Frederick Sheldon Judson was born in Morris City, Minnesota, in the United States of America, on the 16th of March 1891. He was the youngest of four children, and the only son of Henry Sheldon Toulman and Nancy Judson (née Foote). His father was the president of a land company.
The family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and when his parents divorced, Frederick and his sisters moved with their mother to a boarding house in the city of St. Paul, while Frederick’s father moved first to New York City, and later to San Francisco, California.
Frederick became a bonds salesman, working for his father, and on the 11th November 1912, he had a narrow escape from serious harm, or even death, whilst in New York City, which was widely reported in newspapers across the United Stes of America. This report from the Chicago Tribune stated: -
A young man who described himself as Frederick Judson, a bonds salesman, whose father is said to be Henry S. Judson of Chicago, is laid up at a hospital with a dozen knife jabs in his right shoulder and right leg which he received today shortly before he fled from the apartments of Mrs. Mae Dencker, wife of a real estate dealer. He probably will be able to leave the hospital in a few days. Judson’s permanent address is in Chicago.
Mr. Dencker left the house immediately after the young man’s flight into the street and the police have not been able to find him.
Judson said that he hadn’t the slightest idea of preferring charges against anybody for anything.
Dashes Half Clad in Streets.
About 2:30 o’clock this afternoon a blonde young man, dressed in a nice looking suit of underwear, rushed out of the Dencker apartments on the fourth floor of the Edgemere, an apartment house in West One Hundred and Fourth Street two doors from Central Park West, and started to dash down the stairs in a terrible hurry.
He headed towards the park, swung around the corner, and began hiking north along Central Park West, to the great amazement of many women who were enjoying the fine afternoon on both sides of the street.
The young man did not stop until he reached the Greenwich apartment at Central Park West, and then he ducked through an open door into the basement.
Police Lieutenant Wilber reached the finely appointed Dencker apartments an hour after young Judson made his hasty exit and found Mrs. Dencker and her maid there, also some of the bonds salesman’s clothes.
Mrs. Dencker, who is about 40 years old, went to the station house with Wilber. There was a talk, in which she said that she met Judson on a train on her way to New Haven last week and they were introduced by a mutual friend.
Frederick Judson was engaged to Miss Ruth K. Corbin, of New Britain, Connecticut, at this time, and whereas she initially refused to believe the story, their engagement was later terminated!
On the 22nd July 1913, Frederick travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to make his fortune as a cattle dealer; however, on the outbreak of the Great War in Europe, he wanted to do something to help the Allied cause and decided to join the staff of The American Ambulance, which at that time was situated in Paris, France. This was a voluntary organisation which helped to tend the sick and wounded of the war.
Frederick left Argentina in early 1915, however, while in transit to New York, he discovered that he had lost his passport. He applied for a duplicate passport on the 29th April in New York, and went about making plans to travel to Europe.
Consequently, for the first leg of his journey across the Atlantic Ocean, he booked as a second cabin passenger on the
Lusitania and was on board her when she left New York for the final time, just after mid-day on 1st May 1915. This departure was actually late, because the liner had to load cargo and take on board passengers and crew from the Anchor Liner S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine
U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland and sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours away from her Liverpool destination.
Frederick Judson’s survival from the stricken ship is described in The Tragedy of the Lusitania, a book written by Captain Frederick D. Ellis in America in 1915: -
Mr. Judson said that a few minutes before the Lusitania sank, a woman asked him to save her boy. He took the boy in his arms and jumped from the top railing. Both he and the youngster wore life belts. Mr. Judson placed the boy on a raft and assisted into the boat a woman who was floating along.
Eventually he reached a half-broken boat in which were the second officer and Hennessy, a seaman. ‘Between them these two men saved at least a dozen lives,’ said Mr. Judson. ‘Hennessy dived repeatedly and brought women up.’
The Second Officer on the Lusitania was Percy Hefford, who did not survive, so it is possible that Frederick Judson was mistaken over the identity of the officer he saw. Able Seaman Frank Hennessy did survive, however, and went to sea for the rest of the war on one of the Lusitania’s sister ships, the Aquitania.
After being rescued from the sea, Frederick Judson was landed at Queenstown, and because his legs were very badly bruised as a result of his ordeal, he was taken to hospital where he remained for several days before being discharged.
On eventually reaching London, he joined The American Ambulance and served on the front lines in Europe from June 1915 until November 1915, when he suffered a gunshot wound to his left foot. He returned to New York City on the 15th December 1915, on board the Rotterdam. On his return, it is believed that he attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army, but was rejected as a result of the wound to his foot.
Undaunted, in January 1917, he crossed the border to Canada and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Dragoons, as a Lieutenant, and served on the Western Front, before transferring to the Royal Air Force in February 1918. In July 1918, he was injured when the aircraft he was in, crashed near St. Albans, resulting in him being treated in hospital for nearly two weeks. It is not known if he completed his flight training and saw any action while serving in the Royal Air Force before the War ended, but he returned safely to New York on the 9th October 1918, still serving in the Canadian Army. He was discharged from the army in 1919.
Following his military discharge, he went to New York City, and took up acting, appearing in a number of theatre plays, before moving to California in May 1921to try his luck in motion pictures.
He appeared in at least one motion picture, and then in June 1921, he was found unconscious and apparently suffering from paralysis, and was at first believed to have suffered a stroke; however, it soon became clear that he was a chronic drug addict. He claimed he had become addicted to drugs that were administered to him as a result of the injuries he sustained in his aircraft accident in June 1918.
He was committed for a time to a hospital for treatment, but obviously couldn’t stay clean of narcotics, for on the 5th February 1923, he was found dead on the floor of his bedroom in Los Angeles, California, with a glass syringe on his body, and evidence of drugs on a table. He was aged 31 years.
California Death Index 1905 – 1939, 1895 Minnesota Territorial and State Census, 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 1905 Minnesota Territorial and State Census, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, U.S. Passport Applications 1795 – 1925, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Canada WWI CEF Personnel Files 1914 – 1918, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Enquirer, Helena Independent Herald, Detroit Free Press, San Bernardino County Sun, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tragedy of the Lusitania., UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, UniLiv D92/2/452, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.