People on board

EVANS, Isabella Wright née Beamish

Isabella Wright Beamish, known as Ella, was born in India about 1879 to David Gregory Beamish and Mary Jane Hammond. David, from Cork, was a Captain in the 5th Regiment of the Northumberland Fusiliers when he married in 1877, returning to India with his wife. They were back in Cork by 1882 when a second daughter, Ellen Prudence, was born and David had been promoted to Major. He was further promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1886 and a full Colonel by 1890. The family had by then moved to Dublin where they lived at 1 Eglinton Park in Kingstown, and David Beamish was active in the local politics, being a member of Kingstown Commissioners. He died in Kingstown in 1915.

In 1903 Ella Beamish married Charles Evans, a Clerk in the Guinness Brewery whose father was a Cashier in the Bank of Ireland. A son, Charles Gregory, was born in December 1904 while they were living at ‘Ardlui’ in Howth. They subsequently moved to Belfast where they lived in Osborne Terrace, Balmoral. In 1918 Charles Evans was promoted to a position with the Guinness firm in London, and on the 10th of October the family travelled on RMS Leinster to begin their new life.

A survivor of the sinking, Mrs Louisa M Toppin, stated in an affidavit that she had seen the Evans family on the deck of the ship after the first torpedo struck, and had spoken with them, but she and her daughter were hurled into the sea by the force of the second torpedo and she never saw any of the Evans family again. Their bodies were never recovered.

Isabella, Charles and Charles Gregory are remembered on the Beamish family grave in Deansgrange cemetery.