Harry Hunt – RMS Titanic Victim
George Henry Hunt
Image from Encyclopedia Titanica
The following transcription is from the Epsom Herald newspaper and refers to the last letter Harry wrote to his parents. The letter is transcribed later in this article:
Hidden away in a safe place somewhere in Epsom is a letter from Harry Hunt.
The letter comes from the ill-fated RMS Titanic dated April 11 1912.
It was the last letter that his family ever had. Harry was lost when the Titanic struck an iceberg in Artic waters.
Today, Harry’s letter is the property of his niece Mrs Doris Shrubb of Linden Place, Epsom.
” It was very sad at the time,” she said, “But before I was born.”
Harry was an orchid grower. He was sent to live in America by his employer, together with his wife Elizabeth, Doris’s mother’s sister. They had two small children and Elizabeth, a young woman of 30, was left behind in Philadelphia when Harry made his last trip across the Atlantic.
It was on his way home to the States that Harry put pen to paper to his Epsom family. He remarked “Next year I hope to see you all over there again. In another two hours I shall be in Queenstown where I shall send this letter off to you.”
It was shortly after the stopover at Queenstown that the Titanic went down.
Elizabeth told her family later that she knew nothing of the tragedy until she happened to go to the local shop for some ribbons to trim a hat to wear when she went to meet him. The paper sellers were shouting the news in the streets.
She was left with two babies.
According to Doris’ “Aunt Elizabeth took in lodgers to make ends meet and came home to Epsom many times, the last time when she was 80 years old. She used to tell me such wonderful tales.”
Elizabeth and Harry Hunt were married in St. Martin’s Church, Epsom, many years ago, Elizabeth being the former Miss Holder, one of nine children born at The Junipers cottages on the Headley Road, above Epsom Downs.
A little bit of digging found that the information in the Epsom Herald newspaper article was not totally accurate.
Harry Hunt was actually George Henry Hunt, the son of George and Sarah Hunt. Harry, as he was known, was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, on 21st January 1878 and baptised in St Giles Church, Ashtead, on 3rd March 1878. Harry had four siblings – Albert Alfred (1880-1965), Lewis Walter (1880-1969), Thomas Harvey (1882-), and Ruth Frances (1884-1928).
By the time his younger brother Albert was born in 1880, the family had moved to Ashtead village where George senior was working as a gardener. Later, the 1891 census recorded that Harry’s father was working as a gardener for Mr. Pantia Ralli, the new Greek owner of Ashtead Park House, and living in a cottage on the estate. The Hunt family continued to live in the Gardener’s House, and by 1901 23-year-old Harry was working as an under gardener to his father who was then the head gardener of Ashtead Park House.
Recorded as “George H. Hunt, gardener”, Harry sailed on 17th March 1906 aboard SS New York to New York, USA. Harry arrived on 25th March with $40.00 in his possession. He gave “Mr Featherstone of Greystone, Yonkers, New York, USA“ as his friend in USA. On 5th May 1906 Harry’s brother Albert, also a gardener, landed in New York to visit his brother “George H Hunt of Greystone, Yonkers, New York“.
We have no evidence of how they met but Harry’s friend John Featherstone had arrived from England in 1904 and had married his wife Fanny Bovingdon in 1905. John was working for Samuel Untermeyer, a New York civil rights lawyer and passionate horticulturist. In 1899, Untermeyer had bought Greystone Mansion, which sat on the banks of the Hudson River in Yonkers. This turreted mansion reportedly consisted of 99 rooms, and Untermyer employed 60 gardeners to tend the 150-acre estate that included over 50 greenhouses. Orchids were Untermeyer’s favourite and he reportedly had a collection of 3,200 specimens. Whether Harry was one of Untermeyer’s gardeners is unknown but as the Epsom Herald newspaper says that Harry was an orchid grower it could be that he worked there for a short while before moving to New Jersey.
Greystones Mansion
Harry’s wife Elizabeth Maud, the daughter of James and Eliza Holder, had been born in a house on Epsom Common on 21st April 1879. Elizabeth had eight siblings – William (1877-1942), James (1881- ), Rosina (1883- ), Emily (1885- ), Alice May (1889-1968), Lily (1891-1932), Florence Annie (1894-1980), and Ernest Holder (1896-1916). Ernest was killed in action on 1st July 1916.
Their Irish father was a game keeper and sometime after the baptism of Emily in 1886, the family moved to The Chalk Pit, Headley Road, Epsom. When the 1901 census was taken, 22-year-old Elizabeth had moved to Oxfordshire where she worked as a domestic cook for Captain Robert Paul and his family.
Five years later, on 14th July 1906, Elizabeth landed in New York with her USA contact being recorded as her friend “Miss Featherstone of Greystone, Yonkers, New York, USA“.
When and how Harry and Elizabeth had met before sailing separately to New York is unknown by the author, but one week after Elizabeth’s arrival they were married on 21st July 1906 in St Andrew’s Church, Yonkers. Two months later, on 16th September 1906, Harry was witness to his brother Albert’s marriage to Elizabeth Rose Kingham who also came from Ashtead.
Harry and Elizabeth’s honeymoon baby Marjorie was born 26th March 1907 in Morristown, New Jersey. On some records however, her month of birth has been recorded as April. Morristown was 44 miles west of Yonkers, New York. A month later on 21st April 1907, Elizabeth’s brother James Holder and his wife Annie arrived in New York to stay with his sister at their home Springbrook Farm, Morristown, New Jersey. This farm was part of the Foote estate that included Spring Brook House. James had been discharged in 1904 from the 17th Lancers after serving in South Africa, and now described himself as a gardener.
The 1910 United States federal Census recorded that Harry was aged 32 and that he was living at 4a St. Mark’s Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his 30-year-old wife Elizabeth and their small daughter Marjorie. This was 118 miles south of Yonkers, New York. Harry was recorded as a gardener working for a private family. The same year Elizabeth and her young daughter travelled back to Epsom to visit her family where they had this charming photograph taken in Waterloo Road, Epsom. They sailed back home on 23rd February 1910, landing in New York on 5th March 1910.
Elizabeth and her daughter Marjorie
Taken by a photographer in Waterloo Road, Epsom c1910
Photograph courtesy of Kim Wallis
On 10th March 1911, Harry’s brother Alfred, his sister-in-law Elizabeth Rose, and their son George Albert, along with his sister-in-law Rosina Holder, sailed from Southampton to New York to visit Harry and Elizabeth. How long they stayed for is unknown.
The following year, on 3rd January 1912, Elizabeth gave birth to their son Wilfred James Henry. Harry was recorded as being a florist on his son’s birth certificate. Little did they know that Harry would not be there to see his son grow up as, three months later, Harry would be one of RMS Titanic victims.
On an unknown date, Harry had returned home to England aboard the Oceanic to visit his family in Epsom. After spending five or six weeks visiting his parents and siblings, Harry was meant to sail back to New York on the same ship, but unfortunately, due to the ship’s smashed propellers, he had to change his plans. Harry transferred his Oceanic second-class ticket, for a Titanic one numbered 1585, (cost of £12 5s 6d). Harry boarded the ill-fated RMS Titanic on 10 April 1912 in Southampton dock never to see his family again.
The letter that was mentioned in the Epsom Herald newspaper was auctioned by Bonhams in 2014 and has been transcribed below:
Dear Mother & Father,
I boarded the Titanic today. Father & Mother, my brother & sister came with me. Found all well at Fareham. Mother came down with me Monday morning, we have had a nice time & I am pleased everybody was looking so well.
I will try & get a few post cards off this afternoon. Remember me to all. Will write you when I arrive at New York.
Have just had my midday meal. Hope that I shall be the first down & the last up to make what I ought to have had on the Oceanic. I saw Emily Sunday evening after Church, glad now that I saw her as she expected me so much to pop down before going away. Will tell Sis all when I reach Philadelphia, then we will write from there. Hoping yourselves are well. From your affectionate son. Harry.
Harry’s last letter to his parents.
Auctioned by Bonhams in 2014 and sold for US$22,500
Titanic in Southampton Dock 10th April 1912
Public domain Wikipedia
The terrible story of the Titanic sinking on 15th April 1912 is well known and so will not be repeated here.
Harry’s body was not recovered from the icy waters of the Atlantic but he is remembered in St Giles Church in Ashtead, Surrey, on a brass plaque that reads:
To The Glory of God
and Sacred
To the memory of
George Harry Hunt
of This Parish
A Passenger on the
Ill-Fated R.M.S Titanic
April 15th 1912
aged 34 years
Nearer my God to thee
Elizabeth was living at 1309 South Ruby Street in Philadelphia at the time, but now that Harry was dead Elizabeth was faced with how to provide for herself and her two very young children. Help came in the way of an insurance payment and help from the Red Cross. In the file about Elizabeth the following was stated:
“She lives near a University and, through the local Charity organisation Society, a house has been rented in which she will sublet rooms to students. In this way, she is able to make a living for herself and her children. Of the money appropriated by this Committee, $1,000 has been used to furnish the house and get the plan started. The remainder of the money has been placed in trust with the Charity Organisation Society for the education of the children. In addition, the widow has received $1,000 life insurance and $2,650.84 from other American relief funds. ($2,500)”
The following year on 24th March 1913, Elizabeth’s sister Lily Holder arrived in USA, and with her help, the sisters ran the boarding house. Lily stayed with her sister until she married Ira McClelland in 1923. Lily sadly died in 1932.
Harry and Elizabeth’s daughter Marjorie married Herman Barthel (1897-1982) on 26th April 1932 and had three daughters Katherine born 1936, Linda born 1938, and Leila born 1939. Marjorie died in Montgomery, Pennsylvania in 1997.
Their son Wilfred married Florence Lynch (1910-1955) on 22nd July 1935. The 1940 census records him, Florence and their daughter Carolyn (1940-2019) living at 44 St Bernard Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Also living with them was his mother, Elizabeth. Wilfred was working as a radio repairer. He died in 1996 in Chester, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth never remarried and even in 1956, she was still sailing back and forth to England to visit her family in Church Street, Epsom. She died aged 88 on 6th October 1967, and was buried in the Barthel family grave in Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Delaware County, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Hazel Ballan 2024
Sources:
Epsom Herald newspaper
Ancestry.com
https://ryerecord.com/horticultural-paradise-on-the-hudson/
https://www.untermyergardens.org/greystone-history.html
https://hartley-botanic.com/magazine/samuel-untermeyers-garden/
George Harry / Henry Hunt (ashtead.org)