Robert Dyer was born in Lochee, Forfarshire, Scotland, on the 20th March 1868, the son of James and Margaret Ann Dyer (née Ferrie). He was one of at least six children, and his father was a labourer at a gas works. While he was still a child, his family moved to Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire.
In 1887, he immigrated to the United States of America, along with his older brother, Charles. He settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he found work as an iron moulder. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1892. On the 12th October 1898, he married Mary H. Ferguson in Pittsburgh, and the couple set up their home at Becks Run Road, Lower St. Clair, Pittsburgh.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to travel to England, and booked second cabin passage on the Lusitania. Consequently, he left Pittsburgh at the end of April and travelled by rail to New York and arrived at her berth in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her last ever sailing, which began just after mid-day, after a delayed start. Six days later, in the afternoon of 7th May, he was lucky enough to be counted amongst the survivors when the great liner was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, off the coast of southern Ireland!
He later told of his ordeal which was syndicated in newspapers throughout the world: -
Mr. Robert Dyer of Pittsburgh, has stated that when the crash came, he and some friends who were in one of the luncheon room were knocked off their feet. One of them remarked “That’s one of the damnable German submarines and I’ll bet they’ve done for us at last!”
Dyer and some companions were getting into a boat when the boatswain came along and remarked, "Go easy, the bulkheads are all right and the ship is safe; there is no danger." "But," continued the narrator, "I did not take off my lifebelt all the same. I got up along the landing deck, and climbed a piece of the mast, and the ship listed so much that I could nearly touch the water. Then the ship sank and I sank with her.
It seemed that I was below the water for an hour, but I got hold of the rigging and wreckage around me at last and floated up to the surface. After the second torpedo struck, the boilers and engines exploded. Finally I swam to an upturned lifeboat. The thing that troubled me was the poor women and helpless children drowned without a chance for their lives.
The people in New York were saying the Germans would get us. When we left, crowds on the wharf were shouting “Good-bye, cheer up, the worst is yet to come.” And it came.
Having been rescued from the sea, Robert Dyer was landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually reached his original intended destination in mainland Britain, suffering from exposure and shock.
Robert Dyer didn’t remain in Great Britain for long, as he boarded the St. Louis at Liverpool on the 29th May, and disembarked in New York City on the 5th June, following an uneventful voyage. From there, he returned to his home in Pittsburgh.
In July 1922, the United States Consulate in Queenstown sought the help of the Cunard office there in trying to establish his whereabouts, but the only information Cunard had of him was that he had left Queenstown on 15th May 1915. By this time, we know he had returned to the United States.
Robert Dyer lodged a successful claim with the Mixed Claims Commission which, on 21st February 1924 awarded him damages of $1,000.00, and a further $1,200.00 compensation for the loss of his belongings as a result of the sinking.
He died at the Presbyterian Hospital, in Pittsburgh, on the 27th December 1946, of coronary thrombosis and gangrene of the bowel as a result of a strangulated hernia. He was aged 78 years, and was buried on the 31st December at South Side Cemetery, Pittsburgh.
Scotland Select Births and Baptisms 1654 – 1950, Pennsylvania County Marriage Records1845 – 1963, Pennsylvania Death Certificates 1906 – 1967, 1871 Census of Scotland, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1940 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, Pennsylvania Passenger Lists 1800 – 1962, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Brighton Gazette, Western Mail, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 235, UniLiv.D92/1/1, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.