Arthur Peuchen

Major Arthur Peuchen

Arthur Godfrey Peuchen (* 18th April 1859 in Montreal , Quebec , Canada ; † 7. December 1929 in Toronto , Ontario , Canada) was a Canadian businessman , military and yacht sportsman. In 1897 he founded the chemical company Standard Chemical, Iron & Lumber Company, of which he was president until 1914.

Life

Peuchen was born in Montreal in 1859 as the son of the railway company Godfrey E. Peuchen, who came from the Prussian province of Westphalia , and his wife, Eliza Eleanor Clarke, who came from Hull in England . He had two younger sisters, Alice and Nora, and a younger brother, Stanley Cooper Peuchen. He was taught in private schools in Montreal until the family moved to Toronto in 1871 . His military career began there when he joined The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, a regiment of the Canadian armed forces . He was made lieutenant in 1888, captain in 1894 and major in 1904, and in 1911 he was marshal at the coronation ceremonies of George V of Great Britain.

On April 26, 1893, he married Margaret Thomson (1867-1951), daughter of John and Jessie Fairbairn Thomson from Orillia , Ontario . With her he had a daughter, Jessie Thomson Peuchen (* 1894; later Mrs. Henry Chichele Lefroy) and a son, Godfrey Alan Peuchen (* 1897). Peuchen's maternal grandfather was a manager of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway . His father was a railroad entrepreneur in South America until he emigrated to Canada in 1850 to work for the Grand Trunk Railway . Peuchen lived with his family in Toronto (599 Jarvis Street), but felt particularly at home on his 38-room property "Woodlands" on the shores of Lake Simcoe, built in 1869 in the neo-Gothic style , which has a marina , a golf course and a golf course Tennis court.

He became interested in chemistry and by 1897 had perfected a method for extracting useful chemical compounds from hardwood and undergrowth , including acetic acid , acetone , methanol, and formaldehyde . The products were used in Canada by the textile industry and also by farmers, while the acetone was used to produce cordite . As a result, he founded the Standard Chemical, Iron & Lumber Company that same year and became its president. He possessed great woods at Hinton in the province of Alberta and also supervised the operations of the McLaren Lumber Company.

Peuchen was also an avid sailing enthusiast and yacht owner, who crossed the Atlantic with his 20-meter yacht Vreda and repeatedly won trophies in regattas on the Great Lakes . At times he was Vice Commodore and Rear Commodore of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. He was also a member of several sporting associations such as the National Club, the Hunt Club, the Ontario Jockey and the Military Institute (all in Toronto).

Titanic

His company gradually opened several locations and refineries in Canada, but also in London , Paris and Germany . For this reason, Peuchen traveled a lot to Europe by ship . On the return trip from one of these business trips, he went on April 10, 1912 in Southampton as a passenger on board the RMS Titanic , which cast off on its maiden voyage to New York . It was his 40th Atlantic crossing. He occupied the first-class cabin C-104. Peuchen was not pleased with the fact that Captain Edward Smith was in command of the ship, as he considered it unsuitable and too old.

When the Titanic sank on the night of April 15, 1912, Peuchen was informed by a steward that it had collided with an iceberg . He then went back to his cabin and took three oranges and a pin with him. However, he left $ 200,000 in stocks and shares because he did not believe the ship would sink. When lifeboat No. 6 was launched on the port side of the boat deck , Peuchen noticed that it was very weakly manned. Only two male crew members, Robert Hichens and Frederick Fleet , sat in it, otherwise only women and children from the first class, including Margaret Brown , Helen Candee , Alice Cleaver and Leila Meyer, the daughter of Saks Fifth Avenue founder Andrew Saks . He spoke to the officer in charge, Charles Lightoller , and offered himself as an experienced yacht sailor to support the boat crew. The nearby Captain Smith heard this and suggested that he go to the promenade deck below, open a window and get into the boat. Instead, Peuchen let himself slide down a rope into the boat, which was several decks lower. This was an exception, since only women and children were allowed to board the port side during the evacuation.

Later, he was mostly criticized for his behavior in lifeboat No. 6. He supported the helmsman Robert Hichens in his attitude, who ignored the demands of the women to row back to the sinking place in order to take swimmers. He also tolerated Hichens' verbal attack on Margaret Brown. It was also reported that he complained of fatigue and did not resort to an oar until after being told to do so by Margaret Brown. To the other boat occupants, it seemed as if Peuchen overestimated himself and, as a professional sailor, considered himself a better commander than the helmsman Robert Hichens. After the sinking, he publicly made the captain and crew of the Titanic jointly responsible for the disaster.

consequences

For his rescue and for his attitude and testimony after the sinking, Peuchen was largely viewed as a coward in Toronto. Rumors grew that his upcoming appointment as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada would not take place. Nevertheless, the appointment took place on May 21, 1912. In addition, he received the Officer's Long Service Decoration award for his long service in the army.

After the outbreak of World War I , Peuchen retired from the Standard Chemical Company to take command of the Home Battalion, often the Queen's Own Rifles. He lost much of his fortune to poor investments in the 1920s. Arthur Peuchen died in Toronto in 1929 and was buried in the local Mount Pleasant Cemetery. In the film of the same name of Walter Lord's book about the sinking of the Titanic , A Night to Remember (1958), he was played by the actor Robert Ayres . In 1987, Peuchen's wallet, including tram tickets, travelers checks and business cards, was found on the wreck of the Titanic .

swell

• Arthur Peuchen biography in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Summarized career of Major Arthur Peuchen
• Arthur Peuchen and the Titanic
• Walter Lord . A night to remember . R. & W. Holt (non-fiction book, first edition 1955)