| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
William Stainton was born in Knottingley, near Pontefract in 1877 and brought up in Etton by his grandparents, James and Hannah Stainton. By 1899 William had joined the army and was a Yeoman in 109th Squadron Imperial Yeomanry, Yorkshire Hussars. In South African he earned the South Africa Medal with Clasps for Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal and, in Oct 1904, was given the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Beverley at a Ceremony in the Guild Hall. After his military service William began a long career as a valet, beginning at High Hall, Etton, working for Colonel Grimston, he also worked at Cherry Burton Hall for Justice of the Peace and barrister, Mr D F Burton and then for Mr E Kenneth Wilson, chairman of the Wilson Line shipping company, in Little Tranby, Beverley.
In 1911 William was in the employ of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Collins CB, of Cowleaze, Hayling Island, Hampshire and, in December that year, was bequeathed the sum of £100, a pair of silver candlesticks presented to Arthur Collins by the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne, and a pearl and diamond shell pin and stud in acknowledgment of faithful service and devotion to his employer during his sickness.
William went on to become the valet to Charles Frohman, a celebrated Broadway director and travelled back and forth between Britain and New York in his company. One passenger list describes him as being 5ft 6in with brown hair and blue eyes. On 1 May 1915 he made his final voyage with Frohman aboard the RMS Lusitania. According to the ships manifest he was a United States citizen and lived in New York City. He travelled on the same ticket as Frohman, 46052, but stayed in a separate cabin, B-61.
On 7 May 1915 the Lusitania was hit by a German torpedo, fired by the U-Boat U-20, and sank eighteen minutes later, just eleven miles off the coast of Ireland. 1,198 lives were lost and only 761 people survived the attack that was to eventually pull the United States of America into the First World War. Charles Frohman's body was recovered and also, a few days later, that of William. He was returned to the family he had left in Beverley, his Uncle William and Aunt Elizabeth, of Norwood, and interred in St Mary's Church, Etton, alongside his grandparents, on 21 May 1915.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |