Michel Nickolas Pappadopoulo was born in Greece in or about January 1872. There is uncertainty about where exactly in Greece he was born and raised, but Athens, Peramos, and even Constantinople have been offered as possibilities.
He is believed to have finished his education in Constantinople, and then was employed by an Armenian in the city, who dealt in carpets, and not long afterwards, Michel set up on his own as a carpet merchant – becoming very successful. He opened stores in Persia, Bulgaria, and throughout Asia Minor, before turning his attention to the exporting of carpets to all corners of Europe and North America.
He was married to Angela Baffa Tresca Amalfitani di Crucoli, who was from an Italian aristocratic family, and the family home was in Athens, Greece, where it is thought they had three children. Michel was also the patron of an exclusive school situated on one of Greece’s many islands. He travelled quite extensively, often accompanied by his wife, on business trips to English speaking territories, and when doing so, Michel Pappadopoulo often anglicised his name to Michael or Mike!
The couple had arrived in New York on 26th March 1915 on board the Lusitania from Liverpool, presumably on business, and for their return to Athens, they had booked their passage from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and had set out from there to New York at the end of April 1915.
They arrived there in time to join the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, in time for her scheduled 10.00 a.m. sailing and once on board - with ticket number 14673 - they were allocated room B78, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Arthur Clegg, who came from Liverpool.
The sailing was then delayed until the early afternoon as the liner had to take on board passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship at the end of the previous month.
Then, six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20 off the southern coast of Ireland and only hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Adolph and Mary Hoehling, in their book The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, describe the experiences of fellow saloon passenger Robert Timmis during the sinking in which they state: -
Robert J. Timmins (sic) and his cabin mate Ralph Moodie, British cotton dealers who made their headquarters in Gainesville, Texas, were still eating heartily. They had worked up a sweat playing medicine ball, then cooled off with a round of drinks. Now, as the orchestra played the "Blue Danube", they were relaxed and content.
They laughed as they remembered the Greek sea captain who had strapped on his lifebelt the evening before, clambered into one of the gently swinging lifeboats, and slept there all night. No amount of persuasion could make the adamant Greek move. Timmins thought it was the funniest sight he had ever seen.
The Greek sea captain was either Michel Pappadopoulo, or another saloon class passenger, Leonidas M. Bistis, as they were the only Greek nationals known to have been on board.
Michel Pappadopoulo was killed as a result of this action, off the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine U-20 but his body was eventually recovered from the sea and taken to one of the temporary mortuaries set up in Queenstown. It must have been one of the last to be recovered, however, as it was given the reference number 210, before its identity was established. He was aged 43 years at the time of his death.
This identification was made through documents on the corpse and the personal recognition of Second Steward R.D.F. Chisholm.
Mrs. Pappadopoulo survived the sinking and when she had recovered from her ordeal, she went to London to await further developments, presumably before her husband‘s body had been found.
Once it had been recovered and identified, however, she requested that a lead lined coffin be made for it and that that and all other papers and personal effects, sealed carefully, be forwarded to the Cunard South West Office in London.
His body was eventually sent from Queenstown on Monday 17th May and arrived at Paddington station, London, at 10.30 a.m. the following morning. From there it was brought to West Norwood Cemetery for temporary burial, until arrangements could be made to have his remains sent back to his native Greece. Since then, however, no efforts have been made to return his remains to his native country and he lies in an unmarked grave, identified as plot 36671, in the Greek section of the cemetery. Lying in an adjacent unmarked grave is Leonidas M. Bistis, who also lost his life in the sinking, and whose remain
Most sources refer to Michel Pappadopoulo by an Anglicisation of his name, Michael.
New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Friends of West Norwood Cemetery, Newark Evening News, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv. PR13/6, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Colin Fenn, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.