Thomas Percy Richards - always known as Percy Richards was born on the 19th July 1908, in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana, in the United States of America, the son of Thomas Henry and Phillipa (Phyllis) Richards, (née Conner). He had a younger brother named Cecil born in 1911 and a younger sister named Dora Millicent who was born in 1913. The family home in Butte was at 2210, Yew Street, and his father was a carpenter in a quartz mine.
His parents had originally come from Cornwall in England to America in 1907, not long after their marriage, but in the spring of 1915, they decided to take the whole family back to Britain - maybe because of the Great War - but also possibly because of a feud involving other members of the Richards family living in Montana - and as a consequence, booked them all as second cabin passengers on the May sailing of the Lusitania. This was scheduled to sail from New York to Liverpool, at 10 o’clock on the morning of 1st May 1915. Although Thomas Henry Richards had been granted United States nationality in 1906, and Percy Richards and his brother and sister had been born in Montana, the whole family appear as British citizens on Cunard’s passenger records.
Leaving Butte some time in April, the family arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York in time for this planned sailing but had to wait until the early afternoon before the liner actually left her moorings and moved out into the North River. This was because she had to take on board passengers, cargo and some of the crew from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship at the end of April. Once on board, the family was accommodated in room D.80.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, and sank two miles closer to the shore. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about 250 miles from her home port.
After the ship was struck, Percy was separated from the others and naturally terrified, was discovered and befriended by one of the ship’s crew who helped him to survive and be reunited with his parents. The seaman gave young Percy his cap as a souvenir - it was a Royal Navy style cap with the gold wire tally embroidered with the letters ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE, which reflected the status of the giver - which became a treasured possession, for the rest of his life.
Percy Richards’ father Thomas Henry later described what had happened in a letter to his sister a Mrs. Skate in Butte, which was later published in local newspaper The
Butte Miner and stated: -
I had a boy in each hand and Phyllis had Dora in her arms. We climbed up four flights of stairs, then we saw an officer and asked him what he thought about it. He said: “There is no danger yet.”. Also, he told us the best thing to do was to go up on the next deck and get into a boat. That stairway was full and how we got up it alive I don't know. I pulled the boys up and my wife followed. We were not there more than a half a minute when the Lusitania was almost perpendicular, going down bow first, with the propellers in the air. We were standing on the side of the lounge room, going down with the Lusitania. When the lounge reached the water we all floated off.
We left the children go then - could not hold on to them any longer, until we came to the top of the water again. The first thing I saw was Percy and Cecil quite close to me. I caught Cecil, but Percy was too far from me. Could not see mamma. Well, I managed to get to a boat with Cecil and caught hold of it, bottom side up, with some men on it, and they helped Cecil up on top. I looked around again and saw mama holding on to the same boat and I asked the men to help her, which they did. “Now,” I said, “Give me a hand.”
Well, we were on the boat looking around for Percy and Dora, but could not see them. My watch stopped at 2:34 o'clock, when we were taken off by the Indian Empire, a mine sweeper. We started for Queenstown at 6:10 o'clock by the clock on the boat.
Well, I should have said that the first one I saw on the Indian Empire was Percy calling “Papa”, but not crying. We got to Queenstown at 9:45 o'clock that night.
Out of the whole family, only baby Dora, Percy Richards’ sister perished in the sinking. Having been landed at Queenstown, they eventually reached their ultimate destination, which was Breage parish in Cornwall. Percy Richards was aged six years at the time.
After recovering from their ordeal, the family settled at the old family home at Colvorry Farm in Breage parish. Percy Richards married Johannah May Tregear - always known as May – at Chynhale Methodist Church, near Sithney, Cornwall, on the 1st September 1934, and they too, lived at the farm.
Percy was badly affected by the Lusitania’s sinking for the rest of his life, however, and suffered screaming nightmares constantly. These probably contributed to his taking his own life, by hanging, at Colvorry Farm, on 24th June 1949. He was aged only 40 years at the time!
The verdict of the Coroner’s Inquest which investigated his death on 27th June 1949 was that he: -
Took his own life by hanging whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.
He was buried in the family grave in the churchyard of St. Breaca’s Parish Church in
Breage.
The inscription on the headstone which applies to him states: -
ALSO
THOMAS PERCY
BELOVED HUSBAND OF MAY 1908 - 1949
Also commemorated on the headstone is a sister, Phyllis Millicent, born to Percy’s parents in 1918, who tragically died aged only four years, in 1922 and is also buried in the grave.
Administration of Thomas Percy Richards’ estate was granted to his widow and father at Bodmin on the 21st October 1949. He left an estate of £7,777-18s-0d. (£7,777.90p.).
After Percy Richards’ death, the Lusitania seaman’s cap was passed on to his brother Cecil, and when he died in 1993, it was left to the local museum in Helston.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Montana U.S. County Births and Deaths 1830 – 2011, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1939 Register, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 5590, PRO BT 100/345, Butte Miner, West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph, Probate Records, Graham Maddocks, Dennis Osbourn, Jean Timmermeister, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.