Joseph Bruce Ismay (1862-1937)
Managing Director of the White Star Line.
Vilified as a coward who left the Titanic in one of the last lifeboats, while his customers and employees stoically faced their doom on the ship, J. Bruce Ismay was born at Enfield House, Endbutt Lane, Crosby on 12th December 1862.
He was brought up at 13 Beach Lawn, Waterloo between 1865 and 1885. This house is clearly visible from the Irish Sea at the mouth of the River Mersey, and all White Star vessels would offer a salute as they passed the Ismay residence.
In 1885 his father and founder of the White Star Line, Thomas Henry Ismay, built a mansion "Dawpool" at Thurstaston on the Wirral, and the family moved from Crosby. Relatives of J. Bruce Ismay's mother, Margaret Bruce, were still living in Crosby as recently as the 1960s.
The Head Office of the White Star Line was on the corner of James Street and the Strand, Liverpool, and it contained J. Bruce Ismay's personal office. The building, of similar design to London's Scotland Yard, is still there today........
J. Bruce Ismay succeeded his father in 1899 as chief executive of the White Star Line. An intensely private man, his natural shyness was often mistaken for arrogance. His generosity is well-recorded, however. Often Ismay would walk the 4 miles from his mansion, "Sandheys" at Mossley Hill, Liverpool to his office in The Strand. On one occasion he noticed a group of children playing on a roof. Arriving at his office, he was informed that the building was an orphanage. Ismay immediately ordered a cheque for £500(approx. £25,000 today) to be sent......
In 1907, at a party held at the home of Lord Pirrie, director of the shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, Ismay ketched out on a napkin his plans for the largest liners the world had ever seen - Olympic, Gigantic and Titanic........
He was travelling, technically as a passenger, in his private suite on the second to be built - Titanic - when she struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage at 11.40 p.m. on Sunday 14th April 1912.
Quickly informed by Captain Smith and designer Thomas Andrews that the Titanic was doomed, Ismay did his best in encouraging reluctant women to enter the all too few lifeboats, and urged them lowered - to the extent that he was told "to get the hell out of the way" by the fiery Welsh 5th Officer Lowe. Several women testified that Ismay urged them to enter the boats, and at least one later swore she owed her life to him.
The circumstances of Ismay's leaving the Titanic would be cause for endless speculation, but there is no evidence to contradict his testimony that he entered the partially-empty collapsible 'C' on the spur of the moment as it was being lowered, after first checking there were no women or children nearby. He was by no means the only man to enter a lifeboat........
Ismay was a broken man by the time the lifeboat was rescued by the Carpathia, and spent the entire journey to New York in the doctor's cabin - "under opiates" according to Captain Rostron of the Carpathia.
Inflamed by his silence, the American press needed someone to blame for the disaster, and Ismay provided a convenient scapegoat - a position maintained in the recent film Titanic. Wounded by these hysterical allegations and imputations on his character, Ismay cabled a long statement to the London Times. On his return to Liverpool he was met by cheering crowds at Princes Landing stage.
Although J. Bruce Ismay was exonerated of any wrongdoing by both the American and British Enquiries, he never lived it down. Before the Titanic disaster he had already announced his impending retirement as President of International Mercantile Marine, the American conglomerate which had bought White Star Line in 1902. Now he was denied by them the option of remaining chairman of WSL, the company his father had founded in Liverpool.
Continuing the charitable works begun by his parents, J. Bruce Ismay donated £10,000(approx. £500,000 today) to found the Mercantile Marine Widows Fund in 1912. Deeply moved by the huge death toll of ordinary sailors during the First World War, he followed this up in 1919 with a donation of £25,000 (approx. £1.25 million today), founding the National Mercantile Marine Fund to make provision for the widows and children of merchant sailors, giving preference to dependants of sailors born in Liverpool.
Largely at the insistence of his American wife, J. Bruce Ismay sold "Sandheys" in Mossley Hill in 1920 and he lived the rest of his life at 15 Hill Street, Mayfair, London. Every week he would travel by train up to Liverpool on Sunday evening, returning Wednesday, to conduct his remaining business and charitable interests in the city. He stayed at the North Western Hotel on Lime Street, and enjoyed attending concerts in nearby St. George's Hall. Craving anonymity as usual, he would purchase two tickets - one for himself and one for his hat and coat........
Towards the end of his life he could be found at the back of the crowd, watching parades go by in London, or feeding the pigeons in the parks near his home. Often he would chat with strangers down on their luck, proffering advice and money - they never guessing who he was. Due to circulatory illness, Ismay suffered the amputation of his right leg and died of a stroke on 17th October 1937, aged 74. In Liverpool, flags on civic buildings were flown at half-mast. J. Bruce Ismay's estate amounted to almost £700,000.
See Phil Hind's superb Encyclopedia Titanica for more information on Bruce Ismay.