Phyllis Renee Marichal was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, on the 15th March 1913, the second daughter, and youngest of three children, of Rene Joseph Philibert and Jessie Irene Marichal (née Emerson). She had one sister, Yvonne born
in 1909 and a brother, Maurice, born in 1910. Her father was a secondary school language teacher.
Since 1913, the family had been living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada where Phyllis’s father had been Professor of Romance Languages at Queen’s University, but in April 1915, he had accepted an appointment at Birmingham University, in Warwickshire England. Consequently, he booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania, for the entire family, from New York to Liverpool, for the sailing which was due to leave that port at 10 o’clock on the morning of 1st May 1915.
The liner finally left Pier 54 in New York just after mid-day, because she had to wait to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for war service as a troop ship.
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 Liverpool destination. Yvonne Marichal was later to state that her parents had insisted that all three of their children dine in the restaurant with them rather than in the nursery and that consequently they were all together when the liner was struck!
All five of them were saved, probably because they were able to get into one of the few lifeboats which was successfully launched. After being rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown they all managed to get to Birmingham. Phyllis was aged 2 years at the time, although the official passenger manifest stated her age to be 4 years!
Once in England, the family made a successful application to The Lusitania Relief Fund, administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and a specially selected committee to pay a doctor’s bill, and at that time, their address was shown to be 21, Hampstead Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.
Phyllis’s father Joseph was later killed in action on the 12th August 1916, fighting in the French Army on the Somme.
As a young woman, Phyllis worked in a shop selling umbrellas and raincoats, and then, in 1944, she married Michael Frederick Madigan, in Worcester. The couple had one child, a daughter, named Chrystal Jessie Irene, born in 1947.
Phyllis Madigan died in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, on the 6th August 1992, aged 79 years.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1939 Register, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, Liverpool Record Office, Ministère de la Défense, République Française, The Times, Lusitania, PRO BT 100/345, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.