Charles Jeffery
Charles Thomas Jeffery (born May 13, 1876 in Kenosha , Wisconsin , USA ; † November 10, 1935 ) was an American automobile manufacturer and president of the Thomas B. Jeffery Company , which was founded by his father.
Life
Charles Jeffery was born in Kenosha in 1876 as the first child of Thomas B. Jeffery (1845-1910) and his wife Kate Elizabeth Wray (1852-1936). His father came to America from Great Britain at the age of 18 and founded the Thomas B. Jeffery Company in Kenosha in 1902 , which produced the Rambler car brand and developed into one of the largest car manufacturers in the country. When Thomas Jeffery died unexpectedly in April 1910 while on vacation in Italy , Charles took over the position of company president. The company continued to flourish under his leadership. One of his most outstanding achievements was the large number of particularly robust trucks that he produced.
After the outbreak of World War I , the United States Army became his most profitable customer. The all -terrain Jeffery Quad truck with four-wheel drive and all-wheel steering ultimately became the workhorse of the Allied Expeditionary Force. The company sold many of these vehicles to France and Russia . In 1914, Jeffery renamed the Rambler to Jeffery in honor of his late father and made it a completely new brand. He produced a total of 10,283 of them. In his private life, Jeffery was an avid collector of books and maps.
Jeffery devoted himself entirely to business until he survived the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915 . The Lusitania was a British luxury steamer that left New York on May 1, 1915 with almost 2000 people on board for Liverpool , where her arrival was expected on May 8. Jeffery traveled to Europe aboard the Lusitania to negotiate the sale of armed vehicles to be used on the front lines. These vehicles, called Jeffery Armored Cars, have been in production since early 1915. On the afternoon of May 7, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U 20 within sight of the southern Irish coast . The 31,500 ton ship sank in just 18 minutes, killing 1,198 passengers and crew. On the port side , the lifeboats swung inboard into the crowd and killed the waiting passengers, while the boats on the starboard side swung so far that boarding was almost impossible. Jeffery jumped off the ship and spent four hours in the freezing water before being rescued.
This near-death experience changed him and made him rethink the priorities in his life. He retired completely from business life and sold the Thomas B. Jeffery Company in 1916 to Charles W. Nash . Jeffery spent the remaining 19 years of his life dedicating to charities and sailing Lake Michigan . He died in his home in Kenosha in 1935.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jeffery, Charles |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jeffery, Charles Thomas (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American automobile manufacturer and President of the Thomas B. Jeffery Company |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 13, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kenosha , Wisconsin , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 10, 1935 |
| Place of death | Kenosha , Wisconsin , USA |