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Last survivor of Lusitania sinking passes away

Last survivor of Lusitania sinking passes away

A woman who survived the sinking of the Lusitania has died. She was 95.

Audrey Lawson Johnson, who lived in Bedfordshire, was a three months old when a German submarine attacked the passenger ship off the Irish coast on May 7, 1915.

Audrey’s family had been travelling from New York to London where her father, Warren Pearl, was to take-up a position at the American Embassy.

Her nanny, Alice Lines, was able to get the young Audrey into a lifeboat. Her parents and a brother also survived the sinking but two of her sisters disappeared.

They were among the 1,198 people who perished in the attack.

Audrey kept in touch with Alice Lines who died in 1997 aged 100.

Mrs. Lawson Johnson remained a life-long supporter of the RNLI.

In 2004 she presented a new lifeboat to the RNLI station in New Quay. The boat was name Amy Lea after her mother.

 

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