Mrs. Albert E. Adams (Gertrude Pollett), Second Cabin Passenger

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[No Picture Provided]

Gertrude Pollett, 25 ?, was the wife of Albert E. Adams, and together they had a daughter, Joan.  They were British by nationality.  At the time of the Lusitania's last voyage, Albert had joined the Canadian army and was already serving in France.  Gertrude and Joan were returning to the UK to live with Gertrude's family in Bath (near Bristol in Gloucestershire), so that her husband could see her when he was on leave.

When Lusitania was sinking, Gertrude was given a lifejacket by a male passenger and then jumped into the water clutching Joan in her arms.  She remembered sinking to great depth and losing Joan.  When she came to the surface Joan was nowhere to be seen.

Albert survived the war and, with Gertrude, moved to Australia with Gertrude's brother.  Her brother had left Bath in the early 1900s to work on the land in Australia.  As the manager of a cattle property on the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Australian Army and served in a Cavalry Regiment but was very badly wounded.  He was too badly injured to return to farming, so he was compelled to work in an office, even though his heart always remained in the country with his horses.

Gertrude and Albert went on to have another four children. Albert, Gertrude, and her brother have passed on in the years since, but they are remembered by their family as "wonderful people - very determined but gentle and fair - always ready for a joke or a smile. They were part of a great generation and I feel privileged and proud to have known them."

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Contributor:
Hugh Thomson (grandnephew of Gertrude Adams)

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