Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet

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Cosmo Duff-Gordon
Born 22 July 1862(1862-07-22)
Died 20 April 1931 (aged 68)
South Kensington, London England
Occupation Fencer, Landowner
Parents Cosmo Lewis Duff-Gordon
Anna Maria Antrobus
Olympic medal record
Men’s Fencing
1906 Intercalated Games
Silver 1906 Athens Team épée

Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon, 5th Baronet DL (July 22, 1862 - April 20, 1931), the son of the Hon. Cosmo Lewis Duff-Gordon and the former Anna Maria Antrobus, was a prominent Scottish landowner and sportsman. He was particularly noted as a fencer, representing Great Britain at the 1906 Summer Olympics, winning silver in the team épée event, and the 1908 Olympics. He was also a self defence enthusiast who trained with champion Swiss wrestler Armand Cherpillod at the Bartitsu Club in London's Soho district. Duff Gordon was the co-founder of the London Fencing League, a member of the Bath Club and the Royal Automobile Club. He was a sheriff and magistrate in his native Kincardineshire, near Aberdeen, where his ancestral country estate Maryculter was located.

Duff Gordon was the fifth baronet of Halkin, his title stemming from a royal licence conferred on his great uncle in 1813 in recognition of his aid to the Crown during the Peninsular War. In 1772 his family had founded the Duff Gordon sherry bodega in Spain, which still produces high quality fortified wines.

In 1900, Duff Gordon married the famous London fashion designer "Madame Lucile" (née Lucy Christiana Sutherland, then Mrs. James Stuart Wallace). This was slightly risque, as Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon was a divorcee and had a sister, Elinor Glyn, noted for writing erotica.

Cosmo Duff-Gordon is best known for surviving the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, along with his wife and her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli[1]. Rumours that the Duff Gordons bribed the crew in their lifeboat not to rescue people in the water threatened their reputations, but the British Board of Trade's Inquiry into the disaster cleared them of any wrongdoing and a letter written by the secretary further clears their name. [2] However, Duff Gordon was one of many men in First Class who were allowed into lifeboats despite Captain Smith's "Women and children first" rule, while many women and children, mostly from Third Class, never reached the upper deck where the lifeboats were stowed, because it was a First Class deck. It is known that lifeboat 1 of the Titanic was barely filled as many onboard still believed it to be "unsinkable" and that First Officer William McMaster Murdoch was glad to offer Duff Gordon and his wife a place (simply to fill it) after the couple had asked if they could get on.

Gordon died on April 20, 1931 of natural causes. He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey. [3]

Cosmo Duff Gordon was portrayed by Martin Jarvis in the 1997 film Titanic. The actor's wife, Rosalind Ayres, played Lady Duff Gordon.

References

  1. ↑ Daily Telegraph City Diary, pB8 -Russell, John (Ed) "Family history doesn't repeat itself": issue no 47,787, dated 23rd January 2009
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Nigel (May 2, 2007). "Letter clears 'blackguard of the Titanic'". telegraph.co.uk (London: Telegraph Media Group). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/02/ntitanic02.xml. Retrieved 2007-05-05. 
  3. ↑ "Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon". Necropolis Notables. The Brookwood Cemetery Society. http://www.tbcs.org.uk/duff_gordon.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-23. 

External links

Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Maurice Duff-Gordon 		Baronet
(of Halkin)
1896–1931 		Succeeded by
Henry William Duff-Gordon


cs:Cosmo Duff-Gordon fr:Cosmo Edmund Duff Gordon it:Cosmo Duff-Gordon fi:Cosmo Duff-Gordon

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