| Allen Loney Saloon Passenger Lost |
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| [No Picture Provided] | |
| Born | Allan Donnellan Loney 20 October 1871 Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
| Died | 7 May 1915 (age 43) At sea |
| Age on Lusitania | 43 |
| Ticket number | 46061 |
| Cabin number | B 85 and bath |
| Traveling with | – Catharine Loney (wife) – Virginia Loney (daughter) – Elise Bouteiller (maid) |
| Body number | Not recovered or identified |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Residence | – New York City, New York, United States – New Rochelle, New York, United States – Skaneateles, New York, United States – Guilsborough, Northampton, England, United Kingdom |
| Other name(s) | none |
| Spouse(s) | Catharine Wolfe Brown (1895 ? – 1915), their deaths |
Allen Loney (1871 – 1915), 43, was traveling with his wife Catharine Loney, daughter Virginia Loney, and maid Elise Bouteiller. Allen Loney was part of the British Ambulance Corps and had returned to the United States specifically to escort his wife and daughter to England aboard Lusitania. Catharine would spend the summer caring for wounded soldiers. They would be staying in their English country house in Northampton. Elise, Allen, and Catharine were lost when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast on 7 May 1915. Virginia survived.
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Youth
Allen Loney was born on 20 October 1871 to William Amos Loney (1822 – 1914) of Baltimore, Maryland, United States and Alice Louise Allen (1844 – 1907). From the same mother, Allen had an older sister, Alice Rebecca Loney (born 1866), and two younger brothers, Henry Edward Loney (born 1873) and Frederick Roosevelt Loney (born 1878). William and Alice had met in Skaneateles, New York, where William was summering. They married in January 1864.
Allen’s father William had been previously married to Ruth Ann Barker, but she died young. Allen thus had three much older siblings from William’s first marriage, William (born 1849), Mary (born 1851), and Ruth Arabella (born 1853).
William Loney had bought a small farm in Skaneateles on Genesee Street that sloped to down Skaneateles Lake. They built a summer home there. The Loneys lived in Baltimore during the winter and summered in Skaneateles. Upon William’s retirement, they moved to the village of Pelham in Westchester County.
According to the 1880 U.S. census, William Loney and his family were living in Skaneateles. William as 58, and Alice was 36. Ruth was 24, Alice was 15, Allen was 8, Henry was 6, and Frederick was 2. They also had three servants.
Some time after 1880, Ruth married George Bruce-Brown of New York City, a widower. He had been born in 1844. Through this connection, Allen met George’s daughter from his previous marriage to Virginia Greenway McKesson, Catharine Wolfe Brown.
Allen, with his brother Henry, were bridal ushers when their sister Alice was married in 1890 to Mr. Harry Stephens Abbot, a Harvard graduate, in a ceremony at St. James’ in Skaneateles.
Married life
By 1895, Allen and Catharine Wolfe Brown had married, were living on Park Avenue in New York City with Catharine’s brother George, and were listed in The Social Register. Through this marriage, Allen’s half-sister Ruth also became his stepmother-in-law.
Allen was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, generally earning $10,000 a year. He traded and sold bonds, but mostly he managed Catharine’s money. The interest on the principle, by itself, was $75,000 a year.
Allen and Catharine had a daughter, Virginia, born to them on 19 May 1899. She was named after Catharine’s mother. The family had a house in New Rochelle, New York, with eight servants, one of whom was Elise Bouteiller. Elise had been with the Loney family for several years and became Virginia’s nurse.
Race car driver David Loney Bruce-Brown, the younger son of Ruth, half-brother of Catharine, and half-nephew of Allen, died in a car accident in October 1912. Allen and Catharine Loney received the news by telegram as they arrived at the Carlton Hotel in London.
Allan’s father William died in 1914 at age 93 in Skaneateles.
Routine
The family spent summers in the small town of Skaneateles, living on the family estate of Roseleigh that was designed by McKim, Mead, and White. The house was built in pieces in New York City, shipped to Skaneateles, and assembled there in 1880 and 1881. Roseleigh today is the Stella Maris Retreat & Renewal Center on 130 East Genesee Street in Skaneateles.
The family lived at the Gotham Hotel when in New York City, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 55th Street. Most of the year, the family lived in their mansion, Guilsborough House, in Northampton, in the English East Midlands. There in Guilsborough, the Loneys organized dinners, horse shows, and fox hunts. Guilsborough House had a stable with 25 horses, all hunters. Allen Loney was described as an “excellent whip” and was considered one of the best riders in the area. Catharine and Virginia were proficient riders in their own right.
The Loneys crossed the Atlantic every year on liners such as Cedric, Amerika, George Washington, Campania, Mauretania, and Olympic, alternating residences in New York City, Skaneateles, and Northampton depending on the time of year.
The Loneys arrived in New York from the Olympic on 10 April 1912, the same day thatOlympic‘s sister Titanic departed on her maiden and only voyage.
In 1914, the Loneys summered in England and returned to New York aboard the White Star Liner Celtic that September, after World War I broke out. They lived at the Gotham Hotel in New York City and shortly thereafter Allen Loney returned to England. Allen joined the British Ambulance Corps. He supplied his own automobile, which was equipped as an ambulance. Allen and his chauffeur helped out in France and Belgium that winter. Catharine Loney decided to sail back to England in 1915 care for wounded soldiers in a convalescent home. She also donated two of her cars for use as ambulances.
Allen husband did not want Catharine and Virginia to travel alone, so he sailed back to the United States on the White Star Liner Adriatic to escort them.
Lusitania
The Loneys booked passage aboard Lusitania on 21 April 1915. The family paid $1020.00 for ticket 46061 and cabins B-85, B-87, which had a private bath. Elise Bouteiller would also be traveling with them on the same ticket but in her own cabin, B-81.
Shortly before sailing, Catharine revised her will, bequeathing an estate worth over $1,000,000 to her daughter and only child.
The Loneys were acquainted with Joseph Charles and his daughter Doris. The Loney and Charles families frequently sat in the lounge together.
On the day of the disaster, 7 May 1915, Virginia was resting in her cabin after lunch with Elise. When they were torpedoed, Virginia and Elise rushed up to the boat deck where they found Allen and Catharine. Allen went down to get some lifebelts. Catharine, Virginia, and Elise waited. He returned with some, which he distributed around, but did not keep one himself.
They stood at the perimeter of the crowd on the port side boat deck when Allen noticed a space in lifeboat 14 that was about to lower. Allen ordered Virginia to get in. She protested at first but finally obeyed. The boat began to lower as soon as she got in, and Allen, Catharine, and Elise did not join Virginia.
Virginia looked up from her seat in the lifeboat and saw her parents standing at the rail. Years later, she told Adolph and Mary Hoehling, authors of the 1956 book The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, that Alfred Vanderbilt was near them.
The lifeboat had a difficult time getting away. It soon cast off, but the plug was not in. Water entered the lifeboat immediately and made the small craft unstable. Lifeboat 14, only a number of yards away from the ship, capsized as the Lusitania sank. Virginia looked up at the big ship one last time and saw her parents still on the deck, waving.
The suction dragged her down quite a bit, and when she resurfaced the ship, her parents, and Elise were gone. Virginia never saw them again. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified.
Related pages
Virginia Loney at the Mixed Claims Commission
Links of interest
The Loney Family at St. James Memorials and Gifts
Encyclopedia Titanica – Lest We Forget: Part 1
Contributors
Jim Kalafus, USA
Michael Poirier, USA
Judith Tavares
Kihm Winship, USA
References
Kalafus, Jim and Michael Poirier (2005) Lest We Forget : Part 1 ET Research. <http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lusitania-lest-we-forget.html>
Poirier, Michael. “The Tale of Boat Fourteen.”
Winship, Kihm. “The Loney Family.” St. James’ Memorials and Gifts: Art, Architecture & Memory in Skaneateles, New York. Web. 14 July 2011. <http://kihm3.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/the-loney-family/>.
“Virginia Loney.” Wikipedia: Die freie Enzyklopädie. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 28 April 2011. < http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Loney >
Please make a correction in your information about Virginia’s family. The house Roseleigh was commissioned by her aunt Mary Loney Roosevelt and her husband Frederick Roosevelt, not Henry. Henry Latrobe Roosevelt was born in 1879, a full generation younger than Mary, who was born in 1851. Mary’s youngest half-brother was named for her husband – Frederick Roosevelt Loney.
Mary Loney Roosevelt was my great-great-aunt, and Virginia Loney was my grandmother’s first cousin. Thank you for making this correction.
Thank you Victoria! The information about Roseleigh should be corrected by now.
My maiden name is Loney and my Ancestors came from Ireland. I wonder if we could be family. My full name is Erin Renee` Loney Lane now, Daughter of George Monroe Loney and Lisa Suzanne Langford Loney, Granddaughter of Ralph and Delta Loney.