Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare and emotive Mercantile Marine pair awarded to Stewardess Magaret Craigie, a survivor of the Lusitania disaster

British War and Mercantile Marine Medals (Margaret Craigie), extremely fine (2) £600-800

Margaret Craigie, who was born in Islay in 1875, was one of four Stewardesses transferred from the S.S. Cameronia to the Lusitania at New York, together with a Matron, shortly before the latter embarked on her fateful voyage on 1 May 1915 - so, too, did around 40 of the Cameronia’s passengers, thereby delaying the Lusitania’s departure by at least a couple of hours.

Six days later, the great liner was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Southern Ireland by the German submarine U-20, but Margaret Craigie was among the survivors, her British War & Mercantile Marine Medals being issued to her ‘c/o Mrs. C. Kinlock, Erskine Hall, Bishopton, Refrewshire’ on 12 February 1924 - an earlier attempt to deliver them to her in December 1923 had failed, the relevant records stating that the residence in question was closed: of Lusitania’s 20 Stewardesses, and the four transferred from the Cameronia, only nine survived.