The extremely rare Great War 'Lusitania casualty' pair to Matron Anna Endersen, Mercantile...

The extremely rare Great War ‘Lusitania casualty’ pair to Matron Anna Endersen, Mercantile Marine, who died when the S.S. Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ireland on 7 May 1915

British War Medal 1914-20 (Anna Endersen); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Anna Endersen) together with Memorial Plaque ‘She Died For Freedom and Honour’ (Anna Endersen) the plaque contained in an attractive contemporary ebonised frame, nearly extremely fine and a very rare group to a female casualty (3) £10,000-£14,000
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Importation Duty
This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
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Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, September 2003.

Anna Endresen (Served as Endersen/Enderson) was born in Norway in 1875. It is not known when she came to England, but at some stage she anglicised her surname to Endersen/Enderson. In 1915 she was a widow and lived with her daughter Miss L. Enderson at 50, Spenser Street, Bootle, Lancashire. Gore's Directory for 1914 shows a Mrs Hannah Henderson living at 50, Spenser Street, Bootle, so she must also have used a further Anglicisation of her name on occasions.

She was a professional in the British Mercantile Marine and had previously served on the Cunard liner Cameronia as Anna Enderson. She held the position of Matron in the Stewards' Department during the Lusitania's final voyage. Anna engaged for this voyage at Liverpool on 14 April 1915, at a monthly rate of pay of £5, reporting for duty at 7 a.m. on 17 April, after which the liner left Liverpool for the last time, bound for New York.

Having arrived at New York without mishap on 24 April, the Lusitania began her return journey to Liverpool on the afternoon of 1st May, following a delayed start. Six days later the huge liner was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20.

Matron Endersen was killed as a result of this action. Her body was subsequently recovered from the sea and landed at Queenstown, where it was given the reference number ‘71' in one of the temporary mortuaries set up there - almost certainly the one in the yard next to the Cunard office on the waterfront at Lynch’s Quay. Her remains were buried on 10th May, in The Old Church Cemetery, Queenstown, in Mass Grave C, 1st Row, Upper Tier, where she lies today. Matron Endersen was 40 years old. May 10th was, in fact, the day that most of the other victims' bodies were buried also. A long procession of mourners, which had begun outside the Cunard office in the town, was followed by a communal funeral.

Possessions recovered from her body, which probably aided identification, were subsequently handed over to her daughter in Liverpool on 29 October 1915. Administration of her estate was granted to Brigit Louise Welburn, (wife of William Garbutt Welburn), on 24 October 1916. Her effects amounted to £160-14-3.

Twelve women have been identified on the Tower Hill Memorial to serving members of the Mercantile Marine and Mercantile Marine Reserve who were lost on the Lusitania and who may have received medals and memorial plaques. A further five (including Matron Endersen) are recorded on the Cobh Memorial, County Cork. This indicates the rarity of the group offered above, especially so when it is remembered that the Mercantile Marine medals had to be claimed by the recipients or their next of kin and only approximately 50% of those entitled actually did so. None were issued automatically.

Research compiled by the late Graham Maddocks, author of a forthcoming book on the Lusitania.