Percy Thornton Jackson, always known as ‘Thornton’, was born at 8. Beaconsfield Street, Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 27th August 1882, the only son of William Kendall and Catherine Thornton Jackson (née Chambers). His father was a ship owner, and Thornton had a younger sister named, Enid Kendall Jackson.
While still a child, his father divested himself of his interests in the maritime trade, and became a house agent. The Jackson’s then moved to a large house at 7. Park Road, West Kirby, Wirral, Cheshire, where Thornton’s mother kept a lodging house, before his parents retired and moved to 50. Alderley Road, Hoylake, Cheshire.
Thornton built up his own business as a dealer in metals, and on the 9th September 1909, he married Mary Emily McKerrow, known as “Mollie”, at Trinity Church, Birkenhead, Cheshire. By 1915, they lived at Park West, Heswall, Cheshire, with their son – Alyster Kendall Thornton Jackson, who was born in 1911. Thornton was a prominent Presbyterian, and he and his wife were long term members of Heswall Golf Club.
In the spring of 1915, he had been conducting business in the West Indies and having travelled from there to New York City, in the United States of America, he booked a second cabin return ticket on the
Lusitania to cross the Atlantic back to Cheshire.
Arriving at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure, in company with all her passengers and crew, he had to wait until 12.27 p.m., before she actually sailed. This was because she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had suddenly been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship. He occupied berth 1 in cabin E98, which he shared with Lewis F. Yardley, Charles H. Stevens, and George Nicoll.
Just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Cunarder was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-20. At that point, she was off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and only about twelve to fourteen hours steaming time away from her Liverpool home port and destination.
Percy Jackson was killed as a result of this action and as his body was not one of those recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 32 years.
At first, news was received in Heswall that he was amongst the rescued, but this proved to be false and his family eventually accepted the worst. Following this, the flag at Heswall Golf Club was hung at half-mast as a mark of respect for him.
He is commemorated on the family tomb in the graveyard of the former Trinity Church, in Hoylake, Cheshire. The pertinent parts of the inscription state: -
ALSO PERCY
THORNTON,
PASSENGER ON BOARD
R.M.S. LUSITANIA,
TORPEDOED BY GERMANS
7TH MAY 1915, AGED 33 YEARS.
Perhaps the shock of his death hastened his own parents' demise for his father died just under a month after his son's death, on 6th June 1915 aged 63 years, and his mother died just over eighteen months later, on 12th November 1916, aged 54 years.
After her son’s death, Catherine Jackson, by now a widow, had applied for financial help to The Lusitania Relief Fund, which had been set up after the sinking by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and other local dignitaries to help survivors and dependants of those killed, who had suffered financial loss as a result of the outrage. Her grounds for applying were that she was a dependant relative and the awards committee granted her an immediate £5-0s-0d., and promised to look further into her case. This they did, and increased her payments to £0-10s-0d. per week.
Administration of Percy Thornton Jackson’s estate was granted to his widow, Mary, at Chester, Cheshire, on the 23rd June 1915, and his effects amounted to £440-1s-11d, (£440.10p.).
Thornton Jackson’s cabin mates, Lewis F. Yardley, George Nicoll, and Charles H. Stevens also perished in the sinking.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool Lancashire England Baptisms 1813 – 1906, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, New York Passenger Lists 1820 - 1957, Cunard Records, Birkenhead News, Liverpool Echo, Liverpool Record Office, Probate Records, UniLiv D92/2/200, UniLiv D92/2/209, PRO BT 100.345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Peter Threlfall, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.