Reginald Burley was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on the 15th January 1912, the second child of Reuben Burley and his wife, Florence (née Bull). He lived at 126. Frederick Arcade, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada with his parents and his older sister, Doris. His parents had originally lived in Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire, England, and had emigrated in 1904.
At the end of 1914, his maternal grandfather had died in Hamilton, and in the spring of 1915, his grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bull, decided to return to England. The Burley family decided to travel with her to Ashton, for a holiday. Consequently, all of them booked as second cabin passengers on the Lusitania, and joined the vessel at New York, on 1st May 1915, before she sailed on what became her final voyage ever.
When she was sunk, six days later, the Burley family was wiped out, along with Mrs. Bull, and only the body of Mrs. Bull was ever recovered and identified later. Reginald Burley was only three years of age!
Ontario, Canada Births, 1858 – 1913, Cunard Records, Stalybridge Reporter, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/95, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Lawrence Evans, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.