Samuel Hendy Caldecutt was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 7th February 1883, the son of William Henry and Sarah Caldecutt (née Boden). His father was a plumber who died when Samuel was a child. The family lived for many years at 24. Eversley Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, before later moving to nearby 70. Blythswood Street. Samuel was one of at least seven children in the family.
On completing his education, Samuel became a professional seaman by joining the British Mercantile Marine as a ship’s steward.
On the 7th October 1909, he married Eveline Elizabeth Beeston at All Saints Church, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, and the couple lived with Eveline’s parents for the first few years of their marriage.
Samuel engaged as an assistant smoke room steward in the Steward's Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool on the 12th April 1915 at a monthly rate of pay of £4-5s-0d., (£4.25p.), and joined the vessel at 7 a.m. on the 17th April, before she sailed out of the River Mersey for the last time. It was not the first time that he had served on the vessel.
He survived the sinking three weeks later, when the liner was off the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her home port and described his experience of it to a reporter of The Wallasey News, which was published on Saturday, the 15th May 1915. He was very concerned that some allegations that had appeared in the press that the crew had not behaved in a proper manner should be refuted.
He had helped to launch Lifeboat No. 13, which he estimated had contained 40 women and children and went on to say: -
Considering the nature of the explosions and the short time the ship
remained afloat, both the discipline on board and the number of people saved was remarkable.
He also elaborated on this theme to a reporter from The Wallasey and Wirral Chronicle, published on the same day: -
Samuel Caldecott (sic.)..... has pointed out that a splendid discipline obtained among the crew.
Mr. Caldecott has stated that seven and thirteen have always been his lucky numbers. He was born on the 7th, married on the 7th and was saved from drowning on the 7th of May in No. 13 Lifeboat. “When I saw the boat’s number I knew that I should be saved, and was convinced of it when I remembered that it was also the seventh day of the month.”
Two female crew members, Stewardesses May Bird and Fanny Morecroft and Steward’s Boy William Borrows also owed their lives to being picked up by Lifeboat No. 13.
On his return to Wallasey, he went over to the offices of the Cunard Steam Ship Company in Water Street, Liverpool and was officially discharged from the Lusitania's final voyage. Upon his discharge, he was paid the balance of wages owed to him in respect of the liner’s last ever voyage, which amounted to £4-9s-6d., (£4.47½p.). His service for this amount was reckoned to be from the 17th April until the 8th May 1915, 24 hours after the liner had been sunk.
Cunard records show the assistant smoke room steward's surname to be spelled Caldicott and is shown with an 'e' in the local newspaper accounts, however; his correct surname was certainly Caldecutt.
Samuel Caldecutt continued to serve as a smoke room steward for many years after his ordeal, serving principally on the Cunarder, RMS Aquitania. The family lived at 8. Kenilworth Road, Wallasey, Cheshire, and Samuel and his wife were blessed with eight children.
With the decline of Liverpool as a trans-Atlantic port in the 1920’s, Samuel and his family moved to Southampton, Hampshire, where on the 25th August 1924, his wife died suddenly of natural causes, aged 37 years.
Samuel Caldecutt died on the 1st March 1944 at Herrison Hospital, Herrison, Dorset, England, aged 61 years. For some years prior to his death, he was a patient at Knowle Mental Hospital, Knowle, Hampshire.
Register of Birth, Marriages, and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, Liverpool England Crew Lists 1861 – 1919, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Wallasey News (Photo 15/05/15), Wallasey & Wirral Chronicle, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 349, PRO BT 350, PRO BT 351/1/19762, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 30th December 2022.