Thomas Cardeza

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Thomas Drake Martinez Cardeza (born May 10, 1875 in Germantown , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † June 6, 1952 ) was an American entrepreneur and explorer . He was also a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

biography

Cardeza was the son of James Warburton Martinez Cardeza (1854-1931), a prominent lawyer, and his wife Charlotte Wardle Drake (1854-1939), daughter of the banker and industrialist Thomas Drake. The family was among the most prominent in Philadelphia. He married Mary Racine, a direct descendant of Jean Racine . She was born in France and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland . After the marriage, the couple lived mostly in Austria . After the outbreak of World War I , Mary worked for the Red Cross on the European Eastern Front.

Thomas Cardeza boarded the Titanic as a passenger on the evening of April 10, 1912 in Cherbourg, France, and occupied one of the two luxury suites (Suite B51 / 53/55) with a private promenade deck on the starboard side of the B-deck of the luxury liner. He was accompanied by his mother, her maid Annie Ward and his own servant Gustave Lesueur.

His wife stayed at the family estate in Hungary and was only to come later. After a safari in Africa Cardeza was in poor physical condition, a circumstance that saved his life, because it was a lot of men are not allowed on the Titanic in lifeboat enter. Both Cardeza and his mother, the maid and the valet survived the sinking of the Titanic in lifeboat No. 3, in which Max Stähelin-Maeglin , the banker Robert Daniel , the publisher Henry Harper and the wife and daughter of Charles M. Hays sat.

After the accident, Thomas Cardeza and his wife settled in the Upper Styrian community of Radmer from 1930 . They leased a hunting lodge and hunting grounds from the Hohenberg lordship. Since Radmer was very poor at the time, the Cardeza couple had clothes made for the population. Every year Thomas Cardeza donated 5,000 kilograms of flour that was stored in the rectory and distributed to those in need. After the National Socialists came to power in Germany and the equally precarious political situation in Austria , the Cardezas left Radmer in 1933.

Mary Cardeza died in 1943, Thomas in 1952. He is buried next to his mother at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd , Pennsylvania.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://aftitanic.free.fr/titanic/passagers/cardeza_cw.html
  2. ↑ a b Survivor as Radmer's Guardian Angel . In: Styria edition of the Kleine Zeitung from April 15, 2012. pp. 30–31.
  3. ↑ Entry on www.encyclopedia-titanica.org
personal data
SURNAME Cardeza, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cardeza, Thomas Drake Martinez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American businessman
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Germantown , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1952