Cause of Death: |
Died in ship loss, the German submarine (U-boat) U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, a swift-moving British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the 1,959 men, women, and children on board, 1,195 perished |
Additional Information: |
Son of Alexander and Jessie Stuart, of Banffshire, Scotland. Husband of Petronella Wilhelmina Stuart. Born Banffshire, Scotland. A contractor and hotel proprietor in Germiston, South Africa. In 1915, Stuart traveled to the United States with his stepson Jerry Gravett. Alexander Stuart was a transfer from the Cameronia and was lost in the Lusitania sinking. A newspaper account says that Jerry Gravett was also a passenger and survived the Lusitania sinking, but Jerry Gravett is not listed as a passenger on Lusitania's last voyage. In the 1890's, he emigrated to South Africa with his brothers John and Robert and two sisters. The family settled at Germiston on the East Rand, where several members of the Stuart family became prominent citizens. One of Alexander's sisters married one of the local doctors, Dr. Spaulding. His brother John was a town councilor at Germiston. The second sister was still unmarried at the time of the Lusitania sinking. The father of the family was then still alive in his home town in Scotland, aged 86. At the time of the Lusitania sinking Alexander Stuart had been a resident of South Africa for over 20 years but was still a British citizen of Scottish birth. Alexander Stuart was a builder and cartage contractor in Germiston before the Boer War. When the Boer War broke out, Alexander joined the locally recruited Railway Pioneer Regiment and fought for the British. He became a Captain. After the British occupation of the Transvaal in 1900, Stuart re-commenced business in Germiston. Late in 1901, he married the widow of General Gerhardus Gravett. Gerhardus Gravett was the grandson of a British settler who came to South Africa in 1820. He was, like Stuart, a cartage contractor in Germiston. Gravett joined the Boksburg Commando during the Boer War and became a Combat General. He was killed fighting the British near Roos Senekal in the Eastern Transvaal in 1901. |