William Mustoe was born in the workhouse in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, on the 22nd April 1896, the son of Eunice Mustoe, who was unmarried. His mother was a domestic servant, and William was brought up by his grandparents, and his mother’s sister Mrs. Anne Hopkins.
William, like his mother, entered domestic service, working as a kitchen porter at the Gloster House Hotel in Cheltenham, and then as a farm labourer.
On 7th October 1909, William’s mother married William Kinch, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and as a result, both William and his mother also became American citizens. In 1912, William joined his mother and step-father in Cleveland, and in 1915, the family resided at 6300 White Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.
William became an electrician, and must have approved of his step-father, as he quickly adopted his surname, but the family’s happiness did not last long, as William Kinch died in November 1913.
In the spring of 1915, William Mustoe Kinch and his mother decided to return to England to spend the summer, and booked on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York as second cabin passengers. They booked their passage from Collver and Miller, Taylor Arcade, Cleveland.
Having left Cleveland, at the end of April by train, they became acquainted on the journey with three others who were booked on the same sailing, Charles and Sarah Lund, who were travelling from Chicago, and Sarah’s father, William Mounsey.
Mother and son boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 on the west side of the city, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure for Liverpool. William Mustoe Kinch was given Berth 2 in Room D90 and his mother berth 2 in Room D92. They both had to wait until just after mid-day before the liner actually left port, however, because she had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from Anchor Liner Cameronia which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for use as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland, only about fourteen hours sailing time away from the safety of her home port.
Both William and Eunice Kinch lost their lives as a result of the torpedoing and as neither of their bodies was ever recovered from the sea and identified later, neither has a known grave. William Mustoe Kinch was aged 20 years.
In June 1915, a Miss Elizabeth Price of Fallowfield, Manchester, Lancashire, sent photographs of the pair to the Cunard offices in Queenstown, in case they matched photographs taken of the recovered corpses or in case the bodies of the Eunice or William Kinch might be washed ashore, but to no avail. It is likely that Miss Price was a relative or family friend.
Furthermore, in September 1916, a Mr. William H. Chapman, Attorney at Law, of 34, Engineers Building in Cleveland Ohio, who was acting for the estate of William Kinch, wrote to Cunard, stating: -
By reason of dispute over the property of Mrs. Kinch, it has been necessary
to have it judicially determined as to who (sic) between her and her son survived the other.
He then asked if any passengers or crew had witnessed the last moments of William Mustoe Kinch or his mother to help him in this task and Cunard promised to look into the matter. The matter was eventually resolved, but only after protracted litigation.
After the war, the Mixed Claims Commission considered a claim filed by William H. Chapman, the executor of William Mustoe Kinch’s estate, for compensation for his death, and also for the loss of his personal property. As William Kinch left no dependants or next-of-kin, the Commission made no award.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Pennsylvania Passenger Lists 1800 – 1962, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2264 & 2269, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv.D29/1/1, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.