THE 97TH anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania has been marked with a special ceremony organised by a local tourist authority.
The first commemoration started at the Lusitania graves in the Old Church Cemetery just outside Cobh, Co Cork, at 2pm yesterday. After prayers, musical honours by St Colman’s Pipe Band and the Commodore Male Voice Choir and the laying of wreaths, proceedings moved to Cobh town centre.
A parade and representatives of civic, maritime and historical groups left the Old Town Hall at 3pm and made their way to the Lusitania Peace Memorial in Casement Square. A wreath was placed at the memorial.
In January 2011 the last survivor of the Lusitania tragedy, Audrey Lawson-Johnston, died aged 95.
Lawson-Johnston was only three months when she boarded the vessel with her parents, two sisters, brother and their two maids. The family was en route to London as Audrey’s father, surgeon-major Frederick Warren Pearl, had been called to the American embassy there.
She was in a cabin when the torpedo from a German U-boat struck. The child, her brother Stuart, father, mother and a maid survived. Her two sisters, Amy and Susan, died. They were buried in the Old Church Cemetery in Cobh.
Of the 1,257 passengers and 702 crew aboard, more than 1,100 people perished, including almost 100 children.