Mrs. Walter Dawson Mitchell (Jeanette "Nettie" Elizabeth Moore), Second
Cabin Passenger
Jeanette Mitchell, 27, was traveling aboard Lusitania with her
husband Walter Dawson Mitchell, their son, also named Walter Dawson, and
her brother, John Moore. Jeanette and
John were saved, but both her husband and son were lost in the sinking.
Jeanette was from Ballylesson, County Down, Ireland. She was one
of six children. As of 1915, her brothers Bobby and Archie had enlisted
to fight in the war.
Walter Dawson Mitchell had been Jeanette's sweetheart since childhood. Walter
was the second son of Reverend G. P. Mitchell, rector of Drumbo, Lisburn,
County Antrim, Ireland, and grand-nephew of Canon Pounden of Lisburn. Walter
had been an apprentice at the Island Spinning Company in Lisburn and was
offered a job as the assistant manager of the Marshall Mills in Kearny,
New Jersey, United States in December of 1912. Taking this opportunity,
Walter proposed to Jeanette. They married and lived with Mrs.
R.M. Crozier of 177 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. Walter junior
was born to them in August 1914. Jeanette and Walter regularly sent
photographs of their child back to Ireland.
In the spring of 1915, the Mitchells decided to return to Ireland to visit
their parents in Drumbo, Lisburn, and Walter had been asked to return and
the Mitchells were “discouraged by conditions caused here [in the United
States] by the war.”
Also traveling with the Mitchells would be Jeanette's brother, John Moore,
who had been living in Connecticut since 1911 and planned to enlist for the
war effort once he reached Ireland.
Walter, Jeanette, their ten-month-old son, and John sailed on Lusitania
on 1 May 1915. Jeanette recalled that when the ship passed by where
Titanic sank in 1912, some passengers threw wreaths into the sea.
On 7 May, Jeanette, Walter Sr., and John had just finished lunch, and
Jeanette went to the cabin to see the baby when they felt "a great crash,
which shook the ship." With Walter, Jr., they followed the rest of
the passengers to the upper decks to find out what had happened. As
the ship was listing to starboard, only the starboard side boats were being
lowered properly and lifebelts were being handed out. John did not
take a lifebelt, but he managed to get into a lifeboat which overturned while
lowering.
Jeanette and Walter, with their baby, were in the water, clinging to a capsized
lifeboat, with Walter holding the baby. Jeanette saw her husband slip
into unconsciousness, his last words to her being, "I can't hold on any more
Nettie." She knew her husband had died when his skin turned dark and
he had froth on his mouth. Jeanette herself was barely alive when men
pulled her out of the water and onto a minesweeper (perhaps the Indian
Empire, which John was also on board). She only remembered being
dragged by her feet, her head bumping against the deck. Walter and
the baby wer also brought on board, and attempts were made to resuscitate
the husband and wife on ship and on shore. The baby was lost, and Walter
did not revive, either.
John saw Jeanette and Walter lying among the corpses on the harbor steps
of Queenstown. He thought he saw Jeanette's eyelids move and realized
she was alive. He managed to resuscitate her. The Lisburn
Standard reported that it was "chiefly due to his [John's] presence of
mind that his sister did not share the same fate as her husband."
All three Mitchells had been listed on Sunday, 9 May’s list of missing and
probable dead, which was erroneous in light of Jeanette’s survival.
On Saturday, John took Jeanette to buy some clothes when she overheard a
group of sailors talking about the sinking. One sailor had described
a "beautiful baby" that he had taken out of the water and Jeanette rushed
over to him, insisting that the child was hers. She begged him to tell
her what he had done with the child's body, to which the sailor answered,
"Listen, love, where your baby is now, there is nothing more you can do for
him."
Per the list of interments at Queenstown, Master Walter Dawson Mitchell
was body #122, male, age 6 months [sic, actually 9 months], second-cabin passenger,
Common grave C.
On Saturday evening, Reverend Mitchell received a wire stating that Jeanette
and John were safe, but his son and grandchild had been lost. Another
telegram stated that Jeanette and John would arrive in Lisburn by the midnight
train from Dublin. Reverend Mitchell and Mr. Moore (Jeanette and John's
father) received them at the Lisburn train station. They were still
in shock and grief-stricken and were unable to give any account of what had
happened to them. Walter's remains were enclosed in an oak casket,
the brestplate of which was inscribed with:
W.D. Mitchell
Died May 8, 1915
Mrs. R.M. Crozier was surprised to receive a letter from Jeanette on Monday,
24 May 1915, as Jeanette had been presumed dead. The letter made no
mention of how Jeanette escaped from the sinking Lusitania or how her
husband and son died. The New York Times states, “Mrs. Mitchell
was evidently too grief-stricken to write in detail.”
Jeanette was granted £640 13s 4d for the loss of her husband at the
Belfast court. She went on to work as a nurse at the Rotunda Maternity
Hospital in Dublin, an action perhaps due to the loss of her own child. She
was working at the hospital during the Easter Rising of 1916 and assisted
women who were giving birth as gunfire continued outside of the hospital
walls. Jeanette was alone on duty one night when British soldiers came
into the hospital, looking for gunmen who might be hiding there. She
told them not to dare to disturb the ladies under her care, and that there
were no such rebels in her hospital.
Jeanette remarried in 1920 and had two sons. Upon her death, she
was buried with Walter, across the island from where Walter, Jr., lies at
rest.
Contributors:
Senan Molony
Judith Tavares
References:
"Ulster Victims Lisburn Man and Child." Irish Post and Telegraph,
15 May 1915, page 11.
Molony, Senan. Lusitania: An Irish Tragedy. Mercier
Press, 2004, pages 61-62, 64.
“Finds Friend is Survivor: Woman Gets Letter from Mrs. W. D. Mitchell
of the Lusitania.” New York Times, Tuesday, 25 May 1915, page
4.
[Back to Second Cabin Manifest]
[Lusitania Resource Home]