Robert Joseph Thompson was born in Ramsey in the Isle of Man, in 1877, the second son of Robert and Elizabeth Matilda Thompson (née Caine). His father was a railway porter.
Robert Thompson was variously described as a clerk or an accountant, and in 1903, he had immigrated to Holdrege, Nebraska, in the United States of America, but in January 1908, he had moved on to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
He returned to his home in the Isle of Man for a holiday in 1910, and on the 26th August 1911, he married Jessie Agnes Campbell, who had come to Vancouver from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands in February 1911. The couple had one child, a son named Robert Sinclair Thompson, who was born in January 1913. Their home was at 3023, Victoria Drive, Grandview, Vancouver, and Robert was employed by the Vancouver Electric Tramway Company.
In April 1915, however, Robert Thompson set off for New York, where he joined the Lusitania as a second cabin passenger, en route for England, where he hoped to find employment in a munitions factory, or maybe enlist in the armed forces.
The liner left the Cunard berth at Pier 54 at 12.27 p.m. on 1st May 1915, after a delayed start, brought about because she had to embark passengers, some crew and cargo from the Anchor Lines ship the S.S. Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for service as a troop ship. Exactly six days later, Robert Thompson was dead - killed after the liner had been torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about 250 miles away from the safety of her Liverpool home port! He was aged 38 years at the time, although when he bought his ticket, he had informed the ticket clerk that he was only 35 years!
Robert Thompson survived the sinking and was picked up by a small boat. This boat capsized a short time later and as a result, Robert Thompson was killed.
No sign of his body was found until ten weeks after the sinking, when it was washed up on Avery Island, in County Clare, about 200 miles from where the liner had gone down. It was first given the reference number 15 for the area of the Doolin and Arran Islands and then, when it was properly searched, a difficult task after being immersed so long in the water, it was formally identified from property recovered from it.
As can be imagined after such a long immersion in the sea, it was badly decayed and was described as: -
Body in advanced state of decomposition. Face beyond recognition, hand
missing. Flesh gone from legs and pair of American boots were on the remains of the feet. Deceased dressed in tweed suit, woollen shirt and woollen drawers.
In clothes were found pocket book containing paper cuttings. A cheque for £30 on the Canadian Bank of Commerce for £30 made payable to Robt. J. Thompson, a postal order for £1 and another for 10 /-, 4 P.C. One letter of character and one letter written in pencil. 2 “Lusitania” tickets; visiting card and accident insurance ticket; an employees pass on British Electric R’way Co. Ltd., to R.J. Thompson, Chief Clerk Compts. Dept. Hanging from waistcoat was gold cased watch and chain.
It was buried on 20th July 1915, on Avery Island, where it lies today.
Robert Thompson is also commemorated on the family grave in the church yard of Kirk Christ Lezayre, near his birth place in Ramsay, on The Isle of Man, on a black marble headstone adorned with white letters. The inscription which applies to him states: -
Also ROBERT JOSEPH ..... DROWNED BY
THE SINKING OF THE S.S. LUSITANIA. MAY 7TH 1915
AGED 38 YEARS.
In the summer of 1915, The Mayor of New York’s Fund for The Relief of Lusitania Sufferers took up the case of Jessie Thompson and her two dependants - her mother and her son. She was without means of support and with only a small amount in the bank and still owing $1,400.00 on a mortgage on the house in Victoria Drive, she feared that she would lose it. The Mayor’s Committee considered her plight and then awarded the family a grant of $2,400.00 - $1,400.00 to repay the mortgage and $500.00 each for her and her mother.
On 7th December 1915, the property recovered from Robert Thompson’s body was handed to her at Victoria Drive, Vancouver, by a representative of The Cunard Steam Ship Company, having arrived at New York on board the S.S. Saxonia on 7th December 1915, and then been sent on to her via the Chicago office.
Robert’s widow submitted a claim with the Canadian Commission seeking compensation for herself and her son as a result of Robert Thompson’s death. By the time the Commission made their decision, she had re-married, her second husband being a William Gillen, and was working as a musician in a theatre. In 1926, the Commission awarded her $5,000 and her son $7,000
British Columbia Canada Marriage Index 1872 – 1935, 1881 Isle of Man Census, 1891 Isle of Man Census, 1901 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 864, Liverpool Records Office, Vancouver Daily World, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/277, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Barry Bridson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.