Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

The excessively rare Great War ‘Lusitania casualty’ pair to Matron Anna Endersen, drowned when the S.S. Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ireland on 1 May 1915

British War Medal 1914-20 (Anna Endersen); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Anna Endersen); together with Bronze 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) £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals Formed by The Late Major David Evans, T.D..

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Matron 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 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 14th April 1915, at a monthly rate of pay of £5, reporting for duty at 7 a.m. on 17th April, after which the liner left Liverpool for the last time, bound for New York.

Having arrived at New York without mishap on the 24th 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 May 10th, 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 29th October 1915. Administration of her estate was granted to Brigit Louise Welburn, (wife of William Garbutt Welburn), on 24th October 1916. Her effects amounted to £160-14-3.

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