Fannie Morecroft made her way as quickly as possible from Queenstown back to the United Kingdom. The ship in which she was taken from Ireland docked at Liverpool, where her home and her daughter’s home were. It was 24 hours after the sinking of the Lusitania before Caroline Warwick knew that her mother had survived. Fannie Morecroft arrived back in Liverpool three days after the sinking, still wearing her stewardess’ uniform, and covered in smuts. Three weeks later, her first grandchild, Margaret Morecroft Warwick was born.

After the sinking of the Lusitania, Cunard banned women from serving on any of their ships for the duration of the war. Fannie Morecroft was extremely irritated about this, as she had been working for the company since her husband had died, and was worried about another way of making a living.

However, with the shortage of men, who had been drafted to the fighting in France, she was able to find various forms of employment, including as a tram conductor, until the end of the war. In early 1919, she resumed her career with Cunard, and eventually became Chief Stewardess on the Lancastria, with a grand stateroom of her own. She continued to cross back and forwards to New York until her retirement in the 1930s.

She never re-married, but saw her daughter's two daughters, Margaret and Patricia (born 1917) grow up. Both married, and her great-grandchildren knew her well.

The Lusitania tragedy was a significant event in Fannie's life. She lost many friends, saw the bodies of too many dead children and adult passengers to count, and went through the terror of the ship sinking under her.

Her first grandchild, Margaret Warwick, born just after the disaster, was my maternal grandmother. My Granny, mother and uncle all heard about the disaster from Fannie, and my great-great-grandmother's cool head and ability to survive everything that life through at her is admirable to this day.

In his eulogy after my grandmother's death in 2002, my father said:

Fannie Chamberlain (Margaret’s grandmother) also became an actress after her marriage, which seems to have been opposed by both families.

Margaret, Anthony and Elizabeth loved her, and her great-grandchildren still remember her as a redoubtable figure with a great sense of humour, who died in in her nineties.

Anthony says that Fanny Chamberlain was the one relative whom Margaret resembled closely, in appearance and personality. She had to struggle after her husband’s death. She became a stewardess in the Cunard Line to support her family. It was then an unusual but successful career, and she notably and glamorously survived the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. We also have a photograph of her, imposing and confident in a large private state-room on the “Lancastria”, where she was chief stewardess. Margaret used to recall her bringing exotic presents home from New York. Not many people have had a granny like that.

Fannie Morecroft died on July 9th 1958. She was a widow for more than 50 years, and was survived by her daughter, son, three granddaughters, one grandson, and 8 great-grandchildren.