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John Hugo Ross, Unknown, McCaffry, Mark Fortune and Thomson Beattie feed pigeons in St. Mark's Square, Venice, March 1912
Thomas Francis McCaffry (February 5, 1866 - April 15, 1912) was a Titanic victim. It has been suggested that, with travel partners Thomson Beattie and John Hugo Ross, he was one of the gay passengers aboard the Titanic.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history's deadliest commercial marine disasters during peacetime. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.
Thomas Francis McCaffry was born on February 5, 1866, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He was of Irish-Scots descent, the son of James McCaffry and Mary Ann Campbell. He grew up in Montreal and had two sisters, Annie and Mary Eva.[1]
Trois-Rivières is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour. It is part of the densely populated Quebec City–Windsor Corridor and is approximately halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. Trois-Rivières is the economic and cultural hub of the Mauricie region. The settlement was founded by French colonists on July 4, 1634, as the second permanent settlement in New France, after Quebec City in 1608.
Career
His first employer was the Union Bank of Canada in Trois-Rivières, and later, in 1885, he became a clerk in Montreal. He was promoted and sent to manage the Union Bank in Neepawa, Manitoba. In 1897 he moved to Winnipeg to manage yet another branch. It was in Winnipeg that he met Thomson Beattie (November 25, 1875 - April 15, 1912), who would die with McCaffry aboard the Titanic. They traveled together to the Aegean in 1908, and to North Africa in 1910. The 1912 visit to the Middle East and Europe, with the return aboard the Titanic, was to be their last.[1]
Neepawa is a town in Manitoba, Canada located on the Yellowhead Highway at the intersection with Highway 5. As of 2016 its population was 4,609. Neepawa was incorporated as a town in 1883. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Langford and bordered to the north by the Rural Municipality of Rosedale. Neepawa is the self-proclaimed Lily capital of the world in part because of its Lily Festival. The town has also been named "Manitoba's Most Beautiful Town", more than any other community in the province.
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. Centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, it is near the longitudinal centre of North America, approximately 110 kilometres (70 mi) north of the Canada–United States border.
In 1900 McCaffrey moved to Vancouver to manage the gold assay office opened by the Dominion Government. In 1907 he became the manager of the Vancouver branch of the Union Bank.[1][2]
Personal life
In 1912, McCaffrey, Beattie and John Hugo Ross (son of Arthur Wellington Ross), another Titanic victim, left aboard the RMS Franconia for a four month-long tour to Middle East and Europe.[2] In February they were in Cairo and visited Luxor and Aswan. After Cairo they landed in Naples and Venice. They boarded the Titanic as first class passengers in Cherbourg. McCaffry and Beattie shared cabin C-6. Beattie managed to leave on the last available raft, Collapsible A, but McCaffrey didn't board. His body was later recovered by the CS Mackay-Bennett.[1]
Arthur Wellington Ross was a Canadian politician, educator and lawyer.
The RMS Franconia was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. She was launched on 23 July 1910 at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Wallsend shipyard. Franconia was intended for the line's Boston service, being the largest ship of the time to enter Boston harbor, with winter service in the New York—Mediterranean cruising service.
It has been suggested that McCaffrey and Beattie were a couple and Ross was gay as well. According to Alan Hustak: "Beattie and McCaffry resembled each other, dressed alike, and were often mistaken for brothers. The Winnipeg Free Press remarked on how similar they were, and observed the two of them 'were almost inseparable.'"[3]
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