Audrey Warren Pearl Lawson-Johnston (1915-2011)

Folk Figure. At her death, she was the last survivor of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. The child of a US Army physician, she was three months old when she boarded the Lusitania in New York with her family bound for England where her father had been ordered to duty at the American Embassy. On the afternoon of Friday May 7th. Dr. Pearl was in his stateroom, her mother Amy Lea was on deck, and Audrey was in the care of her nursemaid Alice Lines, when the German torpedo struck. Her parents were soon rescued from the sea; in the meantime, Alice had wrapped Audrey in a blanket and taken her, along with five year old brother Stuart, to a lifeboat. Four of the six family members were reunited several hours later, but sisters Amy and Susan were lost. The family remained in England where Dr. Pearl worked for the American consulate while his wife, a relative of the marketers of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, was an active charity fundraiser. Audrey was presented at Court in 1933, married Hugh Lawson-Johnston, and settled in Melchbourne, Bedfordshire. She was a fundraiser for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, remained close to Miss Lines until her death in 1997 at age 100, and in 2004 was guest of honor when the ship "Amy Lea," named for her mother, was launched. Almost 100 years after the fact, controversies remain as to whether the Lusitania, the sinking of which helped draw the United States into World War I, was in fact carrying contraband munitions.

Bio by: Bob Hufford