Mr Charles Hallace Romaine (C. Rolmane)

Mr Charles Hallace Romaine, 45, was born in Georgetown, Kentucky on 11 July 1866 the son of William H. Romaine (b. 15 March 1825; d. 20 January 1867) and Jailey Lydia Secrist (b. 5 May 1827; d. 13 April 1911).

According to his obituary he spent his youth in Kentucky and Ohio and came to Anderson, Indiana in 1892, where he was associated with George Simmons in the Doxey hotel. From there he went to London, where he spent several years as the managing director of the Throg-Morton Trust company.

Romaine boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger. He is remembered as one of several passengers engaged in gambling on the Titanic, he used several aliases including Harry Romine but chose Mr C. Rolmane for this trip. He would later claim to have heard passengers on say they had seen icebergs near the ship just a short time before the collision.

Romaine was rescued, possibly in lifeboat 9.

In 1916 (?1920) he returned to live in New York, where he engaged in a banking business before retiring. He resided at 315 W. 98th St. He was killed after being hit by a taxi cab on 18 January 1922. He and his wife "Doll" are buried in Anderson, Indiana.

Notes
Some details do not agree between sources, such as the mother's name (Romaine's death certificate gives his mother's name as Jeanette Lyman. Family sources suggest the mother's name was Jailey Lydia Secrist who lived in Anderson Indiana until her death). Another inconsistency is the date of Romaine's return to the US, was it 1916 or 1920? Also it is hard to rationalize the historical view of Romaine as a professional card-sharp, preying on innocent passengers with the everyday businessman seen in the record.

References and Sources

Department of Health of the City of New York - Bureau of Records Certificate of Death #1981
The Anderson Herald (Indiana) 21, 22 January 1922

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