Miss GWENDOLYN EVELYN ALLAN,
Saloon Class Passenger
image: New York Herald, Monday
10 May 1915. Courtesy Jim Kalafus.
Gwendolyn Evelyn Allan, 15, was born to Sir Montagu Allan and Marguerite, Lady Allan of Montréal,
Quebec, Canada, on 20 April 1900. She was the youngest of four
children. Hoehling/Hoehling states that she was the twin sister
of Anna Marjory Allan, but in actuality Anna
was almost two years older than Gwen.
Gwen was sailing on the Lusitania with her mother, Lady Allan,
her sister Anna, 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. Another
man 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 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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