Giovanni Giuseppe Emilio Saccaggi was born in Cannobio, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piemonte, Italy1 on 8 September 1887. He was the son of Luigi Saccaggi and Maria Gabbani.
He came to Britain as a young man and was married in London in 1909 to Ethel May Harlow (b. 19 January 1878 in Wivenhoe, Essex), the daughter of Captain William Charles Harlow and his wife Sarah Anna, née Hazell.
Giovanni and Ethel welcomed their son William Rudolph "Rodolfo" later that year on 12 September 1909. The young family appear on the 1911 census living at 22 Ponsonby Place, Westminster and Giovanni is described as a hotel waiter.
When he signed-on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912 Saccaggi gave his address as 20 Ponsonby Place, Westminster, London and his previous ship as the Olympic. He came on board the Titanic on 10 April 1912. As a member of the à la carte restaurant he was employed and therefore paid by Luigi Gatti.
Several of the surviving crew recall observing a large crowd of the largely continental members of staff of the à la carte restaurant out on Scotland Road during the evacuation, many waiting around the doors leading to one of the second class stairwells which was situated near their own quarters. A group of four to six stewards stood guard at these doors, refusing to let their fellow crewmen pass. Two more fortunate members of the restaurant staff that did get through were Paul Maugé and chef Pierre Rousseau who both waited at the E-deck landing of the second class stairwell for around thirty minutes before ascending, Maugé noting that no other members of the restaurant came through whilst they were there.
Giovanni Saccaggi died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
His widow Ethel had been pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter named Beatrice Grace on 29 November 1912. Ethel never remarried and moved to 18 Springfield Road, East Ham, Essex where she spent the rest of her life. She died on 16 June 1947.
His son William became an accountant and later went by his mother’s maiden name, Harlow. He was later married to Florence Lillian Thompson (1910-2004) but they had no children. He died in Harrow, Middlesex on 1 January 1992.
Giovanni's posthumously born daughter Beatrice was married in East Ham in 1939 to clerk Edward Arthur Kingston (1909-1994) and had went on to have two children, Lynne and John. She died in Weybridge, Surrey on 18 March 1995.
