Evelyn Neville, 14, was from Toronto, Ontario, traveling aboard Lusitania with her father Albert, mother Mabel, brother Charles, and sister Muriel. She is most likely the “girl of sixteen” Herbert Ehrhardt met who helped him entertain children who would not leave him alone, and Ehrhardt mentioned that the girl’s family consisted of herself, her father, mother, younger brother and sister. Evelyn was lost in the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915, as were her father and siblings. Only her mother Mabel survived.
During the sinking, Ehrhardt saw the Evelyn’s family on deck, and she was distressed that her brother had been separated from the family. Ehrhardt helped locate the boy and reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, Evelyn was lost and only her mother Mabel survived.
Ehrhardt found Mabel in Queenstown, Ireland, while looking for Evelyn and her siblings without success.
Researchers have speculated that the girl and family who Ehrhardt met might have been the family of Molly Mainman, but the fate of the Mainman family, where the girl and younger siblings are saved, does not match the fate of the family Ehrhardt met.
Contributors
Hildo Thiel
References
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Evelyn Neville is the daughter of Sidney Wroughton Smith Neville and Albert Neville. She had a brother, Charles and a sister Meriel. Sidney was the only family survivor. Her father, Charles Wroughton Smith, raced from London to the Irish coast to help look for her husband and children amongst the debris and bodies washed up on the coast. Sidney was a sensitive person, she wrote poetry and she committed suicide. Her mother is Emma Josephine Henry (Smith) of Barbados WI. Sidney was my Gr. Aunt, my paternal grandfather’s sister.
Any information is appreciated.
See link to Herbert Erhardt.
Carolyn
The website names Mabel Neville as Evelyn’s mother. This is corroborated by newspaper accounts, English census records, and Mabel’s gravestone. This is in Watford’s Vicarage Road cemetery – I have seen it, and it names Evelyn Charles and Meriel as her children, Albert as her husband, and describes them as dying in the Lusitania tragedy.
Mabel was the daughter of (ex Army) Captain Mavore Smith. She and Albert left Berkhamstead, England for Vancouver, probably in 1913. After a year or so they moved to Toronto where they had family and Albert took a job as superintendent of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Office. They were returning to England to see Albert’s brothers before they went to the front.
Could Sidney have been either Albert’s sister or sister in law? Or even a sister of Mabel? Have you found Sidney on the passenger list? It would be great to find out more about Mabel’s relatives in Toronto.
Best wishes
Greg
Hello
Albert Neville is my great uncle. It has been a family mystery as to what happened to the Neville family on the Lusitania recorded in a Neville family record completed by 1984. Searches were made by Albert’s brother Frank. To no avail. Rumours that Mabel was in New York was followed up later on when Frank visited NY. To no avail. It was only when the passenger list was checked last year on the anniversary that we knew she survived. Did she contact any of the Neville’s ? What happened to her up to her death. When did she pass on? I would love to know more.
Albert Neville is my husband’s great uncle. Neville family history indicates that Albert’s brother Frank searched for The family but could not get any information about what happened to the family of five. Frank went to Ireland and even later on when a rumour circulated that Mabel had been seen in New York he made enquiries on a visit. To no avail. What happened to Mabel up to her death. When did she pass. As far as my husband knows there was no contact again with the Neville’s. My husband would love to know more.
How I earnestly WISH I could help as Albert was my great uncle. My late father Arthur Herbert Neville was less than three years of age on the fateful 7/5/15 (born 21/7/12) & barely shared information on such sad matters of which he knew precious little anyway. Then of course WW1 was ‘raging’ & made hearts perforce the harder. My eMail is:~ dickienev@hotmail.co.uk should anyone wish to contact me.
The following may not be overly relevant to the Lusitania per se but could prove useful should it reveal any unknown or forgotten Neville lore:~
“My late father Arthur Herbert Neville (21/7/1912 ~ 19/7/2004) was a son of the youngest of the twelve Todenham Nevilles namely Herbert Frederick Neville (28/11/1888 ~ 12/3/1935) my grandfather. My father ~ AHN ~ left me (his only son 23/1/1943 ~) a rather subjective miniautobiography wherefrom I shall herewith quote an edited pertinent paragraph or two in the hope that it MIGHT help shed some light into the dark recesses of Neville history………
“My Aunt Jessie Myra was born c. 1878 & married Arthur Hine who was for many years employed by the Columbia Record Co. at Garratt Lane, Wandsworth, S.W.18 and they lived with their three children Vera. Arthur & Freda in Palmerston Road off Merton Road in Southfields. They left that address when a Neville family mortgage was arranged enabling them to buy a house at The Grove, Wandsworth, S.W.18 near the Forrest family, Alice Denner Forrest nee Neville being a slightly older sister of Jessie Myra Hine nee Neville. I believe Arthur & Freda both lived in Tooting whilst Vera married into the Northcott family. Albert Charles Neville became a fishmonger in Berkhamstead & thrived to such an extent that he took his wife & family to America c. 1913 but fatefully returned on s.s. Lusitania. ALL WERE LOST(AHN believed! ~ erroneously it seems!)”
(There IS a tenuous connection to ‘fishmongering’ in the 1911 census, wherein Bertha Neville [mother of the clan, widow age 65] has living with her in Wandsworth ‘Harry’ Neville [Henry James N. age 28] & a ‘boarder’ John Sheedy age 17, both of whom are listed as ‘journeyman fishmongers’, which leads me to suppose that Albert MIGHT have gone to Berkhamstead to get his fish shop ‘up & running’ whilst the other two ‘train up’ prior to joining him as staff.
I DO hope some of this information helps in a small way. Such a tragedy as the ‘Lusitania’ would have generated SO much misery which ~ even after a century ~ ‘jumps up & hits you’ when you reflect on it.)
Hi do join the facebook group ‘association of Lusitania relatives and researchers’ there is a picture of Mabels grave and a newspaper report of her account of the sinking. Also I have a video of the memorial in Kinsale with their names on . I’m sure you would get some help with your research from that group/. When we were in Cobh for the 100th anniversary we wrote Evelyns name in the book of remembrance there