Mrs. Edward Booth-Jones (Millichamp Letton Percival)

Millichamp Booth-Jones Second Cabin Passenger Lost
[No Picture Provided]
Born	Millichamp Letton Percival 29 January 1877 Newtown, Montgomeryshire (now in Powys), Wales, United Kingdom
Died	7 May 1915 At sea, RMS Lusitania
Age on Lusitania	38
Traveling with	–Edward Booth-Jones (husband) –Ailsa Booth-Jones (daughter) –Percival Booth-Jones (son) -Albert Smith (family friend) -Gladys Smith (family friend) -Dorothy Smith (family friend)
Body number	Not recovered or identified
Citizenship	British
Residence	Richmond, Surrey (now Greater London), England, United Kingdom

Millichamp Booth-Jones (1877 – 1915), 38, was a British subject residing in Richmond, Surrey (now Greater London), England, traveling aboard Lusitania with her husband Edward Booth-Jones and their children, Ailsa and Percival. They were also traveling with family friends Alfred and Gladys Smith and their daughter, Dorothy. Both entire families were lost in the Lusitania sinking of 7 May 1915.

Early life and marriage

Millichamp born on 29 January 1877 at the Old Black Boy Inn, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales. Her parents were Henry Letton and Charlotte Amelia Percival (née Jones), and her grandmother Georgina was at the birth. Henry Percival was a commercial traveler.  Millichamp was baptized in the local church at Llanllwchaern on 25 February 1877, and her birth was registered on the 28 March.

Millichamp met her future husband Edward Jones in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, where he was working at Hall, Wateridge and Owen. Edward and Millichamp married on 22 March 1902 in the Parish Church in her hometown of Newtown when they were both 25. At the time, Edward was a dealer in antiquities and art and lived at Cedar Grove in Manchester, the city to which he had moved his business. Also around this time, Edward decided to hyphenate his last name, perhaps to give himself a higher perceived social status.

Edward and Millichamp’s first born, their daughter Ailsa Georgina, was born to them at the old cottage on 19 December 1906 in Bowdon, Cheshire, England. A son, John Percival, was born to them on 4 October 1909. The Booth-Jones family lived on Prospect House, Strines, Marple, a suburb of Manchester, England. Meanwhile, Edward’s antiques and art business was doing well, so he bought up properties around Britain and expanded his business to shops in St. Anne’s Square, Manchester, and Chester and Bond Street, London. Their children Ailsa and Percival both went to Friends’ School of Green and School Lanes.

Moving for business

Edward decided to concentrate on the West End business in London on Bond Street, and so with sadness the Booth-Jones family left Marple for London around May 1914. Coincidentally, Bond Street is the same street where another Lusitania victim, Edgar Gorer, also had set up an antique shop. The Booth-Jones’s new home was at No. 3, Old Palace Terrace, The Green, Richmond, in Surrey. Though Edward’s business was successful, the war was starting to hurt the art market, so in October 1914, the Booth-Joneses moved to Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. They stayed with Dr. and Mrs. McCarthy of 136 Price Street in Germantown. While in America, the Booth-Joneses traveled to Atlantic City to enjoy building sand castles on the beach.

In the spring of 1915, the Booth-Joneses were to return England and booked passage aboard Lusitania for 1 May 1915, on what later proved to be Lusitania‘s last crossing. Before they sailed, they stayed in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel and had their family portrait taken. Ailsa gave a copy of their portrait to Harry Zehner, one of the Waldorf’s assistant managers. That picture would then later be published around the world to represent the tragedy and barbarity of the Lusitania sinking.

The Booth-Jones family could have booked saloon cabin (first class) aboard Lusitania, but they chose second cabin to sail with their family friends, Albert and Gladys Smith and their infant daughter Dorothy in second cabin. Albert Smith was art dealer for Ackermann & Sons.

Lusitania

During the Lusitania‘s last voyage, Percival and Ailsa entered many sports and games organized for the children’s amusement. Ailsa was a winner of these games and showed off these prizes to Ian Holbourn and Avis Dolphin (Preston, pg 184).

The German submarine U-20, under the command of Captain-lieutenant Walther Schwieger, torpedoed Lusitania on the afternoon of 7 May 1915. The Lusitania sank in 18 minutes. Both the entire Booth-Jones and Smith families were lost in the Lusitania sinking.

First reports had said that the children had survived, leading Edward’s brother Griffiths to travel to Queenstown to search for them. Arriving at the Imperial Hotel in Cork, Ireland, he placed the following advertisement in the Cork Examiner:

Wanted: any information regarding a girl of eight years, light-golden hair, blue eyes, nice complexion, very pretty, named Ailsa Booth Jones: also a boy, aged 5, short black hair, short stature, rather thin face, named Percival Booth Jones, believed to have been saved from the Lusitania. Any information that will lead to their recovery will be great fully received.

Helen Secchi of New York said that during the sinking, she had seen both Edward and Millichamp Booth-Jones in the doorway of the cabin putting on lifebelts. Helen did not see the children, who were presumably on deck when the torpedo hit.

Only Ailsa and Millichamp’s bodies were recovered or identified. Memorials were dedicated to the family both at Ailsa and Millichamp’s burial site in Queenstown and at the Jones family graves in Conway, Wales. 

Links of interest

Antiques Dealer and Family Lost in Disaster – Gare Maritime

Marple’s Lusitania Connection

Contributors:
Cliff Barry, UK
Peter Clarke, UK
Peter Engberg-Klarström, Sweden
Jim Kalafus, USA
Peter Kelly, Ireland

References:
Barry, Cliff and Peter Kelly. “Antiques Dealer and Family Lost in Disaster.” Gare Maritime. Web. Published 7 May 2015. <https://www.garemaritime.com/antiques-dealer-family-lost-disaster/>. Accessed 11 May 2020. 

Clarke, Peter. “Marple’s Lusitania Connection.” The Marple Website. Web. 27 July 2011. <http://www.marple-uk.com/lusitaniax.htm>.

Engberg-Klarström, Peter. “Booth-Jones, Miss Ailsa Georgina.” Peter’s Lusitania Page. Published 11 June 2017. Web. <https://lusitaniapage.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/booth-jones-miss-ailsa-georgina/>. Accessed 10 May 2020.

Hickey, Des and Gus Smith.  Seven Days to Disaster.  G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981. Pages 70, 271, 286.

Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy. Berkley Books, 2002. Pages 184, 280, 298.