#Ian holbourn

[sonofhistory]

The Friendship Formed on the Doomed Lusitania

Friday, May 7th, 1915, German U-boats struck a passenger vessel and the consequences were those of which were heard all around the world. The RMS Lusitania sunk in only eighteen minutes and of the 1,962 people aboard, only 764 survived. Two persons were tugged from the icy waters off the coast of Ireland, one of whom owed their lives to the other. 

Ian Holbourn was forty-three when the Lusitania left the New York harbor and made its way steadily across the Atlantic Ocean to Liverpool. He was a co-founder of Ruskin College and appointed professor of University of California’s art and architecture extension program late run life. He was instrumental in the expansion of the art department of Carleton College in Minnesota, where he served part-time as a professor of art and archaeology. He was crossing the choppy ocean to take up his position as a professor at the University of Cambridge, to reunite with his wife and three sons and to publish a book he’d been working on for  twenty years. A second class citizen upon the vessel, Ian was a writer with two books already published: Jacopo Robusti, Called Tintoretto in 1903 and An Introduction to the Architectures of European Religions in 1909. Before sailing, Ian dreamed three separate times that the ship would be torpedoed; his wife also had one dream of this event. On board, Ian stayed in cabin C-10 by himself. 

Avis Dolphin the same year as the Lusitania sinking. 

A day after the ship set sail, Ian, a great lover of children, befriended a twelve year old girl after an encounter upon the deck between the two. Avis Dolphin was an English girl whose family immigrated to Canada in 1907 when she was only two. However, tragically, Her father died from tuberculosis following his service in the Boer War and her mother ran a small nursing home.  Her mother was determined that Avis have an English education, and Avis was to travel to England on the Lusitania with nurses Hilda Ellis and Sarah Smith, both of whom were Mrs. Dolphin's employees going to England on vacation. Ian was usually chided for his unusual dress including Scottish kilts and bonnets and his atypical teaching styles.

Avis unfortunately was seasick throughout the entire crossing and Ian kept her spirits up by telling her stories of the Isle of Foula in Scotland, of which he was laird. Realizing that the Lusitania would be sailing into the war zone, Ian believed it was vital that passengers know proper evacuation procedures and the way to put lifebelts on properly.  A secret message soon arrived to him on Tuesday (the fifth day) which ordered him to stop speaking about the  possibilities because he was “upsetting the passengers”. Ian was also openly critical of Captain Turner's refusal to order a lifeboat drill in order not to distress the passengers. On Wednesday, May 5th, (the sixth day) Ian complained directly to Captain Turner, but sensed his interference was unwelcome. To the individuals who refused to face facts and recognize the dangers, Ian nicknamed them the "Ostrich Club” which Avis must of greatly enjoyed. 

The entire voyage, Ian and Avis spent their time up on the desk with the sea or down below in the dinner area serving themselves desert. The day of the torpedo, May 7th, Avis and Ian were sitting down to lunch together. Coffee had just been served and everyone was greatly enjoying themselves during the second sitting of lunch where the two were when the torpedo hit. The Lusitania shook so suddenly and violently that dishes crashed to the floor. In an effort to quiet the panic that was beginning to consume the populace, stewards began to shout that there was, "No danger, keep to your seats!"  Except for a few screams, the atmosphere in the dining room was one of "absolute calm." 

Ian's first thought was to reach for Avis, but he first waited for the worst before rushing over to her side. Avis, accompanied by her nurses, then thought (according to her in her later years), "What a shame, I'm going to miss dessert." Ian then shouted at her and her nurses, "Stay where you are!". Ian was sitting about twenty feet away from them. Quickly, rising and grasping at Avis’s hand and telling her to not let go, Ian led her to his room to put on lifejackets as his room was a deck above Avis'. There, Ian put on her a lifebelt that belonged to a fellow passenger and tied lifebelts to her before grabbing his and placing it in his hand. Ian, still in the cabin, gathered a few of his most important manuscripts and together they made for the top. Ian and Avis were at the top of the companionway and almost out on the deck when the lights went out. It was when the second explosion went off and these lights went out that the passengers began to scramble, pushing and shoving one another to out. 

On deck, Ian and Avis sighted Hilda Ellis and Sarah Smith who they had been separated from. Sarah did not have a lifebelt on and Ian offered her his. She refused, saying that "his life was of more value than hers as he had a wife and children" but she ended up receiving the life-jacket in the end anyways. Ian would later comment strongly on the further need of lifebelts on the boat decks.  They agreed that Ian would keep his lifebelt if he could find a boat for Avis, Sarah, and Hilda. Ian attempted to get them away in a portside lifeboat, but they saw one smashed in launching. during the frenzy that was taking place. They saw another launched empty, and some men stripped, diving in the waters and swam for it. Sensing the starboard side was their only hope, the group moved forward and Holbourn was able to place Avis, Sarah, and Hilda in a starboard lifeboat (possibly #17 as sources indicate). 

Before lowering her down, he kissed Avis, and fearing that he would not survive told Avis to "find his wife and children and kiss them goodbye for him". The Lusitania was now very low in the water and Ian stuffed his manuscripts into his clothing. He moved forward to the iron rail to find a clear space to jump into the waters to save himself since there were no lifeboats left. As Ian jumped, with horror he watched, as he plunged into the waters, that Avis' lifeboat had capsized and she was sucked under the water. It capsized when two men attempted to jump into the boat from the deck while the boat was still being lowered via ropes. Avis and her nurses tumbled into the frozen waters and Avis was able to swam clear of the boat towards a raft, where two men pulled her up. She was not able to find her nurses Sarah or Hilda. The wreckage and throng of people made it impossible for Ian to make his way over and later he stated he had terrifying nightmares of that lifeboat spilling for years afterward and the fear of believing he had lost Avis to death. 

In the water, Ian became entangled in ropes and also was pulled under nearly to his death to drown. He was able to free himself eventually and barely in the knick of time. He made for lifeboat #15, the closest one, and hoping to get in, pushed a fellow companion in the water in hopes of him gaining access to the small boat. Unfortunately, when he got to the boat, he discovered that passenger he’d dragged along was already dead, and that the people in the overcrowded boat refused to allow him in. Fearing that he and his manuscripts would be lost, he threw his manuscripts into the boat so at least his papers would be saved, and then grabbed onto a rope trailing from the stern of the lifeboat to keep him afloat.

The people in the lifeboat witnessed another, empty boat (perhaps #1 or a collapsible) a few yards off and made towards it. As #15 was full of people fished from the water, it took forty-five minutes to reach the other boat which had drifted away on the tides, but to Ian, he stated it seemed like passed like an "an interminable age." Weakened from the cold water, he asked for one of the men in the boat to grasp his hand in his last moments. Those in the boat, however, were too horrified by their surroundings and they refused to do so. He was dragged into the second boat with the help of others inside where he retrieved his manuscripts. Seeing and hearing so many people drowning painted a picture "too ghastly to describe" Holbourn later described. Ian was picked up by the fishing vessel Peel 11. The Peel 11 was already overcrowded but still took on two additional lifeboats. 

It is not clear what boat Avis was rescued by after four hours but it was a large boat that contained a stove and some blankets, and she was given a glass of warm milk and tucked into bed. Neither of her nurses survived. The survivors, many of them seriously injured, huddled together in a small hold, before they were transferred to the Stormcock. Upon arrival in Queenstown, Ian continued his search for Avis despite his exhaustion and exposure. He was able to walk, but his limbs refused to work properly because of hypothermia. Two soldiers then took him to the Cunard ship line office and later to a hotel where he was put to bed. Ian asked for news of Avis whenever he could. It was not until 2 am in his hotel that he finally got word that Avis was safe to his astonishing relief. His exposure to the water was took a serious toll on him and was confined to bed in the hotel.  

Avis, very much well, came to see him every day and stayed for all hours. Her physical recovery was extremely rapid, mostly due to her robust age. During her time at Queenstown where the survivors had been recuperating, she tended to Holbourn who was still severely ill due to his prolonged exposure in the water. On the way back home to Great Britain, Ian continued to take care of Avis, providing rooms for her at a Dublin hotel in Sackville Street before taking her to her grandparents in Worcester. Marion Holbourn, Ian’s wife, met up with Ian and Avis at the Birmingham railway station. As Marion packed away Ian's wet belongings, a standby asked Marion what she was doing. When she replied she was meeting her husband who was on the Lusitania, the person then asked, "Oh, was 'ee drownded, then?"

Avis' grandfather admitted that he had a premonition of the Lusitania's torpedoing, as did Marion. Ian had seen Avis' lifeboat capsize, but when he told the tale the grandfather added, "Depend on it, that's our Avis!". Avis Dolphin and Ian Holbourn continued to be life-long friends and frequently visited one another. One day, when Avis was about thirteen, she complained about how boring books written for girls were. Striking an idea, Ian promised to her that he would write her an adventure story that would be as thrilling as any that book that was written for boys. The Child of the Moat, published in 1916 when Avis was the same age, sold out immediately in book stores. Before a second edition could be published, however, the publisher folded. Following her school years, Avis Dolphin moved to Edinburgh to be closer to the Holbourns. 

Ian was appointed professor in the extension department of the University of California in art and architecture in 1918. That same year, he was appointed lecturer to the United States Federal Government Committee on Public Information to forge a better understanding between the United States and Britain. The following year, Ian received an invitation from Carleton College in Minnesota to build up their art department. "All this Professor Holbourn has done not only without straw but without bricks." He once told his students, "I do not mind if you contradict me and prove me wrong; what I do not want is my own lecture dished up again."  In response a student said, "But that is just what most of the other professors want!" Shops were flooded with postcards of quotes from his lectures, including "Never be satisfied with what CAN be done -- any fool can do that.  Strive to do the thing that CAN'T be done."

On one visit to the Holbourns' Penkaet Castle in 1925, Avis stayed in the King Charles Room. Avis reported to Ian that she heard someone moving downstairs and alerted the Holbourns. When they headed downstairs, they then heard sounds of someone moving around in Avis' bedroom. In a separate incident at Penkaet, Avis felt a ghostly fingertip draw across her throat. During another visit to the Holbourn's house she met the journalist Thomas Foley.  Avis and Thomas married in 1926 with the Holbourns most likely in attendance. 

In 1929 Ian was involved in another almost shipwreck when he and a friend named Hylas were caught in a storm while sailing on the Paralos. The ship was not sunk, but both Ian and Hylas were injured. The Great Depression and the Wall Street Crash of 1919 made it impossible for him to retire. To cope, he smoked constantly making his throat delicate. Although he tried to quit he was never able to give up it up entirely but told others not to pick it up. Ian dreaded old age and spoke woefully of this to Avis as well as he became concerned about the afterlife. When faced possible necessity of an operation, Ian became rather depressed. The day before Ian left for the hospital, he told Marion he had made an "epoch-making discovery" in his philosophy and hoped to be able to write it out. The surgery went well, but three days later, Marion felt a sense of "impending disaster."  On the morning of September 14th,1935 Marion rushed to the nursing home to see Ian. He looked normal to her. One of his last words was "I think my philosophy may be counted as a real contribution.  Don't you think?" At midnight Ian passed away at only sixty-two. 

Marion stayed in contact with Avis until her own death in the 1970s after living through two world wars. Avis lived out her remaining years in Wales. She passed on February 5th, 1996. 

[sonofhistory]

The friendship between Ian Holbourne and Avis Dolphin is so adorable and I love them.