Audley Drake, 23, was a British subject lost in the Lusitania disaster. Audley’s ticket was 46156 in saloon (first class) and he originally assigned cabin A-5 but moved to cabin D-41. Audley had been in Detroit, Michigan, United States, where his mail was addressed in care of Mr. C. Leidich.
Audley was born in 1891 in Mitcham, Surrey, England, as one of two sons of Bernard Mervyn Drake and Janet Essington. Audley had a brother named Robert Hamlyn Mervyn Drake born in Croydon, England, in 1898.
Contributors:
Senan Molony, Ireland
Julian Saunders
References:
Molony, Senan ( 2008 ) “Lusitania: Final Voyage Folios,” Gare Maritime (ref: #6316, accessed 13th May 2013 11:31:43 PM) <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lusitania-folio.html>.
Saunders, Julian. “Negus Tree.” Her Ways… Online. Accessed 13 May 2013. <http://www.booculture.com/hanch-hall/family-tree/glynn-tree/negus-tree/>.
Bernard Audley Drake was known as Audley by the family. He was a bright Cambridge science student and had been in Detroit for some time researching new processes that would benefit both his father’s electrical company and the government. He was asked to return earlier than planned partly because the government wanted his knowledge to improve their explosives for use in the war. Interviewed on the quay before the Lusitania sailed he was aware of the warning in the papers and thought it was a “Gigantic German Bluff”, as did most of the passengers according to the newspaper report. (Source Detroit Free Press Saturday May 8th 1915.) He was terribly missed by his family, and a grievous loss to them and to his country, a life with so much potential lost at sea and never found.