Phillippa Conner, always known as “Phyllis”, was born in Breage, Cornwall, England, on the 4th May 1875, the daughter of John and Millicent Conner (née Oates). Her father was a farmer, and Phyllis was the youngest of six known children.
She was a draper’s assistant, and on the 11th June 1907, she married journeyman carpenter Thomas Henry Richards at The United Free Methodist Church at Helston, Cornwall. As he was also born and lived in Breage, it is likely that she had known him for most, if not all of her life, although he had returned from the United States of America to marry her!
After the wedding, the pair set out to go back there, and on July 10th 1907, they arrived at New York in on the Cunarder S.S. Carmania, before making for Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana. Once they had settled there, they had three children, Thomas Percy - known as Percy - who was born in 1908, Cecil Henry, who was born in 1911 and Dora Millicent, who was born in 1913. The family home there, was at 2210, Yew Street.
By the spring of 1915, however, the family decided to leave Butte for Cornwall with their children, possibly because of the war or perhaps because of a family feud with other members of the Richards family living in Montana which had broken out. As a result, they booked as second cabin passengers on the sailing of the Lusitania, which was scheduled to leave New York for Liverpool on 1st May 1915.
Having left Butte some time in April, they all arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in the city on that morning but had to wait until the early afternoon for the liner to sail, as she had to embark passengers, cargo and some crew from the Anchor Lines vessel the Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war work as a troop ship at the end of April. Thomas Henry Richards had taken out United States citizenship in 1906, and Phyllis Richards would have been entitled to assume the same on her marriage, and all her children were born in America. Nevertheless, Cunard records record the whole family as being British and this information could only have come from Phyllis’ husband. Once on board, they were accommodated in room D.80.
Six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from her destination.
Thomas Henry Richards later wrote of the family’s experiences to his sister, Mrs. Harry Skewes, back in Butte and this letter was later published in The Butte Miner and stated: -
We left New York at 12:30 o'clock Saturday. We were late owing to the fact that we had to take on the Lusitania the passengers for the Camperonia, a Red Star Liner, that was ordered to Halifax to take on troops or something. Everything went very well until Friday. Had a lovely voyage - could not have expected better. Well, we were at dinner at the second seating. We went to dinner at 1:40 in the afternoon. We had just finished and I was folding my napkin when the fateful shot came. Everyone was on their feet in a second and rushing from the dining room. I am thankful to say I kept my cool and sat there for a minute and asked others to sit still for a while until the rush was over. Then all of a sudden, the Lusitania went down on one side and everything was swept from the tables. “Now,” I said, “Let's go” - there not being much of a crush. We went to our room hearing the words. "Women and children first in the
boats.”
Well I thought that Phyllis and the children might be in the boat all night and, if so, would be cold, so I said to put on her fur coat. Then we put on the four life preservers and made for the deck. There were only four preservers in each room, none for Dora and she was too small had there been one there.
I had a boy in each hand and Phyllis had Dora in her arms. We climbed up four flights of stairs, then we saw an officer and asked him what he thought about it. He said: “There is no danger yet.”. Also, he told us the best thing to do was to go up on the next deck and get into a boat. That stairway was full and how we got up it alive I don't know. I pulled the boys up and my wife followed. We were not there more than a half a minute when the Lusitania was almost perpendicular, going down bow first, with the propellers in the air. We were standing on the side of the lounge room, going down with the Lusitania. When the lounge reached the water we all floated off.
We left the children go then - could not hold on to them any longer, until we came to the top of the water again. The first thing I saw was Percy and Cecil quite close to me. I caught Cecil, but Percy was too far from me. Could not see mamma. Well, I managed to get to a boat with Cecil and caught hold of it, bottom side up, with some men on it, and they helped Cecil up on top. I looked around again and saw mama holding on to the same boat and I asked the men to help her, which they did. “Now,” I said, “Give me a hand.”
Well, we were on the boat looking around for Percy and Dora, but could not see them. My watch stopped at 2:34 o'clock, when we were taken off by the Indian Empire, a mine sweeper. We started for Queenstown at 6:10 o'clock by the clock on the boat.
Well, I should have said that the first one I saw on the Indian Empire was Percy calling “Papa”, but not crying. We got to Queenstown at 9:45 o'clock that night.
The first thing I did was to cable Charles and father. Then we got a bed and had our clothes dried. All next morning I spent hunting about Queenstown for Dora, but could not find her dead or alive. I viewed all the bodies, some 130 altogether. It was now 2:30 o'clock Saturday afternoon. The last I saw of Mrs. Trevarrow was at the table before the crowd started for the decks.
Mrs. Treverrow was another Cornish lady who had also lived in Butte.
Once back in Cornwall, the family made for Thomas Henry Richards’ former home at Colvorry Farm in Breage parish, part of which they bought, eventually buying a property named ‘Waverly’ in the hamlet of Ashton, to where they retired, in due course. This was also in Breage parish, on the Penzance to Helston road. Prior to this, Percy and his wife May (née Tregear) had joined them at Colvorry Farm. There, Phyllis and Thomas Henry had another daughter, whom they named Phyllis Millicent,
born in 1918, who, tragically, also died young, aged four years, in 1922, at the farm!
Phyllis Richards herself died in 1950, aged 75 years, ten years before her husband, and was buried in the family grave in the churchyard of St. Breaca’s Parish Church in Breage.
The whole family, apart from Cecil, have inscriptions on the headstone which states: -
In Loving Memory of
PHYLLIS MILLICENT
BELOVED CHILD OF T.H. & P. RICHARDS
WHO DIED IN COLVORRY ON NOV. 20TH 1922
AGED 4 YEARS.
ALSO
OF DORA MILLICENT
THEIR BELOVED CHILD WHO
WAS DROWNED THROUGH THE
SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
MAY 7TH 1915 AGED 20 MONTHS
Suffer The Little Children To Come Unto Me.
ALSO
THOMAS PERCY
BELOVED HUSBAND OF MAY 1908 - 1949
AND OF
PHILLIPA, MOTHER OF THE ABOVE, 1875 - 1950
AND OF
THOMAS HENRY
BELOVED HUSBAND OF PHILLIPA
OF WAVERLEY ASHTON
1874 - 1960
RICHARDS
By this time, Percy, too, was dead - he had committed suicide in 1949, partially because of the traumatic stress he had suffered through the Lusitania sinking!
Cecil died in 1993, so ending the direct connection with the Lusitania. Although buried in the churchyard, and probably in the family grave, he is not commemorated on the headstone, probably because he was the last to die and there was no-one left to have his name inscribed!
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 5590, PRO BT 100/345, Butte Miner, West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, Graham Maddocks, Dennis Osbourn, Jean Timmermeister, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.