William David Anderson was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 22nd March 1878, the son of David and Margaret Elizabeth Anderson (née Burkey). He was the second eldest of four children in the family and his father was a joiner.
On completion of his education, William became a pawnbroker’s assistant and then an assistant to a blacksmith.
In 1903, he married Margaret D’Arcy in Liverpool, and they had four children. The couple lived for a time at 3. Ismay Street, Walton, Liverpool.
William Anderson joined the Mercantile Marine as a steward on passenger liners sometime after 1911, although he could have worked casually on passenger liners before this.
In April 1915, he engaged as a ‘boots’ in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool. He reported for duty on the morning of the 17th April 1915, before the liner left Liverpool landing stage for the last time. The liner crossed the Atlantic Ocean without incident and having docked in New York, eventually left there on the early afternoon of 1st May, for her return to Liverpool. Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from the safety of her home port.
Boots William Anderson was one of 51 stewards, out of the 105 on board, who survived this action and having been rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown, he eventually made it back to Liverpool.
There, he was officially discharged from the last voyage of the Lusitania and was paid the balance of wages owing to him. This was in respect of his service on board from the 17th April 1915, until the 8th May, 24 hours after the vessel had gone down!.
In the 9th January 1931 edition of the Liverpool Evening Express, a letter written by William Anderson was published. In his letter, he stated that: -
After the Lusitania had been torpedoed I attended to my duties as steward and then went to the third-class deck.
The ship was listed and not very far from the water. I sat on the bulwarks and looked down and said to myself: “The best thing to do is to jump.”
I swam away from the ship and about four minutes after she sank. I swam to a trunk, but there were two men there so I did not stay long.
I next came to a collapsible boat upturned where there were three men hanging on. One later swam away to a drifting boat.
After being in the water 2½ hours a lifeboat came alongside, but could not take us in for there were 85 persons in the boat. They came back for us, but there were only two of us left.
We were taken to the small patrol ship Indian Empire, and I volunteered to go out in a lifeboat to see who we could pick up. We got quite a few and were picked up by the patrol ship Sarba, and taken into Queenstown harbour.
There was no vessel named ‘Sarba’ involved in the rescue of any of those who survived the sinking of the Lusitania, so William Anderson was mistaken on this point.
When William Anderson wrote this letter he was residing with his family at 365. Hawthorne Road, Bootle, Liverpool. Sometime later they moved to 38. Beech Street, Bootle, Liverpool.
William Anderson died at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, on the 10th February 1940, aged 61 years. He was working at a general labourer at the time of his death, and still residing at the Beech Street address. He was buried in Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool, on the 14th February 1940.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, Cunard Records, Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Echo, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 350, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 10th July 2024.