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Audrey, 93, the Lusitania's last survivor
Melchbourne woman looks back at 1915 torpedo attack that claimed nearly 1,200 lives.
A Bedfordshire woman has become the last living survivor of one of history's worst shipping disasters.
Audrey Lawson-Johnston, of Melchbourne, was just a baby when the RMS Lusitania liner sailing from New York to London was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915.
Almost 1,200 people died, including the 93-year-old's two sisters, although her brother and parents were also saved.
Last week, the penultimate survivor with any memory of the sinking, Barbara McDermott, died in Connecticut, USA.
Mrs Lawson-Johnston's American family were voyaging to England for a new life.
She said on Tuesday: "We had actually been warned of the possibility of torpedo attack, but you never really worry about the risks of these things, you just go.
"I think my parents had it in their minds that they would be moving the family to London for a better life and better schools."
The Lusitania is considered by maritime historians to be the second worst passenger liner disaster, after the sinking of the Titanic.
The dead included 127 Americans, and the incident is considered a contributing factor which drew the USA into the First World War.
Mrs Lawson-Johnston's nanny was another of the victims. She drowned – but not before grabbing baby Audrey from her cot and rushing her to one of the liner's crowded lifeboats.
The survival craft left a lasting impression on Mrs Lawson-Johnston and her mother Amy Lea Pearl, who both went on to donate a great deal of time and money to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
In 2004 Mrs Lawson-Johnston raised 26,000 which paid for a new lifeboat stationed in Newquay.
She said: "I have always believed that we were saved for a reason and it became very important to my mother, while she was alive, and myself to help them carry on with the good work that they do."
The lone remaining survivor moved to Bedfordshire more than 70 years ago when she married Hugh Lawson-Johnston, whose family used to own the beef-extract product Bovril.
She said: "We used to rear the cattle in Argentina before bringing them over here. The estates were so big we used to have to travel across them in two planes.
"I used to fly one of them, actually, but had to give it up when my late husband said my flying made him sick."
The family owned the company until 20 years ago.
Mrs Lawson-Johnston added: "I made some great friends during that time of my life. We had a very friendly rivalry with the people who owned Oxo – I used to play golf with them."
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Monday 06 February 2012
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