John Niven McPherson was born at 60. Fisher Street, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 16th July 1871, the son of John and Mary Ann McPherson (née McNiven). The family later resided at 29, Wallace Grove Place, Shields Road, Glasgow. His father was a joiner, and John was the second eldest of five known children in the family.
After completing his formal education, John McPherson became a clerk, and then a machinist in a printing works, before immigrating to the United States of America in April 1905. He joined his older brother, Donald, who was living in White Plains, New York with his family. He gave his profession on his arrival in New York City as ‘clerk’, but two months later, he was describing himself as a farm labourer!
It is not known how long he remained living with his brother, or how long he remained in the United States of America, but he was certainly in New York City at the end of April 1915.
His father had died in Glasgow in February 1915, and it is possible that John McPherson had decided to return to his home country to support his mother and family.
He engaged as a waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at New York, on the 30th April 1915 at a rate of pay of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.), just in time for her last trans-Atlantic crossing. It proved a costly decision for him, as he was killed when she was sunk, exactly one week later. He was aged 44 years.
His body was not recovered and identified afterwards and as a result he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission show his rank to be that of fireman in the Engineering Department, but those of Cunard, compiled for the Lusitania's last voyage and published in March 1916 are more likely to be reliable for ranks held on board at the time.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1564 – 1950, , 1881 Census of Scotland, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, New York U.S. State Census 1905, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UniLiv. D92/6/1, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 7th January 2025.