With the death in 2009 of Millvina Dean who was the last survivor of the Titanic sinking in 1912, we now have only one surviving person from either of the two great historic ship sinking's of the early part of the last century - The Titanic and The Lusitania.
Her name is Audrey Lawson-Johnston.
Audrey Lawson-Johnston, born Audrey Warren Pearl is the Last Survivor of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915.
Born in 1915 in New York City she is the fourth of six children born to Major Frederic Warren Pearl and Amy Lea Duncan. Lawson-Johnston was three months old when she boarded the Lusitania in New York with her parents, three siblings and two nurses. Her 18-year-old English nursemaid Alice M. Lines saved her life and that of her 5-year-old brother Stuart by jumping off the boat deck and being pulled into a lifeboat. Her parents survived but her sisters Amy and Susan were lost.
Her saviour Alice Lines, with whom Lawson-Johnston was close through all her life, died in 1997 at the age of 100.
The RMS Lusitania liner was sailing from New York to London when it was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. Almost 1,200 people died. Along with the Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1912, the Lusitania is considered by historians to be one of the most significant maritime disasters. Significant because the sinking of the Lusitania,a and the loss of 127 Americans on board, was a major contributing factor in bringing the United States into the First World War.
In a 2008 interview with the Bedford Times and Citizen she shared how surviving the sinking impacted her life.
She recalled how the lifeboat she was saved in left a lasting impression on herself and her mother Amy Lea Pearl. Both went on to donate a great deal of time and money to the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution. In 2004 Mrs Lawson-Johnston raised £26,000 which paid for a new lifeboat. She said: "I have always believed that we were saved for a reason and it became very important to my mother, while she was alive, and myself to help them carry on with the good work that they do."While millions of Europeans were coming to the United States in 1915 Mrs Lawson-Johnston's family were doing just the opposite. Mrs Lawson-Johnston's American family were voyaging to England for a new life. She said: "We had actually been warned of the possibility of torpedo attack, but you never really worry about the risks of these things, you just go." "I think my parents had it in their minds that they would be moving the family to London for a better life and better schools."
In fact, her parents were moving their family to an England already deeply involved in a protracted and bloody war of attrition against Germany. Soon after the start of World War I in August 1914, the Lusitania was requisitioned by the British Admiralty. Many of her passenger cabins were removed to allow her to haul more cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. Though gun mountings were installed, the Lusitania was never converted into a battle cruiser and instead, the Admiralty decided to continue to allow her owner, Cunard, to use her as a passenger ship.
However, passengers were not her only cargo. Also on board were 1,248 cases of "Live 3" shrapnel shells being shipped from the United States to Britain to help foster the British bombardment of the German front lines. These cases of live ammunition, it would later be learned, were stored in the forward cargo hold.
In February 1915, in response to the British Naval blockade of Germany and the Admiralty's ordering British merchant ships to fly neutral flags and attempt to ram any German submarine that confronts them, the Germans declare a war zone around the British Isles. The German government announces that any ship of Great Britain or her allies encountered within the war zone will be sunk by German U-boats, without warning. The German government take out advertisements in American newspapers, publicly making these warnings.
So it was with good reason that Mrs Lawson-Johnstone's family knew of and feared torpedo sinking at the hands of the German Navy.
On Friday, May 7, 1915, these fears become realized as a torpedo from German U-boat U-20 slamed into the forward starboard cargo hold. There is a tremendous explosion as the torpedo impacts the ship, then a second explosion moments later. The Lusitania sinks in only 18 minutes with the loss of 1,201 passengers and crew.
The public outrage over the sinking of the Lusitania and the tremendous loss of life of innocent men, women, and children on the high seas helps to propel the United States into the war in Europe.
Though she has no actual memory of the sinking of the ship, Mrs Lawson-Johnston is now history's Last Surviving witness to one of the significant events of the 20th Century.
Sources:
http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Pearl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania
http://www.lusitania.net/
