William Barnes was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 12th October 1871, the son of William and Elizabeth Ellen Barnes (née Ridnell). He was the second eldest of seven children and his father was a commercial traveller.
On completing his education, William Barnes became a warehouseman, and on the 12th August 1895, he married Annie Maude Taylor at St. Matthias’s Church, Great Howard Street, Liverpool. The couple had seven children: however, only three of their daughter’s survived infancy.
Sometime after marrying and starting a family, the family lived at 60. Aughton Street, Everton, Liverpool, where William Barnes ran a public house. By 1915, the family lived at 3, Albion Street, New Brighton, Wallasey, Cheshire, and William Barnes was a professional steward serving in the Mercantile Marine with the Cunard Steam Ship Company Limited.
William Barnes engaged as a first class bedroom steward in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool on the 12th April 1915 at a monthly wage of £4-5s-0d., (£4.25p.) and reported for duty on the morning of the 17th April, before she left
the River Mersey for the last time. It was not his first voyage on the liner.
Having carried out his duties across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York, he was performing similarly on the afternoon of the 1st May when the Lusitania began the return leg of her voyage to her home port.
On that voyage, Bedroom Steward Barnes had responsibility for 14 saloon rooms - evenly numbered from D34 to D60 serving some 23 people. His passengers included all the Crompton family - Mr. Paul Crompton, the family head, was managing director of The Booth Steamship Company of Liverpool - and Miss Theodate Pope, renowned female architect.
Six days out of New York, on the afternoon of the 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Bedroom Steward Barnes was able to survive this action, however, and having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown, from where he was able to send a telegram to his wife, which simply stated: -
DON’T WORRY; SAVED AFTER FOUR HOURS IN WATER.
Of the 23 saloon passengers in his care, however, fifteen were killed as a result of the sinking which included the entire Crompton family - the highest family loss of all on board on that dreadful day. Although Miss Pope survived to live to gain high honours for her work, her maid, Miss Emily Robinson perished!
In an account of the sinking printed in The New York Times on the 2nd June 1915, Mr. Isaac Lehmann an export broker from New York, travelling as a saloon passenger on board the ship stated: -
I rushed down the deck to the entrance which is known as the grand entrance and ran to D deck to my state room, known as D48, to get a life preserver. When I reached there the boat had commenced already to settle. Somebody certainly had been in my room already and had taken my life preserver.
I walked up to B deck and met my steward - by the name of Barnes - on the way, and told him to get me a life preserver. I waited for him to get this and he put it on for me, saying that it would come in handy.
It may be that Barnes' actions helped to save Mr. Lehmann's life that day.
On his eventual return to Merseyside, he was officially discharged from the Lusitania’s last voyage at the Cunard offices at Water Street in Liverpool and given the balance of pay owed to him in respect of his service on the vessel, from the 17th April until the 8th May 1915, 24 hours after the liner had gone down.
By 1919, William Barnes and his wife had moved to Southampton, Hampshire, where they lodged at the home of Frederick William and Ellen Louisa Angel at 4. Salem Street, Shirley, Southampton. As the trans-Atlantic liners had moved their operations
from Liverpool to Southampton, William and his wife deemed it necessary to move there so that he could continue in his profession.
The couple later moved to 32. Regent’s Park Road, Southampton, but sometime after Annie Maude Barnes died, on the 10th March 1931, William went to live with his married daughter, Violet, and her family at “Uplyme”, Ringwood Road, Totten, Southampton.
By 1939, William Barnes had retired and continued to live with his daughter and her family. Nothing further is known at this stage about him.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1871 Census of England, 1881 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, 1939 Register, Cunard Records, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Liverpool Echo, Hampshire Advertiser, New York Times, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 348, PRO BT 349, PRO BT 351/1/7347, Graham Maddocks, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 11th December 2022.