Mr. GEORGE LEY PEARCE VERNON
(BUTLER) (GEORGE LA PAGE), Saloon Class Passenger
image: The
Illustrated London News,
29 May 1915. Courtesy Mike Poirier.
George Vernon, 45, was born as George Ley Pearce Butler, son of
Hepzibah Vernon Butler of Massachusetts. George's siblings
included Rev. Theodore Butler of Haddon Heights, New Jersey, Mrs. John
F. Fenton, wife of the rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in
Metuchen, New Jersey, and a music teacher [does anyone have the name
for this sibling?].
Starting out as a banker, George switched professions and became a
well-reviewed concert singer, also changing his name to George Vernon.
During this time George met and fell in love with a French
professional violinist 17 years his junior, Inez Henriette Jolivet.
The two married around 1906 and traveled often in high style.
Retiring from the stage, George became an importer's agent and
promoter. Months before embarking on the last voyage of the Lusitania,
George became a representative of the Russian Government, working to
secure munitions contracts. From 1905 onwards, Vernon's salary
was said
to have been $20 000 per year. Also around this time, George and
Inez exchanged their American passports for British ones.
In May of 1915, George sailed on the Lusitania in a dual
purpose mission: he would secure the arms contracts, and then
escort Inez to the United States. At the moment, Inez was with
her father and brother in Kew, England. Her brother was about to
be called up to service
and her sister, actress Rita Jolivet,
had,
on impulse, also booked passage on the Lusitania to see him
off,
unaware that she would be traveling on the same ship as her
brother-in-law. George's mother, Hepzibah, then living in
Worcester, Massachusetts, was unaware that he had sailed at all.
Throughout the Lusitania's last voyage, George was seen with
Rita as part of the entourage of Broadway impresario Charles Frohman. On Thursday, 6
May, Vernon was at the party Frohman was throwing, and Vernon reminded
the Broadway producer of his plans to present plays onboard the Lusitania's
sister ship, Mauretania. Frohman then recalled, "Yes, I
did
dream of a mid-Atlantic theater, but my leading lady succumbed to mal
de mer."
On Friday afternoon, George Vernon, Charles Frohman, and Captain Alick
Scott were on the portside Boat Deck, chatting by the verandah
café, when the torpedo hit. Still puffing on his cigar,
Frohman said, "This is going to be a close call."
"Stay there!" Scott told them, "I'll fetch some lifejackets."
"Why not stay where you are, Captain Scott?" Frohman asked, "We
shall have more chance by staying here than dashing off to the
boats."
Scott insisted and he returned with two, one for Frohman and another
for Vernon. A terrified Rita Jolivet soon joined them on deck and
George helped her put on the lifebelt. Frohman accepted Scott's
lifejacket reluctantly. Scott went below a second time for more
lifebelts, but gave those away. Frohman, Vernon, and Jolivet all
offered Scott their lifejackets, but Scott answered, "If I am going to
die, it's only for once."
Frohman soon gave his away to a woman. Holding his cigar, he
remarked almost conversationally, "I didn't think they would do
it."
The four agreed to stay together on the port side near the verandah
café as the ship was sinking. When the ship
lurched, Frohman told Rita to hang on to the railing and save her
strength. To the end Charles Frohman was calm, quoting Barrie's Peter
Pan, "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in
life."* Barely had Frohman
finished speaking these immortal words did a "green cliff of water"
forcibly part group (Preston, 237).
Dr. James Houghton recognized George
aboard their damaged collapsible, but before being rescued by the
torpedo boat
050 Houghton saw George go mad and dive off the lifeboat.
George
Vernon was body #201, recovered, and buried in private grave #651 in
Queenstown.
Inez sailed for the United States in June without her husband, on the
American Liner St. Paul. Onboard were also many Lusitania
survivors, and Eloise Smith and Robert Daniel, survivors of another
infamous shipwreck, the Titanic. Inez first visited
friends in New
Jersey where she stayed for while and then returned to her New York
City
apartment. There, on 28 July, dressed in a black evening gown and
bedecked in jewels, a despondent Inez put a pistol to her head.
Inez was buried with her husband in Queenstown.
The memorial in Cobh, modern-day Queenstown, for George and Inez reads
thus:
IN TENDER MEMORY OF
INEZ AND GEORGE LEY VERNON
BOTH YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GIFTED
VICTIMS OF THE LUSITANIA CRIME
MAY 7, 1915
It is interesting to note that the Lusitania disaster is stated
as the cause of Inez's tragic death. A statement that, sadly, is
not too far from the truth.
George's parents received $20 000.00 from his life insurance policy,
and his mother was left $10 000 in his will. During the legal
cases
that ensued from the loss of the Lusitania, Hepzibah sought
compensation for the loss of "delicacies and luxuries" that George
often provided her
and her husband; however, as there was no legal documentation for this,
in
1924 she was granted a settlement of $5000 for George's death.
*See the footnote under Charles
Frohman.
Contributors:
Jim Kalafus
Mike Poirier
Judith Tavares
References:
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last
Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1956.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy.
Berkeley Books, 2002.
