Mr. Alfred Harrod, Junior Assistant Purser

Alfred Harrod (1891 – 1915), 23, was a British subject and one of the junior assistant purser aboard the Lusitania on the ship’s final and fateful voyage. When the Lusitania was torpedoed on 7 May 1915, Harrod was lost with the ship. His body was either not identified or not recovered, so he is memorialized in Tower Hill, London.

Biography


Alfred Harrod was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 16th November 1891, the son of Joseph and Sophia Harrod.  The family home was at 23 Nile Street, St James Road, Liverpool.

He was employed as one of three junior assistant pursers in the Deck Department on board the Lusitania, having previously served on the Cunarder RMS Ascania.  His monthly rate of pay was set at £6-0s-0d. when he signed on at Liverpool for the Lusitania’s final voyage on 14 April 1915.

When the ship was sunk, he and both the other two junior assistant pursers, (George Beesley and Leonard Sloane) were killed, along with the Purser, James McCubbin and one of the assistant pursers, Arthur Burden.  Only the other assistant purser, William Harkness, and second purser Percy Draper, survived from the Pursers’ Section.  Alfred Harrod was aged 24 years when he was killed.

His body was never found and identified afterwards and as a consequence, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London.

Links of interest


Alfred Harrod at the Merseyside Maritime Museum

Contributors
Peter Kelly, Ireland
Ellie Moffat, UK

References
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths

1901 Census of England and Wales

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Cunard Records

PRO BT 334

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