Miss ANNA MARJORY ALLAN, Saloon
Class Passenger
image: New
York Herald, Monday
10 May 1915. Courtesy Jim Kalafus.
Anna Marjory Allan, 16, was born to Sir Montagu Allan and Marguerite, Lady Allan of Montréal,
Quebec, Canada, on 8 November 1898. She was the third of four children.
Hoehling/Hoehling states that she was the twin sister of Gwendolyn Evelyn Allan, but in actuality Anna was
almost two years older than Gwen.
Anna was sailing on the Lusitania with her mother, Lady Allan,
her sister Gwen, and the Allan maids Emily Davis and Annie Walker. Once
during the voyage, the Allan sisters and one of the maids accosted Able
Seaman Leslie Morton while Morton was painting the lifeboats gray with
"crab fat." Gwen and Anna asked Leslie what he was doing and then
asked if they could help.
"I hardly think this is a job for girls." Leslie answered.
Even so, Anna took the rag Morton was using and slopped paint all over
the lifeboat he was painting and her white dress. Morton was "aghast"
at what Anna had just done (Hickey/Smith, 122). He then heard Boatswain
John Davies approach. Anna dropped the swab and ran off with Gwen.
Morton, not wanting to be yelled at by either the boatswain or the girls'
nursemaid, slid over the side and down one deck.*
At the time of the torpedo's impact, the Allan family was in
the lounge with Sir Frederick Orr-Lewis, Dorothy Braithwaite, and Robert Holt.
They gathered on the portside where Sir Frederick's valet, George Slingsby, and Lady Allan's maids
joined them. One of the maids came with two lifebelts. Slingsby
gave his lifebelt to one of Marguerite's daughters. Dorothy separated
from them in the crowd and was last seen near lifeboat #14.
Marguerite jumped into the water with her daughters and Sir Frederick
after "saying that they would die together" (Hoehling/Hoehling, 210).
Both of her daughters died, but her maids survived. Gwen’s
body, #218, was recovered by May 16 and sent back to Canada, where she
was buried in Montréal's Mount Royal Cemetery. Anna’s body
was never found, but a memorial was erected for her in Mount Royal as well.
* It is entirely possible that the
girls may have actually been Alberta and Catherine Crompton, younger and
possibly more prone to pranks, accompanied by their "furious nanny" Dorothy Allen.
Contributors:
Randy Bryan Bigham
Michael Poirier
Judith Tavares
Hildo Thiel
John Walmsley
References:
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to
Disaster. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage
of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An
Epic Tragedy. Berkley Books, 2002.
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