Arthur Ernest Nicholson

Mr Arthur Ernest Nicholson was born at Balham Hill, Streatham, Surrey, England on 9 October 1852.

He was the son of Charles Nicholson (1822-1880) and Mary Ring (1821-1895). His father worked as a warehouseman, later a coal merchant, and was a native of Essex whilst his mother hailed from Dorset. They married on 12 September 1844 in Paddington, London.  He had several known siblings: Anne Maria (1846-1847), Emily Mary (1846-1917), Charles William (b. 1849), Alice Irena (1851-1938), Duncan Ring (b. 1854), Frederick George (b. 1858) and possibly Frank G (b.1861)¹.

He first appears on the 1861 census living at Oaklands on Grove Road, Streatham, Surrey. The family later moved to Brighton and they appeared there on the 1871 census, an 18-year-old Arthur then described as a clerk for a tea merchant.

Arthur was married in Yorkshire on 9 October 1880 (his 28th birthday) to Kate Kilvington Hattersley (b. 1857), a native of Leeds. The couple would remain childless but a sad notice appeared in a Yorkshire newspaper in 1882:

They appear on the 1881 census living at 13 Hyde Park Terrace, Bilton, Harrogate, Yorkshire and Arthur was described as a wholesale tea dealer; also living with the couple was Arthur's widowed mother Mary who would later die in Twickenham, London on 29 March 1895, then a resident of Crown Road.

Arthur was prominent in the tea trade.  He was an agent of the Tea Growers Association and first came to America in around 1881.  He was instrumental in introducing Ceylon and Indian teas to the United States, representing the firms of Balmer, Lawrie & Co., Ltd., Calcutta, and Alexander Lawrie & Co., Ltd., London.  Although based in England, he maintained an office at 128 Front Street in Manhattan for over 30 years.  In 1904 he attended the World's Fair where there was a special display of teas and other products from around the British Empire.

Arthur and his wife settled in London but would spend winters in their home on the Isle of Wight at Claremont on Steep Hill Road, Shanklin.

In May 1909 Kate and Arthur were listed together on a passenger list for the White Star Line's Teutonic, arriving in Southampton from New York.  

Kate appears on the 1911 census with two servants, but Arthur is absent, perhaps abroad for business. 

Possibly his last Atlantic trip before Titanic was aboard the Majestic arriving in New York on 5 October 1911. He gave his address as the New York Club. 

Nicholson reportedly made an annual business trip to the USA, but on this occasion, various other reasons have been suggested for his journey.  One reason was that he was coming to assist his elderly sister² financially and to make necessary arrangements for her care in her advancing years.  It has also been suggested that he was coming on account of his own fragile health and that he wished to take a particular Turkish bath cure while in New York.

Arthur Nicholson boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first-class passenger (ticket number 693 which cost £26).

There is no information on Nicholson's activities aboard the Titanic, and he does not seem to appear in any extant survivor accounts.   It seems likely, that he would have known Richard William Smith, another British tea dealer, who was also aboard.³

Arthur Nicholson died in the sinking and his body was later recovered by the MacKay Bennett.

His sister requested that the remains be shipped to New York. This was done under the care of F. E. Campbell (214 West 23rd St.) on 6 May 1912. Rather than return the body to England, she buried her brother at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. Coincidentally, Arthur Nicholson was buried within a few feet of Charles Henry Chapman, another Titanic passenger whose body was also recovered. Nicholson and Chapman are among four known Titanic victims buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. The others were Alexander Holverson and Isidor Straus. A large stone was erected over Nicholson's grave, but there was no mention of the Titanic disaster.

A letter from his wife dated 11 July acknowledged receipt of the effects.

It was reported in The Sun (New York), 25 April 1912 that Arthur had an insurance policy with The Preferred Accident Insurance Company, New York, who claimed that his account and that of a fellow passenger Emil Taussig whose life was also insured with them, would cost them $30,000.⁴

At probate, his estate, valued at £447, 6d, was administered to his widow Kate on 11 September 1912. Kate never remarried and continued living on the Isle of Wight. When she died on 22 April 1944, aged 86, her last address was listed as the Yelfs Hotel, Union Street, Ryde.  She was cremated on 29 April 1944 at Southampton Crematorium, Hampshire, England and her ashes were scattered in the garden of remembrance.