Rosanna, also known as “Rose”, or “Rosy”, Goodwin was born in Longton, Staffordshire, England, on the 20th August 1885, the daughter of Ralph and Mary Goodwin (née Fitzsimons). Her father was a potter in one of the local pottery factories, and both her parents had previously been married and widowed before they married in 1877. The family home was at 133, Parliament Street, Newhall, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
Both her parents died while she was a child – her father in 1893, and her mother in 1895, and at an early age she entered domestic service.
On the 10th May 1914, she arrived in New York City, in the United States of America, on board the
Caronia, having sailed from Liverpool, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. She was employed by Mrs. Edgar Lyons, 203. Woodlawn Road, Roland Park, Baltimore, as her maid.
In the spring of 1915, however, she decided to return home and booked third class passage from New York, on the
Lusitania. She was accompanied on her journey by another Englishwoman who was in domestic service in Baltimore – Miss Queenie Benjamin, from Lincolnshire, who was also wished to return to England. Both women wanted to contribute to the war effort by working in England.
They were on board as the liner left her moorings at Pier 54, to slip out into the North River for the very last time, and one week later, after the vessel was torpedoed and sunk, both were lucky enough to be counted amongst the survivors, although like everyone else, they had lost all their belongings! Rose’s health also suffered as a result of the sinking.
Later, once she had got back to Burton-on-Trent, Rose successfully applied for help to The Lusitania Relief Fund, which was administered by The Lord Mayor of Liverpool to help those victims who had survived and the relatives of those who did not.
In the late summer of 1915, she was awarded £10-0s-0d from the fund in respect of her lost belongings and her loss of good health.
Nothing is known of her life after she returned to England, except that in the months following her survival, she resided at 176. High Street, Newhall, Burton-upon-Trent, Derbyshire
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Staffordshire England Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes 1837 – 2017, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Cunard Records, Baltimore Sun, Liverpool Record Office, IWM GB62, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.