Wawrin Lukianowicz was born in Poland, then part of Imperial Russian in 1878. Nothing is known of him, except that he was a labourer and married to a woman named Malas.
In May 1912, he had travelled from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. On arrival at Halifax, he proceeded to Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America, to the home of a relative at 635. West 12th Street.
In the spring of 1915, perhaps because of patriotic duty and the poor performance of the Imperial Russian Army against the armies of the Central Powers, he decided to return to his homeland and as a result booked third class passage on the Lusitania’s May sailing for England, for the major part of his journey home.
He arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time to board the liner for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. This was then delayed until the early afternoon, because she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service as a troop ship. Just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland and about 250 miles away from her Liverpool destination.
Altogether there were 68 Russian nationals on board the Lusitania when she left New York. Of these, 39 were killed and 29 survived the sinking and Wawrin Lukianowicz was unfortunately one of those who lost their lives. As his body was not recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was 37 years of age at the time of the sinking.
The official list of passenger victims published by Cunard in March 1916 lists Wawrin Lukianowicz’s forename as Wawren, but this is believed to be an error. They also stated his aged to be 39 years.
Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S. 1895 – 1960, Cunard Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D92/8-10, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.