Thomas Drake Martinez Cardeza

[Sean C. Corenki]

I'm having difficulty finding info on Thomas Cardeza's life after the sinking other than the small amount of articles in his bio here on ET. I'm especially interested in knowing if his social standing was affected like Ismay's, Carter's, Peuchen's, Sir Cosmo's, etc. for surviving the sinking. Thanks in advance. Sean

 

[Sean C. Corenki]

I found a small amount of info at the University of Pennsylvania's web site. I was hoping one of the passenger people here on ET could point me in the right direction for some more in depth information on Cardeza. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks so much! Sean

 

[Grant Woollacott]

He was a very well to do "Playboy" and a big game hunter. so he probably kept doing what he liked to do after the sinking. If you find a obituary that could possibly give you some information.

 

[Martin Williams]

I can't as yet shed much light on Thomas Cardeza's activities AFTER the 'Titanic' disaster but I can add that he was among the guests at the sumptuous wedding of Harriot Daly to the Hungarian Count Anton Sigray von Febre in March, 1910.

As the bride was a Protestant and the groom a Catholic, the marriage ceremony itself was conducted on a very small scale, in the presence of close family only, with Reverend Father Hughes of St. Patrick's Cathedral officiating at the home of Mrs Daly on Fifth Avenue. But the reception afterwards was attended by the cream of East Coast Society: besides a slew of Central European nobles, several English aristos (the Earl and Countess of Erroll and the Earl and Countess Kimberley among others) and assorted representatives of the Hungarian Legation, the Stuyvesant Fishes, the Perry Belmonts, the Payne Whitneys, the Percy Rockefellers and the Cornelius Vanderbilts were there too. As were - interestingly - George and Eleanor Widener AND Thomas Cardeza, all of whom would later meet aboard the 'Titanic'.

Although only a very minor footnote to what we know about him, I think this information does at least demonstrate that Thomas Cardeza (and, by extension, his mother) were by no means as unfamiliar to the likes of the Wideners, Carters, Thayers etc as has been asserted on other threads and that, as and when the fancy took them, they were more than happy to participate in the social whirl alongside their more celebrated shipmates.

 

[Darren Honeycutt]

The Cardezas had a home here in NC where they came hunting. This home was in Brown Summit. I took photos of the house right before they tore it down.

 

[Brian Ahern]

Martin, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that Harriot Daly was first cousin to Titanic passenger Walter Miller Clark? Their mothers were sisters. The Dalys do seem to have successfully infiltrated the East Coast social scene, though it was by no means the world in which their roots lay. Their money was made in the mines of Montana, and my guess would be that it was through them that Walter and Virginia Clark (herself a Montana native) were introduced. But more about this when I finally get around to sharing the mountain of info I dug up on the Clarks.

Oh, and I guess it was a return of sorts for Harriot Daly to be married in the Catholic church, as her own father was a Catholic Irishman. I've seen at least one source that indicates he was fairly loyal to his community even after taking an Episcopalian wife who used much of his money to endow churches in her own faith.

 

[Brian Ahern]

Speaking of the Earl and Countess of Erroll, this weekend I watched "White Mischief" for the first time, about the murder of the 22nd Earl in Nairobi in 1941 (the movie is pretty heavily fictionalized). I had to order the movie through my local library and wait a few days for it. If the birth and death dates in thepeerage.com are reliable, the Errolls at Harriot Daly's wedding must have been the 20th Earl and his wife, the grandparents of the famous murder victim. It's interesting to me that English aristocrats did cross the Atlantic on holiday, even in cases where there were no apparent American relatives, as in this case, the 20th Earl being married to a L'Estrange and not to some dollar princess.

 

[Martin Williams]

Happy New(ish) Year, Brian, and welcome back to the board. Your insights have been much missed these past couple of months.

I love 'White Mischief' - it is one of my very favourite films. Although, you are right, the cinematic version (with the delectable Greta Scacchi, plus a young Hugh Grant in a bit part) does put a glamorous spin on what was essentially a very sordid affair. During my time at Christie's, I worked with a direct descendant of Sir Jock Delves Broughton. The late fashionista and style icon Isabella Blow, who died in such tragic circumstances last year, was his granddaughter.

As for your observation about English aristocrats in American Society - yes, they do seem to have crossed the Atlantic with surprising frequency. Obviously, the sheer number of heiresses marrying into the peerage at the turn-of-the-century would partly explain the phenomenon. I was intrigued, though, to discover that Alice Keppel made a couple of trips to New York. I've read much about her but never knew that she'd cashed in her social chips on the other side of the pond too.

But I had no idea that the Harriot Daly who's wedding Thomas Cardeza and the Wideners attended in 1910 was a relation of Mr Clark! That is fascinating, and just goes to prove a point that has become increasingly clear to me during my recent trawls through the Society columns of the period press: that first-class aboard the 'Titanic' really WOULD have been akin to a private party. One could go on forever, uncovering links between the various passengers.

 

[Martin Williams]

Incidentally, 'The Times' has Harriot meeting the Count for the first time around 1905, when he came over for the wedding of Gladys Vanderbilt to fellow Hungarian Laszlo Szechenyi (I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce that!) They then re-met in Scotland, where Harriot had gone for the wedding of Miss Anna Stewart and where she presumably became acquainted with the toffs who later came across the Atlantic to celebrate her own nuptials.

On the subject of Hungary in the Gilded Age: it was, of course, at that time an important part of the Austrian Empire and was in no way seen as a cultural or social backwater. Indeed, Hungarian Society was very cosmopolitan and racy indeed and it is likely that Thomas Cardeza, Harriot and Gladys were made entirely welcome by their dashing new friends and neighbours.