Mr.
JOHN FREEMAN, Second Cabin Passenger
image
credit: Harold Ruoff. Click for full image.
John Freeman, 37, was born to a well-to-do family from Enfield,
England. He and his brother emigrated to Canada to take up apple
farming. Having being successful, John married Rachel Blanche Grant in May of 1908. The
couple was on the Lusitania returning to England to visit
relatives and on business.
When the ship was struck, John and Rachel were sitting on the upper
deck of the Lusitania. He claimed that there were two
torpedoes. They
immediately stepped into the lounge to get out of the way of the
debris.
Rachel turned to John and exclaimed, "Whatever may happen to us,
we
shall go to Glory."
John took Rachel to a lifeboat and placed her in it and went back to
their second class cabin area to fetch lifebelts. He waited until
the ship was almost gone and jumped overboard and began swimming away.
John came
across two boats lying at right angles. Soon thereafter he made
good
use of one of the boats and rescued over 30 people.
John and Rachel Freeman lived out most of the rest of their lives in
Canada,
but he died in England on 6 January 1937.
Contributors:
Michael Poirier
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