| Author |
Message |
    
Gary.J Bell
Member
Username: lord_haselmere
Post Number: 32
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - 3:23 pm: | 
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Having read the thread about the mix up of the Spencer Cabin in Cabin numbers, i began trying to find out a little more about Mr.and Mrs.Spencer.
The cabin number thread was started by someone quoting a misprint in a book that said the couple were quoted as staying in C-78 and had refused to leave their room once the sinking began, and how they were really in B-78.
I then had a look at the Cave list and saw that Mrs.Spencer did infact leave in a lifeboat (number 6).
I found a curious obituary for her that stated she died in Paris just a little over a year later on October 1913! She didnt live very long after her husband died and she was only 46.Does anyone know anymore about this couple or have a picture, if they refused (supposedly) to leave, what made her go? |
Lester Mitcham
Member
Username: lester
Post Number: 657
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - 9:39 pm: |
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Hello Gary,
There are no lifeboat numbers on the Cave List. The lifeboat 6 information appears in a Passenger List complied by Michael Findlay. That information also appears on several web-sites. However, in a subsequent Passenger List that Findlay complied no lifeboat number is given.
Some years ago I had a letter from Findlay in which he advised: "..... Mrs Spencer and her maid .... were thought to be in boat 6 but were not since they did not reach the deck until much later." |
Michael Findlay
Member
Username: mikef
Post Number: 202
Registered: 4-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 3:53 pm: |
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Hi Gary,
I am sorry to say that there is still uncertainty with regard to which boat Mrs. Spencer and her maid escaped in.
Interviews attributed to Elise Lurette, Mrs. Spencer's maid, in several New York newspapers soon after the sinking, implied that she and her employer were in the same boat as Molly Brown - therefore they were placed in boat #6 originally.
However, after comparing later interviews, and the testimony given at the American Inquiry, it seems likely that the Spencer party were stragglers to the boat deck. I believe the ladies left in one of the very last boats but wouldn't rule out the possibility of boat #4 altogether as some historians have done. Some researchers believe boat #4 is "overcrowded" with possibilities given the general number of occupants. I personally feel that the Spencer party was detached from the rest, and the ladies may have well entered one of the port-side aft boats....like boats #10 and #14 which contained several first-class passengers and therefore went virtually unnoticed.
According to her family, Mrs. Spencer was ill at the time of the sinking, and suffered from manic depression and anxiety. She had been ill for some time, and the family today relates the tale of how William Spencer was not only travelling to the United States to be present for the reading of his late brother's will, but also to seek medical attention for his wife.
I have heard that Mrs. Spencer continued her decline until her death in October 1913. According to one family report, the disaster was the beginning of the end for Mrs. Spencer, who reportedly stopped eating in the weeks leading up to her death. There is also a report that Marie Spencer suffered from acute nephritis (kidney failure).
I hope this will help.
Michael Findlay |
Lester Mitcham
Member
Username: lester
Post Number: 658
Registered: 12-2000
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 8, 2004 - 11:23 pm: |
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Michael,
The added informations are appreciated.
Lester |
Gary.J Bell
Member
Username: lord_haselmere
Post Number: 33
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 9, 2004 - 8:38 pm: |
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Yea thanx Michael thats gr8 |
Monica Hall
Moderator
Username: monica
Post Number: 995
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, October 23, 2004 - 2:17 pm: |
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Here is an list of Mrs. Spencer's lost belongings (in Fr. francs), presumably for an insurance claim. She certainly didn't travel light by our standards, but she's not in the Cardeza league. It seems she managed to get this lot into a large trunk (Vuitton!) and a travelling bag, though I don't see how. It's interesting to see what sort of clothes predominated then (so many gloves and nightdresses...). She also has six brassieres and only one corset, I think, which suggests she valued her comfort.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/titanic/tspencer4.html |
Claude Roulet
Member
Username: croulet
Post Number: 3
Registered: 5-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 1:09 pm: |
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I wrote a longer message in William A. Spencer subject. I am the grand-grand nephew of Elise Lurette, the "devoted family maid" of the Spencer family.
I don't know a lot about Mrs. Spencer. She and her husband were booked and had their cabin on the deck B. In March 1912 William A. Spencer asked Elise Lurette to travel with him and his wife to New-York. It was said in our family that Mrs. Spencer was morphine addicted. This was the reason why William wanted Elise to accompany them to New York. Elise Lurette liked very much William A. Spencer so she accepted.
After her return to Paris, she didn't have contacts with the Spencer family anymore. |
