Frank Partridge was born in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England, on the 31st January 1875, the son of Robert and Eliza Partridge (née Chalkley). His father was a bootmaker, who died in 1883, and Frank was one of at least eleven children.
On completing his formal education, Frank moved to London where he became an ironmonger’s assistant, and in late 1898, he married Minnie Amy Cowles.
By now, he was successfully dealing in art and antiques, and had business premises at 26. King Street, St. James’s Square, London, and 741. Fifth Avenue, New York City, in the United States of America. As a result, he made frequent trips across the Atlantic Ocean from the early 1890’s. He specialized in English and French furniture, and Chinese porcelain.
His family home was at ‘Salisbury House’, Potters Bar, Middlesex, England, where he resided with his wife and their three children – Madeline Alberta, born in 1900, Leopold Frank, born in 1901, and Claude Alfred, born in 1903.
On the 23rd January 1915, he arrived in New York harbour on board the Lusitania outward bound from Liverpool. For his return home, he booked a saloon passage on the scheduled May sailing of the same liner from New York to Liverpool. According to the book The Tragedy of the Lusitania, written by Captain Frederick D. Ellis in 1915: -
Frank Partridge, an art dealer of New York, was fearful that the ship would be torpedoed, the night before he sailed. Mr. Partridge in talking to Henry Duveen, senior member of the art firm of Duveen brothers, said he was going to sit on deck each night with a life preserver around his waist.
After staying at The Ritz Carlton Hotel, in New York, he arrived at the liner’s berth at Pier 54 in New York port on the morning of 1st May, with ticket number 46058 in time for the liner‘s scheduled 10 o‘clock sailing. Once on board, he was escorted to his accommodation, room A31 which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Charles Randall, who came from Gateacre on the outskirts of Liverpool. Travelling with him on the sailing was fellow British art dealer Edward ‘Ed’ Gorer who was allocated room B73 in the first class section.
The liner’s departure was delayed until the early afternoon to take on some crew, passengers and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia which had been requisitioned
by the British Admiralty for war work but at 12.27 p.m., the Lusitania slipped out into the North River and thereafter into the Atlantic Ocean.
Just six days later, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles of the coast of southern Ireland and only hours away from her home port. Although Frank Partridge survived the sinking, he was in the water for two hours before he was rescued and landed at Queenstown, from where he eventually got to England and his Potters Bar home, where his wife and children were waiting for him. He was aged 40 years at the time of the sinking.
Four years later he was involved in a coincidence which involved the sinking of the great liner. On 16th May 1919, it was reported in The Eastern Daily Press that: -
Mr. F. Fattersby (sic) some time ago presented to the Old Fold Manor Golf Club a trophy for competition in commemoration of the rescue of his brother from the Lusitania, and the trophy was named the “Lusitania Cup”.
By an extraordinary coincidence the cup has just been won by Mr. Frank Partridge, also a survivor from the ill-fated liner, who was immersed in the water for two hours before being rescued.
The Old Fold Manor Golf Club was and still is, situated in Hadley Green, Barnet, Hertfordshire, not far from Potters Bar. Mr. F. Fattersby was Frank Battersby, one of the seven brothers of James (Jim) Johnson Battersby, managing director of the famous Battersby hat manufacturing company of Stockport, Cheshire. Jim Battersby, like Frank Partridge, was a saloon passenger on the Lusitania's final voyage and also survived to return home and live to nearly 74 years of age! It is possible that the two had met on their shortened journey across the Atlantic!
Amazingly, The Lusitania Cup is still in existence today and is still played for to this day, in annual competition at The Old Fold Manor Golf Club. Each year, a proportion of the players’ entry fee for the competition is donated to The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society.
The inscription on the trophy reads: -
The Lusitania Cup
Presented by Frank Battersby
to
Old Ford Manor Golf Club,
To Commemorate the Rescue of His Brother,
J.J. Battersby, from the Wreck,
May 7th 1915
Its first winner in 1915, was golf club member S.H. Gammage - Frank Partridge was its fourth.
His travelling companion Ed Gorer perished in the sinking, however and never saw his London home again, but Bedroom Steward Charles Randall, who had looked after Frank Partridge in room A31 did survive and eventually made it back to his Gateacre
home.
Frank Partridge continued to make trans-Atlantic voyages in connection with his business for many years, and in 1918, was a founder member of The British Antique Dealers’ Association, which still exist today.
During World War II, his gallery at King Street was badly damaged in a German bombing raid, and so he moved his business to 144. New Bond Street, London.
Frank Partridge died at Salisbury House, Potters Bar, on the 8th August 1953, aged 78 years. On the 13th November 1953, probate of his estate was granted in London to his youngest son, Claude Albert Partridge, described as a fine art expert, and Christian Carr, who was a company secretary. He left an estate of £16,514-16s.-8d. (£16,514.83½p.).
His son, Claude, continued to run the business after his father’s death, and the business continued at the New Bond Street address until 2006, when it was sold. Descendants of Frank Partridge are still involved in the art and antiques business in London to this day, but it is believed in an individual capacity.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1901 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, 1939 Register, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, IWM GB62, Detroit Free Press, Eastern Daily Press, New York Times, Stockport Advertiser, Tragedy of the Lusitania, Old Fold Manor Golf Club, Probate Records, Graham Maddocks, Alan Dickens, Dick Rayner, Stuart Williamson, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.