Cyril Broderick Spencer

## Cyril Broderick Spencer (1887-1974)

Seen in: Titanic Voyage 2020

Cyril Spencer was a fictional second class passenger on the RMS Titanic. He boarded in Southampton.

## Early Life:

Cyril Spencer was born in Bayswater, England, in July 8, 1887, to the upper-middle class Spencer family, to the parents, Alexander and Lucille Spencer. He had one sibling, his older brother George. Raised in a strict family, his father favored Cyril's brother over him, and Cyril spent his years trying to gain the love of his parents, who constantly lectured him on success and perfection, and the importance of appearances in public. Because of that, his family became well liked in the community. He received the best education his parents afforded him, to get him in the best schools, and success in his adult years, tutored at home, until his admission to university.

Educated at Oxford, Cyril earned top marks, studying business while writing editorials for the newspaper on the side. He graduated, gaining employment in banking for his father's company, and living a comfortable life in Kensington under the support of his father.

## Pre-Voyage Story:

In 1909, Cyril met a young actress by the name of Amelia Edwards, a performer from the East End of London, hired for his birthday party. He quickly struck up a friendship with her, and fell in love with her. After courting her, in time she became pregnant out of wedlock, and they eloped, to the disappointment of his parents. When he refused to break up his marriage to her and leave Amelia, Cyril's parents disowned him and fired him from his job as a banker. He moved to Notting Dale, and he worked at Claridge's Hotel to take care of Amelia and their son, Hugh. It was in 1912 that Cyril's aunt, Sissi used her connections to get Cyril a job as an actor for a prostigious group in New York, with his talent that he had for acting, which he gratefully accepted. She paid for his ticket on the RMS Titanic, and he left, intending to sort his life and career in New York, and eventually move his family there to start a new life, leaving England for good.

## Story Onboard The Titanic:

With a ticket booked on the Titanic for second class, he traveled, forming close friendships along the way. The two most important friendships being Norman Blake, a fellow second class passenger, and Andrew Cole, a third class passenger. He led a busy life on the ship, and never having a dull moment. These friends distracted him from his sadness at his separation from his family, and became dear to him throughout the voyage.

## The Sinking and Carpathia:

While out at night with Andrew and Norman, Cyril witnessed the disaster firsthand, and they immediately went to friends to discuss what to do. After going back to his cabin to get his journal and papers, Cyril returned to the group, eventually ending up separated from most of his friends. He stayed with Norman and Andrew throughout the sinking, as he waited to board a boat. He intended to board, the only thing on his mind being returning to his family and seeing them again. After getting rejected multiple times, Cyril escaped the Titanic, when Andrew pushed him into Lifeboat 13. That was the last time he ever saw Andrew alive.

After spending hours floating in the ocean, Cyril boarded the Carpathia, reuniting with most of his friends, who he was happy to see survive. It was on the Carpathia that he befriended a young woman by the name of Abigail Hope. She became a great friend to him and kept him company, also helping him with the survivor's guilt at his lost friend who saved him. Upon reaching New York, Cyril exchanged contact information with all his friends, and kept close contact with them for the rest of his life.

## After Titanic:

Upon his arrival in New York, Cyril acquired a flat and went to work, following the healing of the broken leg he'd gotten while on the Carpathia. Being the only British actor in his theater group, and with him being a Titanic survivor, this made him well known, and he became a rising popular stage star, making a name for himself. Due to his success, it didn't take long for Cyril to move his family to New York. Cyril raised his family, and with the birth of his second child, Andrew in 1915, and Roberta in 1918, he settled into the family life. Him and Amelia raised their children, giving them the love and praise his father never gave him in his youth. As important as acting was to him, Cyril's family was his highest priority, and he always put them first. Because he'd nearly lost his family, he made sure that Amelia and his children always knew he loved them, and that they'd feel love.

After the sinking, Cyril's family contacted him, and he forgave them. They stayed close after that. Cyril never went on another ship again, as he developed a fear of them. He never returned to England. He never brought up the Titanic to his family, or friends. In 1926, Cyril got an offer to be an actor for films in Los Angeles, but he turned it down to stay with his family in New York, where he continued his work in acting, eventually creating a family name that was well known in performance, with other members of his family going into the Spencer acting work, expanding throughout the generations of family.

Cyril Spencer died in 1974 at the age of 87, surrounded by his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, and his wife, at his home in New York. Amelia followed him three weeks later, and they were buried together in a family plot in New York.

## Trivia

Cyril Spencer's face claim is American film actor Robert Harron (1893-1920) from the early silent film era.

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