Louis Joseph Charles Wilfred Emond was born in Quebec, Canada, on the 22nd November 1868, in to a French-speaking Roman Catholic family. He was the son of Francois Alfred and Philomène Emond (née Théreau), and when his father, who was a grocer, died in 1877, his family went to live with his maternal grandparents.
In the early years of his life, he went by his last given name – ‘Wilfred’; however, following the death of his father, it appears his family began referring to him as ‘Alfred’, or ‘Alf’, no doubt in memory of his late father.
Alfred was employed as a buyer for J.B. Laliberté, Fur Manufacturer, a large Quebec-based company, still in existence today, and on the 26th August 1890, he married Irma Vilmina Martel in Quebec. The couple had one child, a daughter named Marie Delina Vilmina Delle, born on the 1st August 1892. Then, in February 1893, his wife died.
On the 28th May 1895, he married again. His second wife being Marie Zoe Lachance, and the family home was at 118, Rue de la Couronne, Quebec, Quebec Province, Canada.
From at least 1909, in the course of his employment, Alfred frequently travelled to Europe, and in the spring of 1915, he needed to travel to there again. By this time, his annual salary was stated to have been $2,200.
Consequently, he booked saloon passage on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool and having left Quebec at the end of April, he arrived at the liner’s berth at Pier 54 in New York harbour on the morning of 1st May 1915, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing. Once on board, with ticket number 46148, he was escorted to his accommodation in room B7, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Robert Morse who came from Birkenhead, Cheshire, on the opposite bank of the River Mersey from Liverpool.
The liner’s sailing was delayed until the afternoon of that day, however, as she had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war service at the end of April. She actually left the port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that point, she was within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and within 250 miles of her home port.
Alfred Emond was one of the many saloon passengers killed as a result of the torpedoing and at first no trace of his body was found. In fact, on 10th May a cable routed via Montreal arrived at the Cunard office in Queenstown which simply stated: -
LUSITANIA ANY TRACE MR. W.A. EMOND OF QUEBEC. UNDERCLOTHING BEARS INITIALS, WEARS THREE STONE SIGNET RING. BALD HEAD DARK MOUSTACHE HEIGHT FIVE FEET SIX INCHES.
This description was to no avail at the time, but over two months later, on 26th July 1915, his headless body was washed up at Doonbeg, off the Doolin and Arran Islands, in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland about 200 miles from where the Lusitania had gone down. It was given the reference number 20, for bodies recovered in the area, and was then buried by the local police, on 27th July 1915 in Doonbeg, Graveyard, in County Clare. Alfred Emond was aged 46 years, although Cunard records state that he was aged 35 years when he boarded the liner!
On 31st July 1915, Cunard reported the finding of the body and its burial in a letter to Messrs. J.C. Ogden and Company of Manchester, who must have been acting for the Emond family: -
They (the police) had no instructions re disposal and owing to the state of decomposition; the remains were buried by the police where they were recovered.
When this news was made known to Mrs. Emond, she attempted to have the body disinterred for burial in Quebec, but was advised against it for the reasons stated by the Doonbeg officers! She may have changed her mind, because on the 9th October 1915, she wrote to the Cunard Steam Ship Company stating that she had made up her mind to have her husband’s remains returned to Quebec. The company responded on the 27th October, offering to ship the remains free of charge, but that she would have to meet the costs of the exhumation and any other costs associated with it. It is not known whether or not she was successful or not.
The property recovered from Alfred Emond’s body was forwarded to Cunard agents Messrs. R. Reford & Co., of Quebec and handed over to his widow at the home address on 26th August 1915. It consisted of a broken black leather case containing $400 in traveller’s cheques in two separate blocks, drawn on La Banque Nationale de Quebec, $41 in American currency bills and seven British gold sovereigns and some American coinage. There was also an Aliens Restriction Order of 1914 and a landing card named to Walter Emond, a United States Alien Emigration form, an insurance policy, a certificate of Canadian residency, some postage stamps - Canadian and French, and three Montreal railway tickets.
Bedroom Steward Robert Morse who had looked after Alfred Emond in room B7 did survive the sinking, however and eventually made it back to his Birkenhead home.
Zoe Emond lodged a claim with the Canadian Commission seeking compensation for the loss of her husband. During the course of the hearing into her claim, it was revealed that Alfred Emond had left an estate valued at $6,000, and also had his life insured for $11,000, which had been divided equally between his widow and daughter. Zoe Emond was bedridden by the time her claim was decided in December 1926, as she was suffering from acute tuberculosis and rheumatism. The Commission awarded her the sum of $10,000 for the loss of her husband, and interestingly, she made no claim for the loss of his personal effects in the sinking, unlike most other claimants.
Although Cunard records give Alfred Emond’s forename as Walter, this was obviously an error!
Quebec Canada Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection) 1621 – 1968, Ireland Civil Registration Death Index 1864 – 1958, 1871 Census of Canada, 1881 Census of Canada, 1891 Census of Canada, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of Canada, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 842, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/.345, UniLiv.D92/1/6, UniLiv D92/2/274, UniLiv. PR13/6, UniLiv D92/2/274, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Denise Deighton, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.