Post by Paul Daley on Apr 10, 2005 9:19:08 GMT -5
Lucy Duff Gordon was a well known dress designer with shops in London and New York. Rumor has it that she specialized in racy underwear that was very popular with the royal family.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was a Scotsman. His ancestor James Duff, was British consul in Cadiz during the thingyular War, supplying Wellinton so effectively he was made a Baronet after Vittoria. Naturally, he was into every enterprise, the Sherry trade being big, check the label! As he never married, his title passed to his nephew, William Gordon, a grandson of the Earl of Aberdeen-a cousin of Lord Aberdeen, the Prime Minister in the 50's. Duff was added by special licence to Gordon on inheiritance.
The Gordons both boarded a lifeboat early in the sinking, taking their personal servants with them. Their lifeboat departed the ship with just 12 or so people aboard, although it could have held 30 or so more. After watching the ship dive beneath the water, amidst the screams of the 1,500 people calling for help that they were ignoring, the tactless Lucy commented to her secretary- "There is your beautiful nightdress gone." Two sailors commented "It's all right for you, you can get more clothes, but we have lost everything." Cosmo then gave the men a "fiver" each ($360.00 today) to help them out, a gesture that would cost him a lot more later when he was accused of bribing the crew to let him escape the liner and then row away without helping any of the victims in the water.
Upon their return to London society, the couple were shunned in some circles, and constantly gossiped about by London society. Unable to have children, their marriage slowly disintegrated and they drifted apart until 1931, when Cosmo died. Soon after his death, Lucy's business went bankrupt, and she later died in 1935.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, was a Scotsman. His ancestor James Duff, was British consul in Cadiz during the thingyular War, supplying Wellinton so effectively he was made a Baronet after Vittoria. Naturally, he was into every enterprise, the Sherry trade being big, check the label! As he never married, his title passed to his nephew, William Gordon, a grandson of the Earl of Aberdeen-a cousin of Lord Aberdeen, the Prime Minister in the 50's. Duff was added by special licence to Gordon on inheiritance.
The Gordons both boarded a lifeboat early in the sinking, taking their personal servants with them. Their lifeboat departed the ship with just 12 or so people aboard, although it could have held 30 or so more. After watching the ship dive beneath the water, amidst the screams of the 1,500 people calling for help that they were ignoring, the tactless Lucy commented to her secretary- "There is your beautiful nightdress gone." Two sailors commented "It's all right for you, you can get more clothes, but we have lost everything." Cosmo then gave the men a "fiver" each ($360.00 today) to help them out, a gesture that would cost him a lot more later when he was accused of bribing the crew to let him escape the liner and then row away without helping any of the victims in the water.
Upon their return to London society, the couple were shunned in some circles, and constantly gossiped about by London society. Unable to have children, their marriage slowly disintegrated and they drifted apart until 1931, when Cosmo died. Soon after his death, Lucy's business went bankrupt, and she later died in 1935.