John Humphreys Griffiths was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on the 21st July 1877, the son of Edward and Martha Griffiths (née Withington). His father was a tailor, and John was one of thirteen children in the family. The family home, at the time of his birth and for a number of years afterwards, was at 65. Hunter Street, Liverpool.
He became an umbrella maker on the completion of his education. He was following this trade when he married Emily Thomasene Hessom in Liverpool on the 8th May 1900.
The family took up residence in Seacombe, Wallasey, Cheshire, close to where Emily was born, and sometime after their marriage, John joined the Mercantile Marine as a steward on trans-Atlantic liners. Thus, he was employed as Chief Third Class Steward in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania when the great liner left Liverpool on her final voyage to New York on the 17th April 1915.
Having successfully completed the liner’s outward journey to New York, he was still serving in the same capacity when she left New York in the early afternoon of 1st May
1915.
Six days later, on the afternoon of the 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours away from her Liverpool destination.
John Griffiths survived this action; however, and having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually made it back to Liverpool. Once there, at the offices of Cunard in Water Street, he was paid the balance of wages owed to him in respect of his service on board the liner, which was reckoned from the 17th April 1915, until the 8th May, 24 hours after the great ship had foundered.
In The Yorkshire Observer of the 10th May 1915, third class passenger Walter Dawson described his experiences in the sea after the liner had gone down: -
I swam about for a time and got hold of a little kiddie but I lost him later in helping a boy about 7 years of age. At last I reached a water-logged boat, which was supporting a few more men including a couple of stewards, one of whom, named Griffiths, I believe was badly crushed. The little boy died in our arms before help came.
This must have been John Griffiths, whom Walter Dawson would have known in the third class area of the ship.
John Griffiths continued to serve in the Stewards Department of trans-Atlantic liners until the 26th February 1932, for while serving as a bar keeper on the RMS Ausonia, another Cunard vessel which served the England to Canada route, he suffered a fatal heart attack while the vessel was at sea. He was aged 55 years. At the time of his death, his residence was reported to have been at ‘Overton’, Leasowe Road, Wallasey, Cheshire.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, Wallasey News, Yorkshire Observer, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 349, PRO BT 350, PRO BT 351/1/54976, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 21st December 2023.