People on board

MARSHAM RAE, Maude née Heilbuth

Maude Heilbuth was born in London in 1892 to Alfred Heilbuth and Matilda de Pinna. Alfred’s father, Adolph Heilbuth, had come to England in 1842 from Copenhagen, Denmark. Matilda’s parents, both born in England, were ‘Ostrich Feather Manufacturers’, according to the 1881 census. Alfred and Matilda had four children, the first dying in infancy, Maude being the eldest surviving. Alfred was a ‘Timber Agent’ or ‘Traveller Timber’, while in the 1911 census, Matilda was a ‘Boarding House Keeper’.

In 1912 Maude married Lindsay Marsham Rae, the son of an author and dramatist, Charles Marsham Rae. The couple do not appear to have had any children. At some stage Lindsay enlisted with the Yorkshire Dragoons Yeomanry, but it is not known where he served during the war. Nor is it known why the couple were on board RMS Leinster on the 10th October 1918.

When the ship was torpedoed both were thrown in the water. Maude was pulled on to a life raft and survived, but her husband, who had been clinging on to an overturned boat, did not and his body was not recovered. Maude was brought to St Michael’s Hospital in Kingstown to recover.

Maude Marsham Rae, picked up by H.M.S. Mallard.  Her husband, Second Lieutenant Lindsay Leon Marsham Rae, 2nd Battalion Queen’s Own Yorkshire Dragoons, was lost.

Lieutenant Roland Lloyd R.N.R., Captain of H.M.S. Mallard.

Maude subsequently wrote a card thanking the captain of the Royal Navy destroyer which rescued her.

It is not known where Maude went to after the tragedy, but in 1930 she married Solicitor, Charles A Emanuel in Southampton. A son, Eric, was born the following year, but Maude herself died in 1934 at the age of forty-two. Charles lived until 1947.