By twenty-eight, he was vice president of Braden Copper Company of NYC. The couple had a one-year old child when Leila received a message from America that her father had passed away.
Eager to attend the funeral, the couple booked a last-minute ticket on the RMSTitanic out of Cherbourg, France. During what must have been a tense time in Leila’s life, the couple traveled first-class.
When the ship began to sink, Edgar helped women and children onto the lifeboats. He begged Leila to get into the first available lifeboat, but she couldn’t be compelled to leave her husband. Edgar continued to load the other passengers while his wife stood by him. Edgar tried to maintain a calm and happy disposition while loading the boats, despite whatever nerves he must have been wrestling with. He reminded his wife of their baby waiting at home, and Leila finally agreed to leave the flooding Titanic. Edgar could have gone with her, but he refused to take the place of the other passengers.
Leila was rescued by Carpathia. The loss of both her father and husband must have been devastating; she never spoke publically about her brave twenty-eight year old husband who went down with Titanic.
Read more about Titanic on our Stories From The Titanic blog...
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