Colonel (Oberst) Alfons Simonius-Blumer

Mr Alfons-Simonius-Blumer, 56, a colonel in the Swiss Army, was born on 23 October 1855 in Basel, Switzerland. He was president of the Swiss Bankverein since 1906. He and his wife Alice lived at 6 Jakob Strasse, Basel. He was acquainted with Max Frölicher-Stehli. Mr Alfons Simonius-Blumer was accompanied by Dr. Max Staehelin-Maeglin, a lawyer. They boarded the Titanic as first class passengers. Their destination was New York, where they wanted to look after the business of Heine & Co., which belonged to the Swiss Bankverein. Simonius-Blumer bought his first class ticket number 13213 (£35 10s) from his agent: Kaiser & Cie., Basel for 897.35 Swiss francs. He boarded at Southampton and occupied cabin A-26.

On sunday evening (April 14th) Alfons Simonius-Blumer, Max Frölicher-Stehli and Max Staehelin-Maeglin sat in the first class smoke room and played cards untill short after 11 pm. Around 11.30 pm they went to their staterooms. After the collision he went outside to see what has happened.

At 0.50 am he entered lifeboat 3 together with Max Staehelin-Maeglin. Later they rowed to keep warm. They were rescued by the Carpathia. Alfons Simonius bade two Swiss compatriots to send telegrams for him (he had to recover from a cold). First Max Frölicher:

Oberst Simonius Basel
Staehlin and I well on Carpatia
Thursday New York Alfons

This telegram was never transmitted because the operators could not cope with the tremendous lot of work.

Second Karl Lisibach, a Swiss passenger on the Carpathia:

Winterfeldt Speyerco New York
Simonius Staehelin saved Carpatia cable Basle
Simonius

It was sent on April 18th at 6.25 am.

In New York he was awaited by Dr. Hans Winterfeldt. He and Max Staehelin went to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. They visited the Heine Co. and travelled back to Europe on 7 May 1912 on board of the Victoria Luise.

Alfons Simonius-Blumer left the Army in 1913. He died in Luzern from heart failure on 26 May 1920. He left a wife and three sons. He is buried in Wolfgottesacker Cemetery, Basel (Section 1)