Cosmo Duff-Gordon
July 22nd, 1862
The Wikipedia entry for Cosmo Duff-Gordon describes him as a ’prominent Englishman’, which broadly sums up history’s attitude towards a certain type of late Victorian or early Edwardian gentleman with a title and a few quid in the bank. Don’t get me wrong, the British Empire has a lot to answer for and I’m first in the queue to hand out a metaphorical shitkicking to those involved in the worst excesses of imperial tyranny. But the reputation of some historical figures is such that their entire narrative can be summed up with the words ‘prominent Englishman’ and a metaphorical wink.
Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet Halkin was a prominent Englishman (*conspiratorial wink*), sportsman, landowner (*conspiratorial wink*) and someone who didn’t drown (*feigned shock*).
He was born the son of Cosmo Lewis Duff-Gordon and Anna Maria Antrobus in 1862, becoming the 5th Baronet Halkin in 1896. The Duff-Gordons were a family of Scottish descent who made their fortune in the wine importing business.
Duff-Gordon represented Great Britain at the 1906 Intercalated Games. The Intercalated Games were games organized under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee and hence Olympic Games in name, even if Olympic medals weren’t awarded. Originally conceived as an event to be held in the years between the full Olympics, and always to be held in Athens, 1906 was the only time they were held.
Duff-Gordon excelled as a fencer, winning silver in the épée before an audience that included King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria. He went on to be part of the organizing committee for the 1908 London Olympics and took part in the hair-raising sounding sport of pistol duelling. He also competed in the demonstration sport of fencing. He was a keen wrestler, a founder of the London Fencing League, a member of the Bath Club, a gentleman’s club for sportsmen, and a member of the Royal Automobile Club.
In 1900, he married the scandalous ‘Madame Lucile’, Lucy Christina Sutherland, who’s risqué society status was earned by the twinned scandals of being a woman and being divorced. She was also a fashion designer and had a sister, Elinor Glyn, who nearly bought society crashing to the ground by writing slightly naughty novels in which ladies showed their knees or something slutty.
As a prominent Englishman (*BOOOO!*) with a whore wife, their next crime against humanity was going on the Titanic and not dying.
The Duff-Gordons and her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli, were in cabin A16 in the 1st Class Quarters on the night of April 15th, 1912, when the ship struck the iceberg that sunk it. You know that story, we don’t need to go over it.
The three of them were aboard the infamous lifeboat number 1 which had a capacity of 40, but rowed away from the sinking ship with only 12 people on board, the boat with the fewest people aboard launched that night. Most of the 12 were men and most of them came from the 1st Class Quarters, which led to the boat being nicknamed ‘The Money Boat’. The boat launched at 1:05AM and was picked up by the Carpathia at about 4:00AM. Everyone on board survived.
The rumors about the boat began soon after and perpetuated all the way into modern times. Duff-Gordon and Lady Lucy were portrayed in James Cameron’s Titanic by Martin Jarvis and his wife Rosalind Ayres.
Quite why the lifeboat launched without a full complement was never fully established, but it probably reflected the original assumption that the ship wouldn’t sink and that taking to the lifeboats was merely a precaution. The occupants of lifeboat 1 claimed that when they were ordered to launch, there was nobody else around waiting to board, something that other witnesses corroborated.
Another rumor was that according to crew member Charles Hendrickson, he had proposed returning to the ship to pick up more survivors, both from the ship itself and from the water. It was then claimed that Lady Lucy protested, fearing that the boat would be swamped. She denied this firmly and subsequent testimony at the enquiry revealed that nobody else had heard any of the women protesting that they should not return.
Another, devastating, rumor was that Duff-Gordon had handed a crew member called Murdoch £5 as a bribe to row away from the ship with the lifeboat half full, something the movie repeats. Ultimately, everyone on the boat was exonerated from doing anything wrong and although the boat could have returned to the ship an taken more survivors, that they didn’t do so, for whatever reason, didn’t contribute to more deaths, nor did it warrant any blame to the crew or passengers.
The enquiry found that "The very gross charge against Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon that, having got into No. 1 boat he bribed the men in it to row away from the drowning people, is unfounded".
But it persisted.
The enquiry instead heard that, drifting, the conversation in the boat turned to money at around 3 in the morning, prompted by a private comment Lucy Duff Gordon made to Mabel Francatelli: "There is your beautiful nightdress gone."
A crew member, Pusey, remarked that at least they were still alive and pointed out that, unlike the wealthy passengers, he and his fellow crew members had not only lost everything, but the second the ship sunk, they had also stopped being paid.
Cosmo Duff-Gordon responded that he would give each of them ‘a fiver’ to ‘start a new kit’. The day after being rescued, 16th April, 1912, Duff-Gordon handed each of the crewmen of lifeboat 1 a cheque for £5.
Although the enquiry admonished the crew and passengers of lifeboat 1 for not returning to pick up more survivors, they were cleared of any wrongdoing and Duff-Gordon’s sympathy for, and charity towards, the crew was remarked upon.
But his reputation didn’t survive.
He and Lady Lucy became estranged in 1915 but they never divorced and remained friends until his death, aged 68, on 20th April 1931. Lady Lucy died exactly four years later.
Neither of them was ever able to escape the stigma that they had acted selfishly, despite the evidence to the contrary and despite not being the only people on board. Perhaps it was because they were too prominent.
In 2012, a box of documents was found in the storeroom of the legal firm that represented the Duff-Gordons. In it was an inventory of items lost by Lady Lucy, amounting to £3,208, 3 shillings and sixpence. A letter written by Sir Cosmo contained the line “There seems to be a feeling of resentment against any English man being saved....The whole pleasure of having been saved is quite spoilt by the venomous attacks they made at first in the papers. This, I suppose, was because I refused to see any reporter."
A reputation ruined, deservedly or undeservedly, by the press.