* Not to be confused with the other William Spencer, who was an Able Seaman aboard the Carpathia.
William Augustus Spencer was a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
William Augustus Spencer was a native from New York, USA. He was born into a large, fabulously wealthy family on January 7, 1855. He was the son of Lorillard Spencer and Sarah J. Griswold. He had two brothers and four sisters. One of his sisters famously married into Italian royalty, aqcuiring the title of ‘Principessa di Vicovaro Cenci’. His brother Lorillard was a publisher who founded the well-known ‘Illustrated American Magazine’. The family split their time between houses in Switzerland, Paris, and New York.The family also owned a house in Newport, Rhode Island.
William, like the rest of his family, was crazy about books. He had a huge collection of the finest illustrated and bound French books in his Paris home.
William found the love of his live when he met the French woman Marie-Eugénie Demougeot. She was a singer from a modest background, born in Mussey. On December 24, 1884, they wed eachother in London, but the family didn’t support the marriage and didn’t attend the wedding. They presumably didn’t agree because Marie was not only from a lower-class family, but also born out of wedlock, which was quite a big issue in those times. It must be the reason why they pled their vows to eachother on English soil, in London.
In 1908, after the death of his brother Charles, he and his brother Lorillard engaged in a legal battle against their sister Eleanora about Charles's succession. Charles made multiple wills, which could be considered valid or invalid depending on whether French or American law was taken into account. The dispute did not seem to have caused a rupture in the family, as Eleanora was later cited in William's will, but both siblings later made sure to indicate that their succession would be done according to American law.
In March 1912, William’s brother–Lorillard Spencer died so William, his wife, and their maid had to go back to New York to deal with his will. They met Eugénie Élise Lurette, a former maid of the Spencer family who was also cited in the will. She became their travelling compagnian and servant.
Titanic[]
On April 10, 1912, Marie and William embarked on Titanic in Cherbourg in First Class. Marie-Eugénie and her husband occupied cabin B-78 while Élise was staying in cabin B-80. William was 57 years old at the time.
On April 14 late at night, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later, on the early hours of April 15. Just after midnight, the order for evacuation was given and the pair were probably woken by a steward to fetch their lifejackets and move to the Boat Deck. William, Marrie and Elise moved up on deck. Only the two women were allowed into lifeboat 6 to be eventually saved. William had to stay behind and perished when the ship foundered in the icey, cold waters of the Atlantic. Any trace of him was lost after that.
After his death[]
William Spencer's death in the Titanic disaster created legal difficulties as a number of legal documents went down with him and the ship. It took multiple years for copies to be sent from Paris before they were approved by American courts. In the end, his main heir was his nephew Lorillard Spencer Jr, while his book collection was donated to the New York Public Library, where it is to this day.
Marie-Eugenie Spencer died in Paris a year after the disaster at the age of 48. She was still not accepted by the rest of the Spencer family and could not count on their support. Rumor had it that after the disaster she became a manic depressive and morphine addict, which could account for her poor health and early demise.
Lurette reamined with Marie Eugenie until her death. Unlike her employer, she lived a long and comfortable life shuttling between Paris and Switzerland until her death in 1940 at the age of 87. When she was rescued from the lifeboat, she had some interesting artifcats in her pocket: a menu from the Titanic’s Dining Room and a First Class Deck Plan as well. Just prior to the disaster, she had mailed a postcard to her nephew.