Mr Charles Eugene Williams was born in Brompton, London, England on 28 July 1888.
He was the son of a Welsh father Edmund Williams (b. 1847) and a French-born mother of Welsh parentage, Elizabeth Holland (b. 1858), both tailors. He had three known siblings: Amy (b. 1882), Ellen (b. 1891) and James (b. 1893). The family appear on the 1901 census living at 5 Cottage Place, Westminster.
A racquet player, Williams began his career as a ball boy at London's exclusive Prince's Club before turning professional. In January 1911 he competed in and won the Open Championship of England, defeating Edgar Maximilian Baerlein; only a few months later he was the challenger for the World Championship against the titleholder, India's Jamsetji Merwanji. He won the first round at the Queen's Club and then in the second round played out a draw at the Prince's Club after he had already secured the one game he needed to claim the outright title, becoming the world champion.
Charles was married in the second half of 1910 to Lois Wilkins (b. 27 January 1888), a native of Chelsea, London and the daughter of carpenter and joiner John Wilkins and his wife Leah Stevens. Their first child, Eugene Charles arrived on 29 March 1911 1 and the family appeared on the census that year living at 2 Drury Road, Harrow, London and Williams was described as a racquet professional at Harrow School; their young son was by then still unnamed.
Williams boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger (ticket number 244373 which cost £13) and was travelling to New York to defend his title against George E. Standing.
On the night of 14 April Williams left the squash racquet court at 10.30 pm and had settled in the smoking room. Following the collision he rushed out and saw the iceberg which he said rose a hundred feet above the deck and broke up amidships before drifting away. He is believed to have been rescued in lifeboat 14 but contemporary media initially reported him as among the lost.
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Mr Peterman, hon. secretary of the Racquets Association, stated last night that he received a cable from Williams, the professional racquets champion, who was on board the Titanic. Williams was to have played a match in New York against G. Standing on April 29 for the championship of the world. The cable reads: "Match postponed; return next week. Williams."
Daily Sketch, 20 April 1912 |
Charles returned to his wife and son in England and went on to expand his family, having a further five children: Ninian (b. 1913), John (b. 1915), Dorothy2 (1917-1998), Jean (b. 1920) and Hilda Theresa3 (1921-1981).
Charles and his family later emigrated; they arrived in New York aboard Olympic on 29 July 1924 and made their home in Chicago. The family appear on the 1930 census living at 5524 Lakewood Avenue, Chicago and was described as a tennis instructor; he would live at that address for the rest of his life.
Charles died from Bronchial pneumonia on 27 October 1935 and was buried three days later in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
His widow Lois remained on Lakewood Avenue for a time before moving to Evanstown, Illinois where she lived out the remainder of her life. Having never remarried she died on 25 November 1959 and was buried with Charles in Rosehill Cemetery.
I was looking at the handful of male passengers who survived on port side lifeboats and one of them is Second Class passenger Charles Eugene Williams who survived on Lifeboat #14. In fact Williams and Masabumi Hosono (#10) were the only two male adult Second Class passengers who survived on port side lifeboats. I am interested in finding out how Williams made it into Lifeboat #14 where no men passengers were allowed to enter even though there was room. In his testimony at he American Inquiry, Fifth Officer Lowe claimed that he took on Williams to help with the rowing....
Just by coincidence I was recently finishing a research project for my blog where I was confronted with the very question of how Charles Willaims got into Lifeboat No.14. There are two options: A, where Williams got off the Titanic in No. 14, then, when Lowe was transferring his passengers to other lifeboats before heading to find survivors, Williams offered to stay in the boat. Or... B, where Williams got off the ship in one of the other lifeboats into which Lowe transferred his passengers---Collapsible D, LIfeboat No. 12, Lifeboat No. 4 and Lifeboat No. 10---and Williams volunteered...
Lowe arrived at No. 14 when it was already almost fully loaded. There was still room for over twenty. Hardly "almost fully loaded". Bill Wormstedt and Tad Fitch have proved that Boat No. 14 had forty occupants when it was lowered. Your reasons for Williams being in Boat 12 are based more on wild opinion rather than facts. Opinions don't count for anything.
It is a bit confusing but I did read Lowe's testimony at the American Inquiry carefully. In copying and pasting that excerpt from Lowe's testimony, I did not edit anything out. If we read the sequence of Senator Smith's questioning, it takes Lowe from the time he loaded the lifeboat, finding of the "Italian" male passenger dressed like a woman etc and then says that he took on another male passenger - Charles Williams - to help with the rowing. To my mind, that sounds like that was just as Lifeboat #14 was being launched and not later. There is a supporting statement to that...
It is a bit confusing but I did read Lowe's testimony at the American Inquiry carefully. In copying and pasting that excerpt from Lowe's testimony, I did not edit anything out. If we read the sequence of Senator Smith's questioning, it takes Lowe from the time he loaded the lifeboat, finding of the "Italian" male passenger dressed like a woman etc and then says that he took on another male passenger - Charles Williams - to help with the rowing. To my mind, that sounds like that was just as Lifeboat #14 was being launched and not...
What makes you think you know better ?
In a situation like the Titanic disaster, we rely heavily on eyewitness accounts and to provide direct "evidence" would be impossible except in some cases. I accept that survivor accounts can be widely different in terms of reliability and so we have to use our own judgement. In this particular case, one assumes that Tad Fitch et al, authors of On A Sea Of Glass, checked their information sources...
In a situation like the Titanic disaster, we rely heavily on eyewitness accounts and to provide direct "evidence" would be impossible except in some cases. I accept that survivor accounts can be widely different in terms of reliability and so we have to use our own judgement. In this particular case, one assumes that Tad Fitch et al, authors of On A Sea Of Glass, checked their information sources as thoroughly as possible. They go to painstaking lengths to verify their information and provide source material wherever...
In a situation like the Titanic disaster, we rely heavily on eyewitness accounts and to provide direct "evidence" would be impossible except in some cases. I accept that survivor accounts can be widely different in terms of reliability and so we have to use our own judgement. In this particular case, one assumes that Tad Fitch et al, authors of On A Sea Of Glass, checked their information sources as thoroughly as possible. They go to painstaking lengths to verify their information and provide source material wherever...
Oh good grief.
I am sorry but I don't buy that at all. I have great respect for contributors of On A Sea Of Glass and believe that they went further than anyone else to gather as much information as possible and presented it very well. The did not invent their own events at any stage. I don't believe that Charles Williams told...
Interesting that the testimony of Lowe is being downplayed, and my co-authors and I are being accused of making things up. If you believe a press article that claims Captain Smith rescued a baby, and then pushed away from the lifeboat, essentially giving up on surviving after being told that Murdoch shot himself, preferring that version to actual inquiry testimony, then there truly is no point to this discussion. Another quote attributed to Williams has him claiming that he spent the night in a lifeboat with water up to his knees, which fits only Collapsible A. Again, not credible given...
have to be considered based only on collective analysis of various survivor accounts and drawing the most likely conclusion. There is simply no other way. That is precisely what writers of On A Sea Of Glass have done, going to painstaking lengths to consider every point, getting all possibilities together and then try to analyse the most likely outcome. The best example for this is the so-called "Officer Shooting Incident" where survivor accounts are divided according to...
If THAT above is supposed to be the truth as...