IT is 100 years since British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew.

A haunting account of the sinking of the Lusitania was given in the Ilkley press after the tragic death of a well-known singer from the town.

Hilda Stones was one of almost 1200 people to perish when the passenger liner was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland a century ago.

Her husband Norman survived the disaster and gave a moving account of the tragedy- describing how his wife jumped to her death after telling him she was not afraid. He never saw her again.

The 29-year-old singer, who had settled with her husband in Canada, was travelling home to Yorkshire to be with her sick mother.

She gave her final performance on board the liner, once the largest passenger ship in the world, the night before it was sunk in a devastating attack on May 7, 1915.

Norman told how he lost his wife in the swirl of waters that enveloped them as they jumped overboard together - and he stressed his desire for revenge.

He said: “All I can hope for now is to get a chance of striking a blow for my wife and my country and of squaring accounts with the Germans.”

Hilda Stones had spent most of her her life in Ilkley, where she was better known as Mary Joy

An accomplished vocalist, she was well known throughout the area, winning plaudits as an amateur performer before joining a professional company.

She had moved to Vancouver a year or two before taking her fateful voyage back home to be with her sick mother.

On May 14 the Ilkley press reported she had been one of the victims of the “wholesale murder” of innocent civilians.

The grieving widower, whose heart was said to be “full of bitterness”, described seeing the fateful strike on the Lusitania.

A report at the time said: “He says he and his wife were standing on the sea deck when they saw a narrow lane of foam pointing straight for the ship.

“Look, Kiddy,” he said to his wife,” That must be a torpedo!” A moment or two later it struck the ship throwing up wreckage and clouds of spray.

“In the fatal minutes which ensued Mr Stones says there was no panic but it was a fact that he did not see a single boat properly launched. Word was passed round from the Captain that the ship would not sink for about an hour, and that probably allayed fear.

“All the same,” said Mr Stones, “I soon realised that the position was critical and so I suggested that we should slip down one of the ropes hanging from a boat davit into the water. We had been supplied with lifebelts. To show how self-possessed my wife was, she calmly opened a little bag she was carrying and gave me her purse, saying “You had better take care of this.” Then we both climbed down the rope to the water’s edge, and just before telling her to jump I said “Don’t be scared, Kid”. She replied “Oh, I’m not scared” and that was the last remark she made.

“We jumped into the water together but at that very moment the boat must have been going down, for we were sucked right under. I came to the surface, and had time to catch one breath before I was sucked under again.

“When I came to the surface a second time the boat was gone and my wife was nowhere to be seen. I got hold of a deckchair and paddled myself to an upturned boat, where I remained until I was rescued about three hours later.”

Hilda’s body was never recovered.

Norman went on to join a University Officer’s Training Corps in England, and then the Manchester Regiment. He went out to France in January 1917 and was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.” He eventually remarried and died in Exmoor in 1964.

Hilda, had been born and bred in Ilkley and had deep roots in the town. Her great-grandfather John Lister had opened the Lister’s Arms ( now converted into flats). Her family went on to take over the Crescent Hotel where Hilda lived for a while. She later moved to Brook Street, where her mother Elizabeth ran a fancy goods shop.

Said to have had an exceptional voice, she had been a member of the Leeds Amateurs and the County Comedy Company, before becoming a professional entertainer.

Lasting tributes to her remain in the numerous newspaper articles about her.

One of them in 2011 said: “Miss Rose Garden will make her London debut shortly in musical comedy, having signed a contract with Mr Robert Courtneidge for one of his forthcoming productions. Rose Garden is the stage name of Miss Mary Joy who, in the part of the little Princess, has captivated everyone who has been at the Leeds Royal this week. Success she deserves and all will wish her it.’

When the RMS Lusitania left New York for Liverpool on her final voyage submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic.