on the steamship.
Snowden was saved and Mrs. Finch was drowned. Yesterday at Newburyport, Mrs. Marion L. Snowden was granted a divorce from her husband, Thomas, on the ground of cruel and abusive treatment. It is said that statements were made after the trial that led persons to understand it was believed by others that Mrs. Finch and Mr. Snowden had departed from here together for England and that they were close friends.
There is absolutely no truth in these statements, both Mr. Finch and Mr. Snowden say. Relatives of Mrs. Finch in England had died and she took passage on the Lusitania, going first cabin. Mr. Snowden went on the same vessel but in the steerage. Up to a day before sailing they had never met, the men say.
When Mr. Snowden went to a local ticket office to book passage he was informed that another Lynn resident, Mrs. Finch, was also going on the boat, and he paid a visit to the Finch house on Johnstone st, there meeting the husband and wife. As a prospective fellow-passenger he was interested in forming their acquaintance, and that is all the friendship that ever existed between them. Mr. Snowden says that he never saw Mrs. Finch after she boarded the steamship.
Both Messrs Snowden and Finch are well-known here and both are highly respected. Mrs. Finch is well remembered by many persons, by whom she was held in the highest esteem as a woman of fine character.
One would expect that if Eva Finch and Tom Snowden were eloping, that they would have been travelling together, and in the same passenger class, which was not the case as Eva Finch was travelling as a second cabin passenger and Tom Snowden as a third class, or steerage, passenger. As a result, they would have found it very difficult to have had any opportunities to meet during the voyage as they would have been in different areas of the liner.
Tom Snowden continued to work as a shoe cutter, and residing with his mother, after his divorce. Then, in 1925, he married Elizabeth Coulthard in Lynn, and they had one child, a son named Thomas Jr..
On 7th May 1965, the 50th anniversary of the sinking, he was persuaded to give an interview to a local Lynn newspaper describing his experiences on the ship all those years ago and after the passage of time, this was naturally different from his earlier account and stated :-
When the torpedo hit, the ship shivered from top to bottom and from stem to stern. The concussion knocked me and everyone around me to the deck. The Lusitania immediately took a severe list to the starboard as thousands of gallons of water flooded into the hole made by the torpedo.
I immediately joined other men in putting the women and their kids into the lifeboats. A lot of the boats were lowered about half way when suddenly something snapped the lines and they smashed to pieces against the side of the ship and in the water. The women and youngsters were spilled into the water and most of them drowned. Only two or three of the boats were lowered without incident.
There was no question about the men escaping in the boats. There just weren’t enough! It was clear that my only chance of surviving was to jump overboard, so I took off my shoes and socks and jumped the 40 foot from the deck to the water. It was cold. I spotted a overturned lifeboat with about 20 or 30 people holding on to it. I am a good swimmer and didn’t have any trouble reaching it about 50 yards away. We stayed in the cold water for about eight hours and during that time I saw 300 to 400 bodies scattered all over the horizon.
Finally, we spotted a ship coming towards us. The vessel named Kintina (sic) might have been an old tramp steamer but she looked beautiful to us. She was flying a Greek flag but was actually a British ship raising the German blockade. The crew, all East Indians, lowered their small boats to scoop us out of the water. Then they took us into Queenstown. When I got ashore, I refused medical care and told them all I needed was a good drink of whisky to stir me up.
I decided to return to the United States, after realising how sweet life was. I figured war work making military boots was just as vital as anything else.
Thomas Snowden died in Lynn on the 15th February 1966, aged 81 years. At that stage, he lived at 137, Nahant Street, Lynn, and left his son, Thomas Snowden Junior, a sister,
Mrs. Edith Bond, and three grandchildren. He was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lynn, beside his second wife, Elizabeth, who died in 1950.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Massachusetts U.S. Marriage Records 1840 – 1915, Massachusetts U.S. Marriage Index 1901 – 1955, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Massachusetts Passenger Lists 1820 – 1963, New York Passenger Lists 1820 _ 1957, Cunard Records, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917 – 1918, U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards 1942, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Leicester Daily Mercury, Loughborough Echo, Liverpool Record Office, Graham Maddocks, Bobby Blackwell, Sandy Davies, Jess Jenkins, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.