Georgina Young, 60, was the wife of James Young and lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Their son James was fighting on Western Front and had been injured in March 1915. The elder James and Georgina booked Lusitania to be at their son’s hospital bedside. James and Georgina Young were lost when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 on 7 May 1915. Neither of their bodies were recovered or identified.
Life
Georgina Young was born Georgina Ann Vernon. She married Scottish-Canadian entrepreneur James Young, co-founder of the Hamilton Cotton Company. Georgina and James had two sons, James and Alan. The elder James believed that a military education would instill discipline in them and sent them to the Royal Military College, which had been founded in 1874. The younger James Young graduated in 1911 and went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
When the Great War broke out, the younger James received commission as an officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, serving with the 3rd Artillery Brigade. He was wounded on the Western Front in March 1915. Georgina and her husband James booked passage aboard Lusitania to be by their son’s hospital bedside. The couple booked ticket 866 for Lusitania and were in cabin B-53. Both Georgina and James Young were lost in the Lusitania disaster. Neither of their bodies were recovered or identified.
The younger James was invalided out of his military service and returned to Canada in 1916. Following the war, he and his brother Alan managed the family firm. One of James, Jr.’s sons, Doug, was a Major and Unit Deployment Officer for Juno Beach killed in action in the D-Day Allied invasion of Normandy on 8 June 1944. One of James Jr.’s daughters was named Georgina.
Links of interest
McMaster Alumni Association – John Douglas Young
References
“John Douglas Young (1916 – 1944)” McMaster Alumni Association. McMaster University. Web. 16 August 2011. <http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/alumni/honourRoll/douglasyoung.htm>.
Georgina Young’s body was recovered and the family requested that it be sent home to Hamilton, Ontario. It is true that the body of her husband was never recovered, however Georgina is buried in the “Hamilton Cemetery” on Dundurn St.
It is true. Mrs. Young rests in Section V, Lot 511 in Hamilton Cemetery. Her remains were recovered about a month after the sinking, although the body of her husband was never found.
According to The Hamilton Spectator, James and Georgina jumped into the water hand in hand, and drowned.