Nothing is known of Anthony Stankicwicz except that he is believed to have been born in Tsarist Russia around 1868.
Sometime before the Great War, he had left his native land and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States of America and settled in Trenton, New Jersey, where he found employment as a labourer.
In the spring of 1915, however, he decided to return home, perhaps intending to fulfil his patriotic duty bearing in mind the military defeats which had been inflicted at that time, by the armies of the Central Powers on the Imperial Russian forces.
Consequently, having already booked third class passage on the Lusitania, he left Trenton and travelled to New York City in time to board the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the morning of 1st May 1915. He then had to wait until just after noon before she actually left the harbour.
This was because she had to wait to embark crew, passengers and cargo from the requisitioned Anchor Liner Cameronia, which the British Admiralty had taken up from trade for use as a troop ship at the end of April. Then, just six days later, in the early afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, when she was twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland, and only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port. She sank only eighteen minutes later!
Of the 69 Russian nationals who were passengers on the Lusitania that day, 40 were killed and 29 survived the sinking. Unfortunately, Josef Stankicwicz was one of those killed. He was aged 46 years.
His body was recovered from the sea, however, and was landed at Queenstown, where it was taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up there. There, it was given the reference number 198, and described as: -
Anthony Stankicwicz (Josef?) Russian, 3rd class. 45 - 50 years, 5’ 9” high, medium build, dark hair, bald in front of forehead, dark brown moustache, and had a few days growth of beard.
Property. 3 5 Rouble Bills, and 235 Roubles, i Purse, i knife, i stud and some papers and documents. Address Trento Nodiozdeg Street, Teller No. 173.
It was then buried on 16th May 1915, in The Old Church Cemetery, just north of the Queenstown, in Mass Grave B, 4th Row, Lower Tier, where it lies to this day.
It is likely that it had not been positively identified at this stage, although its identity was suspected. Body No. 198 also had a gold signet ring on it, however, with engraved initials. Although these initial were not deeply engraved, a wax impression was made of them, which was sent to the Imperial Russian Consulate, at 30, Bedford Square, London. The Consul was later able to confirm the identity of the body as that of Anthony Stankicwicz, presumably having contacted his relatives.
The property was then sent to the Russian Consul General on 4th January, 1916 for return to Stankicwicz’s relatives.
At least one alternative passenger list states that Mr. Stankicwicz’s forename was Josef, but the forename of Anthony, which appears on the official passenger manifest is used by most sources.
Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.