Robinson Pirie was born in Dundas, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, on the 21st June 1855, the son of George Mitchell and Margaret Ann Pirie (née Booth). His father was a grocer, and Robinson was one of eleven known children.
On completing his education, he trained as a machinist for a time before he became a clerk. On the 16th January 1879, he married Margaret “Maggie” Jane Joslin in Wentworth, Ontario, and the couple had seven children.
He became a dry goods salesman, and progressed to be a buyer and representative of W. E. Sandford, a Manufacturing Company of Hamilton, and made regular trips across the Atlantic Ocean, particularly to Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to buy cloth for his business. At the end of April 1915, he left Hamilton, and met up with a business colleague Reginald R. Lockhart, from Toronto, Ontario, to travel to Huddersfield, to buy cloth from Messrs. Thomas Cresswell and Co., of Lord Street.
They both joined the Lusitania as saloon passengers, at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure on 1st May 1915 and Mr. Pirie was allocated room B58. This was the personal responsibility of First Class Waiter John Roach, who came from Liverpool and who must have been acting as a bedroom steward on the liner’s final voyage. Reginald Lockhart was allocated room B72. They then both had to wait until 12.27 p.m. before the liner actually sailed, because she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the S.S. Cameronia, an Anchor Lines vessel requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war use as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20 and despite being sucked below the surface of the ocean when the ship sank, Robinson Pirie survived the action, and was eventually rescued from the sea and landed at Queenstown in the evening. The following day he left for Dublin by train and sailed from there to Holyhead, eventually arriving at 'Holmleigh', Mountjoy Road, Huddersfield, the home of a business colleague, Mr. Spurr, on Sunday 9th May.
There, he gave an account of his experiences to a reporter of The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, which was printed in the newspaper on the following day. The account stated: -
“Did you not consider it dangerous to cross the Atlantic after the warnings issued on the other side?" queried our reporter, and Mr. Pirie replied that, like others, he attached no importance to them after all the German bluff. Indeed, he went so far as to express the opinion that it was absurd. Of course, he continued, the threats of Germany were the chief topic of conversation during the eventful voyage. One of the American passengers religiously contended that the Lusitania would fall a victim to the pirates. But when the vessel had safely covered the distance to the Irish coast, little fear was entertained of meeting with a submarine.
Mr. Pirie said that with the exception of his eye-glasses, all his belongings, including his money, were lost. He went down with the vessel, and upon coming to the surface passed through the ordeal of being submerged a second time. "I must have gone down a tremendous distance, "he continued, "because of the time it took me to reach the surface. When I came up I was isolated from the others in the water, but being a good swimmer, I managed, with the aid of my lifebelt, to get hold of an oar. For over two hours I was in the water before being picked up by a collapsible boat belonging to the Lusitania and transferred to a mine sweeper, which took us into Queenstown."
He was very much exhausted, and immediately he got ashore was conveyed to the Rob Roy Hotel, where everything possible was done to make him comfortable. During the time he was in the water, he sustained some minor injuries to his legs and hands. Unquestionably he owes his life to the fact that he was able to swim and withstand the water for so long a period.
Before leaving Queenstown, Robinson Pirie toured the temporary mortuaries set up there, in the hope of helping to identify the many dead which had been recovered.
The Rob Roy Hotel with gave him such succour after his arrival in Queenstown still stands today, but is no longer a hotel. Reginald Lockhart also survived the sinking as did John Roach.
Obviously not put off sea travel by his Lusitania ordeal, Robinson Pirie returned to Hamilton, via New York, in June 1915, and continued to make crossings of the Atlantic for the rest of the war! He was aged 60 years at the time of the sinking.
Following his return home, Robinson Pirie filed a claim with the Canadian Commission, seeking compensation for the the loss of his personal effects in the sinking of the Lusitania. On the 5th August 1926, the Commission decided on his case, awarding him his full claim of $759.92.
On the 20th May 1920, Robinson Pirie arrived home from Europe on his last trans-Atlantic voyage, for on the 12th July 1920, he died at his home, 24. Hess Street, Hamilton, Ontario, of rhe
Ontario Canada Marriages 1826 – 1938, Ontario Canada Deaths and Deaths Overseas 1869 – 1948, 1861 Census of Canada, 1871 Census of Canada, 1881 Census of Canada, 1891 Census of Canada, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of Canada, Canadian passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Canada Ocean Arrivals 1919 – 1924, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 868, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, PRO 22/71, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.