Josef Lodewyk Bernard “Shef” Malfait was born in Mechelen, Antwerp, Belgium, on the 6th December 1887, the son of Alfons Josef and Maria Lowies Malfait (née Gysels). Nothing else is known of his family or early life.
It appears that he was a labourer in Belgium, and on the 30th June 1913, he married Louise Lucie Dartevelle in Brussels, Belgium.
It is not known when he first signed on as a trimmer on steam ships, but he engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania on the 12th April 1915 at Liverpool at a monthly wage of £6-0s.-0d.
Although he appears in the Cunard list of crew survivors published in March 1916 as a trimmer, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission list him as a casualty, with the details Waiter S. Malfait.
As such, his name appears on the Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, London.
It is inconceivable, however, that there were two seamen of the same unusual name and initial, one surviving and one being killed, both serving on the Lusitania, so as the Commission would have had to have checked sources after the war before accepting any casualty for commemoration, it is most likely that Cunard made the mistake and Trimmer Malfait did not survive.
Antwerp Belgium Civil Registration 1796 – 1906, Brabant Province Belgium Birth, Marriage, Death Records 1792 – 1920, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 8th April 2024.