Owen Alfred Ipsen was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 7th April 1875, the son of Annias Matias and Alice Jane (née McEvoy) Ipsen. His mother died some months after Owen was born and he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Annie McEvoy. His father, who was Danish, and a ship’s carpenter, re-married in 1880, and Owen’s two older brothers, Walter, and Charles, lived with their father and stepmother.
In April 1889, Owen found work as a clerk with the London & North Western Railway Company and remained in this employment for at least ten years. He worked at Crown Street Station in Liverpool. Sometime later, he enrolled in the Mercantile Marine, serving as a waiter on passenger liners.
He married Catherine Levesley in Liverpool on the 31st January 1897, and in early 1915, they lived at 16 Olive Street, Abercromby, Liverpool, with their four children – Joseph, Ellen, Agnes, and Catherine.
On the 12th April 1915, at Liverpool, he engaged as a third class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania, at a monthly rate of pay of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.) and reported for duty four days later on the morning of the 17th April, before the liner left the River Mersey for the last time, on her way to New York. It was not the first time that he had served on the vessel.
Having completed her voyage to New York, he was on board in the early afternoon of the 1st May when she left that city to begin what became her last trans-Atlantic crossing. Six days later, however, on the afternoon of the 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about fourteen hours steaming time away from the safety of her Liverpool base.
Waiter Ipsen survived the sinking and having been rescued from the sea he was landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually made it back to Liverpool. There, at the Cunard office in Water Street, he was given the balance of pay owed to him in respect of his service on board ship from the 17th April 1915 until the 8th May, 24 hours after the Lusitania had foundered. This amounted to £4-9s.-6d. (£4.47½p.).
On the 18th March 1919, a letter was received at The Cunard Steam Ship Company at Liverpool, from Owen Ipsen’s widow informing the Company that he had: -
..... recently died and his death was inadvertently due to the sinking.
The letter also stated that Ipsen had saved two people during the sinking and his widow sought compensation for his loss.
Cunard referred her to The Liverpool and London War Risks Association, who it thought would examine her claim, probably under The Workmen’s Compensation Act.
He had, in fact, died on the 6th February 1919 of mitral valvular disease of the heart, from which he had suffered for a year, at the Olive Street address in Liverpool. His death certificate, which lists his occupation as Ship Steward and Postman, does not mention his ordeal on the Lusitania, and as he had only developed heart trouble a year earlier, it is extremely unlikely that his widow would have benefited from any compensation scheme.
He was aged only 43 years at the time of his death.
Owen’s only son, and eldest child, 308271 Private Joseph Arthur Ipsen, 1st/8th Bn. The Kings (Liverpool Regiment) died on the Western Front on the 20th November 1917. His remains were not recovered from the battlefield, or if they were, they were not identified, and therefore his name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. He was aged 19 years.
Register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Catholic Baptisms 1741 – 1919, Liverpool England Catholic Marriages 1754 – 1933, Liverpool England Catholic Burials 1813 – 1985, 1881 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, General Register Office, UniLiv.D921/1, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 21st January 2024.