Peter Reid was born in Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the 13th September 1883, the son of Archibald and Cecilia Reid (née Forrest) of ‘Cozieglen’, Carluke, Lanarkshire. His father was a fruit merchant. Peter was the youngest of three children, all boys, and his mother died when he was aged about 18 months. His father re-married and had four more children.
In February 1910, he emigrated to Canada, and on arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he stated that his intended destination was Hamiota, Manitoba. He stated he was a labourer, but where he found work, and the nature of that work, is unknown. Then, in the spring of 1915, by which time three of his brothers had joined the Colours, to fight in the Great War, he decided to return home to be with his father.
As a result, he booked second cabin passage to Glasgow from New York on the Anchor Liner Cameronia. However at the end of April 1915, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty for war service as a troop ship and all the passengers, the cargo and some of the crew were transferred to the Lusitania. Peter Reid was allocated a berth in the second class accommodation.
What must have seemed to have been a piece of good luck at first, would turn into tragedy just six days later on the afternoon of 7th May, however, when the liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. He was one of the many second cabin passengers who lost their lives as a result of this action. He was aged 31 years and as his body was never found and identified afterwards, he has no known grave.
The Carluke & Lanark Gazette for 15th May 1915 said of him: -
He was a young man who was well-known in the district and he had many friends in Carluke, Braidwood and Crossford.
There is an inscription on the headstone on the family grave in Carluke Old Churchyard, which states: -
PETER REID WHO LOST
HIS LIFE THROUGH
THE SINKING OF THE
LUSITANIA
BY A GERMAN SUBMARINE
ON 7 MAY 1915 AGED 31 YEARS
His step-brother, S/10627 Private Archibald Reid of the 5th Battalion, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Loos, on the 25th September 1915. Like his brother, Peter, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, which commemorates the names of over 20,000 officers and men who fell in the area from the first day of the Battle of Loos to the end of the War. His other brothers survived the War.
The official passenger manifest for the final voyage of the Lusitania stated that Peter Reid’s place of origin was Little Rock, Arkansas, but no records can be found of him having ever been there. It could be that he was working in one of the many places in Canada that were named, or known as, Little Rock, which could explain the confusion, but this is only speculation.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of Scotland, 1901 Census of Scotland, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Carluke & Lanark Gazette, Hamilton Advertiser, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Shirley Hitchcock, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.