Annie Emma Jane Rampling, my 1st cousin 3 times removed, was a survivor of one of the era's largest shipping disasters, i.e. the "Empress of Ireland" which sank in the Saint Lawrence Seaway on 29th May 1914. Annie was born to George and Elizabeth Rampling in Lowestoft, Suffolk in 1871. She married George Ernest Cook in Hull, Yorkshire during late 1891. A son, Reginald was born around 1893 and the family moved to Winton in Bournemouth. In 1911 the family (including a daughter, Lily, and another son, Ronald) emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where they lived at 4755 Commercial Street. In early 1914, Annie was informed that her mother was ill and decided to make the long journey back to England to see her, travelling as a 2nd class passenger on the "Empress of Ireland". We know that Annie was a member of the Salvation Army in Canada and so it's possible that she was one of the large party of Salvationists aboard (most of whom drowned) heading for an International Congress in London. The "Empress of Ireland" was struck by a Norwegian collier on its second night of the voyage and sank, with 1012 lives lost. Annie was one of the 397 lucky survivors, unlike other ladies she did not stop to dress and headed for the deck immediately. As the ship capsized, she hung from the rails hoping to balance there until finding a nearby lifeboat. However, the ship lurched and threw her into the sea, where she was pulled into one of the lifeboats that managed to get away safely. Annie was returned by train to Toronto and then back to Vancouver - I don't know if she ever got to see her ailing mother Elizabeth, who died in 1917. "One of the saddest features of the wreck and its dreadful loss is the number of men and women, separated from their family for many years, who sailed in the confident hope of uniting long-broken family ties" - "The Tragic Story of the Empress of Ireland by Logan Marshall" Annie died in Vancouver, 26th February 1964 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver. (My thanks are due to Geoffrey Wall for providing me with much of this information.) There is further biographical information about, and photographs of, Annie at the Find a Grave website |