Mr.
WILLIAM EDGAR MOUNSEY, Second Cabin Passenger
image
credit: Joy Stocking Hill
Click on image for full image.
William Edgar Mounsey and his wife Fanny Sewell were both born in
Keswick, Cumberland, England. When their oldest child, John
Thomas Mounsey, called Thomas, was about four years old, the family
emigrated to the United States. They subsequently reared John Thomas
and eight other children in
the midwest US, finally settling in Chicago, where they lived at 4420
Laporte Avenue. They opened a family business called Mounsey
Movers.
In 1914, Fanny had the opportunity to visit her family in Keswick,
Cumberland, England. She and her traveling companion Mrs. John
Fisher boarded
the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland as second class
passengers. Fanny had been reluctant, but Mrs. Fisher's
persuasion of a scenic
trip through the St. Lawrence convinced her. On 29 May the Empress
of Ireland was struck by the Norwegian collier Storstad and
the
Empress went down in 14 minutes. Both ladies were lost and
neither's
body was recovered.
Almost a year later, the Mounsey family received word from England that
a woman in a Liverpool institution named "Kate Fitzgerald" was uttering
the name "Mounsey" and had a fear of water. She was believed to
be a survivor of the Empress of Ireland disaster. Without
a moments notice, William, his daughter Sarah,
and her husband Charles Lund traveled to
New York to take the Lusitania.
On the train to New York, they met Eunice
Kinch
and her son William Mostoe-Kinch
while
passing through Cleveland. They, too, would be traveling aboard
the
Lusitania and the two parties became friends.
William was in the lounge with William Mostoe-Kinch when the torpedo
struck, and was met by his daughter who had run in to find him.
Charles
was nowhere to be found. They crossed to the portside and entered
a boat that had no plug. They were then told to get out of the boat and
that the Lusitania would not sink.
Running over to the starboard side, Sarah was very frustrated and
scared and implored Robert
Timmis
to get her a lifebelt. He gave her his own. She then beckoned her
father
to follow her to the funnel deck when the ship sank rapidly and an
explosion threw them into the sea. Sarah did not find her father or
Charles afterward.
Sarah pressed on to Liverpool to seek out "Kate Fitzgerald." The
woman in the institution, however, turned out to be nothing like her
mother. William and Charles had died in a quest that "had been
futile from the start."
In a statement made by William's son, William Mounsey, Jr. on page 3
of the Monday, 10 May 1915 New York Times, he stated:
“Father had no premonition that anything would go wrong on this
trip . . .. He was so overjoyed at the prospect, faint as it was,
that mother was to be rescued from the dead that he had not a moment’s
thought that a fate like hers would be his also.”
Charles Lund's body was found eventually, and his remains returned to
the United States. William's body was never recovered. The
youngest of the Mounsey children, Bertha Mounsey Stocking, passed away
in 1994.
Contributors:
Joy Stocking Hill (granddaughter of William Mounsey)
Michael Poirier
Juidth Tavares
David Zeni
References:
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last
Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy.
Berkley Books, 2002.
Zeni, David. Forgotten Empress. Goose Lane Editions,
1998.
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