A Titanic Survivor in Kenya: Amy Fenwick
We often read about the activities of men in early Kenya, but we hear little of their wives. William Fenwick went to Kenya in 1920 as an administrative cadet, the first rank of those who became district and later provincial commissioners. He worked in Machakos in 1922, was moved as assistant district commissioner to Fort Hall in 1925, and then to Lumbwa. His wife Amy accompanied him on these postings, caring for their two young children, Amy Ann and Douglas, and fulfilling the taxing entertainment duties required of the administrators’ wives. But who was she?
Amy was a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in the north Atlantic on 14 April 1912. She had had a chequered childhood. Born on 8 April 1888 in Peckham, London, she was the daughter of Moreno Cohen who died in 1890 when Amy was two years old. Her mother Alice was a psychiatric nurse at the Peckham House Lunatic Asylum. After her husband’s death Alice found that having to earn a living and caring for Amy and her two older siblings aged five and three was too difficult; so she put her children into care. The 1901 census places Amy and her sister at an orphan asylum in Wanstead, Essex. But her mother was married again in 1902, to Frederick Alexander Christy. Did she reclaim her children? Possibly, since they adopted the surname of Christy. Tragedy soon struck again, however, for Frederick died in 1903, only a year later.
Amy Fenwick
Amy’s teenage years are a mystery and we next hear of her when she married in London on 6 September 1910 a South African solicitor Sydney Samuel Jacobsohn. Amy soon became pregnant and the couple looked forward to the birth, which ended in yet another tragedy – the death of the baby daughter. To assist her daughter’s recovery Amy’s mother suggested Athat the bereaved parents accompany her and her other daughter Juli Rachel on a trip booked on the Titanic. They all boarded the doomed ship on 19 pril 1912, their second-class tickets having cost £27 each.
On the night of 14 April Sydney Jacobsohn, disturbed by the collision of the Titanic with an iceberg, went out of the cabin to see what was going on. He learnt that lifeboats were being lowered, returned to the cabins to tell his relatives to don warm clothes, and they all went on deck. As women and children were given priority, Alice Christy and her two daughters boarded a lifeboat, leaving Sydney on deck. They were rescued from the sea by the liner Carpathia, from which they sent the telegram:
55 No 13/13, 18 Apr., pretix S, words 16, charges 1.14.0 1/2; sent to MSC by H.C. 6.5 a.m.
Jacobsohn 34 Anson Road Cricklewood London
Dont be alarmed Sydney may be on another boat
Jacobsohn
But he was not on another boat. Amy had to face yet another tragedy – the drowning of her husband whose body was never found. On returning to London on the Megantic on 11 May Amy had to go to court to claim her husband’s estate, because his will had been lost on the Titanic. She also claimed against the owners of the Titanic for $5709.60 for the loss of property of herself and her husband.
At some stage (probably 1919/20) Amy married again. Her new husband was William Fenwick, a twenty-eight-year-old army officer, probably hailing from the Durham area, an ambitious young man who had applied to join the administrative civil service in Kenya. He was accepted and sailed round the Cape to Kenya in 1920, assuming his first post in Machakos. Amy, always known as Bunty in Kenya, had a few settled years, enjoying the birth of Douglas and Amy Ann. Her husband moved from one administrative posting to another, usually every two years. In 1925 they were at Lumbwa and in 1930 Sotik.
William Fenwick
Unfortunately the marriage broke down in 1939 and Amy returned to England, living in Bournemouth close to her mother. But her health was poor and after the war she returned to Kenya and entered the Maia Carberry Nursing Home. There she died on 9 July 1947. She was buried in City Park cemetery in Nairobi.
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