Nothing is known of Stefan Solonina except that it is believed he was born in Russia around 1878. Sometime before the Great War, he had emigrated to the United States of America and settled in East St. Louis, Illinois, where he found work as a labourer.
By the spring of 1915, however, he had decided to return to his native home, perhaps to enlist in the Imperial Russian Army and booked third class passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania on the first part of his journey home.
He travelled to New York City and boarded the vessel at Pier 54 in New York harbour,
on the morning of 1st May. The liner’s departure was delayed until the early afternoon to embark crew, passengers and cargo from the requisitioned liner Cameronia and just before 12.30 p.m. she slipped into the North River and out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Six days later the liner was torpedoed and sunk by Kapitänleutnant Schwieger’s submarine U-20, within sight of the southern Irish coast and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Stefan Solonina was killed as a result of the sinking and if his body was recovered, it remained unidentified, and therefore he has no known grave. He was aged 37 years when he was killed.
Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.