Phillip Henry Traynor was born in Liverpool, Lancashire England on 28 January 1887, the son of Peter and Elizabeth Traynor. The family home was at 209 Beaufort Street, Park Place, Toxteth, Liverpool.
He engaged at Liverpool as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the
Lusitania on 12 April 1915 at a monthly wage of £6-0s-0d and joined the liner five days later at 8am before she left the River Mersey for the last time. His previous ship had been the SS Matador.
Three weeks later, when the liner was on the returnn journey from New York, he was one of the many who lost their lives as a result of the torpedoing of the vessel. He was aged 28 years.
As his body was not recovered and identified afterwards, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing of the Great War at Tower Hill, London.
In August 1915 he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s
final voyage and his family was paid the balance of wages owing to him in respect of his sea service, which was reckoned to be from 17 April until 8 May 1915, 24 hours after the liner had gone down.
Trimmer Traynor’s previous ship the SS Matador of Harrison, Thomas and James of Liverpool, was also sunk on 3 July 1917 by the German submarine
UC-31, in the Atlantic Ocean whilst inward bound to Liverpool from Pernambuco with a general cargo.
References
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1891 Census of England and Wales, 1911 Census of England and Wales, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Cunard Records, Merchant Ships Sunk By U-Boats, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334.