Cyril Wickings-Smith

As a British citizen, Cyril lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but decided to move back to England in1915 with his wife Phyllis and infant daughter Nancy, and brother Basil. Basil's wife Beatrice (Bea) was the sister of Cyril's wife - thus also being sister-in-laws but she did not sail on the Lusitania. (Source: Phyllis 'Jane' Woods)

• Cyril had a 'bubble' car which he drove quite fast. The bubble car had a wide front opening door.
• Cyril's wife Phyllis lived less than five years after the Lusitania sinking. (See below). She died on 19 January 1920.
• Cyril's second wife was named Dorothy. They lived in Bedford in a large detached house shared with family members, brother Claude and his wife Vera. (Claude and Vera had a son called Paul married to June, with two children Veronica and Jeremy.)

See also http://www.rmslusitania.info/people/second-cabin/cyril-wickings-smith/

"According to the Imperial War Museum’s Pritchard letters collection and survivor Gertrude Adams, while the ship was sinking, Basil managed to go below decks to retrieve lifejackets without becoming trapped, as he gave his lifebelt to Gertrude. Phyllis attempted to get into lifeboat 11 with Nancy, but being held back, she called to Francis Luker to catch her baby. She tossed Nancy to Luker, who caught the little girl, and the boat rowed off. Cyril and Phyllis survived and were reunited with baby Nancy, being one of four infants to survive the disaster."

RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland, torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7th 1915. The ship sank in 18 minutes, eight miles (15 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland,

killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard.

The sinking turned public opinion in many countries against Germany, and was instrumental in bringing the United States into World War I.

[source: Wikipedia]

Phyllis 'Jane' Woods: "Cyril Wickings-Smith is a survivor of the Lusitania sinking May 7th, 1915, as was his wife Phyllis and daughter Nancy. Cyril never spoke about the Lusitania sinking. His brother Guildford Wickings-Smith was lost at sea at the time of the Lusitania sinking. Guildford was married to Beatrice (Bea).

Richard Woods 28 April 2012: "My mother as an 8 month old infant(Nancy Eileen Fenn Wickings-Smith) and her parents (Cyril & Phyllis Wickings-Smith) were survivors of the sinking of the Lusitania, but Cyril’s brother (Basil Guildford Wickings-Smith) drowned and his body was never found. My grandfather Cyril never talked about the sinking, but Basil’s wife Beatrice (my great aunt – she stayed over in New York and returned to the UK later) always blamed both the Germans and Churchill for the sinking."

Cyril died on 3 April 1965, almost 50 years after the sinking.