Norah Isabella Cassels was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 11th March 1876, the daughter of James and Jane Cassels (née Fox). Her father was a marine engineer and there was a tradition of service to the British Mercantile Marine in the family. She was educated at the Convent of the Sisters of Providence at 198. Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, London.
In 1895, her father died, and for a time after this, Norah and her mother lived in Dublin, Ireland, where they ran a boarding house. Norah’s mother had been born in Dublin so was familiar with the city. By 1911, they had returned to Liverpool.
In 1915, Norah Cassels lived with her mother at 147, Gloucester Road, Bootle, Lancashire, just down river from Liverpool.
On the 12th April 1915, at the Cunard offices at Water Street in Liverpool, she signed on for service on the Lusitania as a stewardess in the Stewards’ Department at a monthly rate of pay of £4-0s-0d., and joined the liner at 7 a.m. on the 17th April, before she left the River Mersey for the last time.
Having completed her last ever east to west crossing of the Atlantic, the Lusitania left New York again on the early afternoon of the 1st May 1915, for her return voyage to her home port. She had 21 stewardesses on board at the time, including Norah Cassels. On the afternoon of the 7th May, however, the Cunarder was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine, U-20, off the Old Head of Kinsale, only about twelve to fourteen hours away from the safety of her home port.
Only eight stewardesses survived this action and unfortunately, Stewardess Cassels was not one of these six.
As her body was not found and identified afterwards, her name is consequently recorded on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London. She was aged 39 years, although when she engaged, she had stated that she was aged 44 years, presumably because most shipping lines at that time preferred to employ more mature ladies as their stewardesses.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Catholic Baptisms 1741 – 1919, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of Ireland, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Bootle Times, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 3rd January 2023.