• Name: Mr Leopold Weisz
• Age: 28 years
• Last Residence: in Bromsgrove Hereford and Worcester England
• 2nd Class passenger
• First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
• Ticket No. 228414 , £26
• Destination: Montreal Québéc Canada
• Died in the sinking.
• Body recovered by: Mackay-Bennett (No. 293)
• Buried: Baron De Hirsch Cemetery Montreal Québéc Canada

Mr Leopold Weisz, (28?, 32?), was born in Pest (1880?) and grew up in the Elizabeth district of the city, a Jewish neighbourhood. When he was 19 he went to study at the Bromsgrove Guild of Art in England where he met and married a native Belgian, a Roman Catholic, Mathilde Françoise Pëde.

In 1911, Mr Weisz found work in Montreal carving the frieze for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at 1379 Sherbrooke St. W., then was contracted by Edward Wren to carve the stone shields representing Canada's nine provinces which decorate the Dominion Express Building at 201 St. Jacques St. W. Both examples of his work still remain.

Montreal was in the middle of building boom in 1912 and Weisz decided "Quebec was the place to make money from art." He went back to England to fetch his wife. (He did not plan to return to Bromsgrove, but to set up business in Canada with Mr Wren.) The couple were to have sailed first class on another ship, but because of the coal strike, were transferred to Titanic. They booked their berths in March 1912 with Messrs Houlden Bros and Son and boarded the Titanic at Southampton (ticket number 228414, £26).

Before they boarded, Mr Weisz sewed his life savings, about $15,000 worth of gold, into the lining of his coat. On the night of the sinking he went for a walk on deck while his wife took part in the impromtu hymn sing in the Second Class Dining Room. Mrs Weisz sang the Last Rose of Summer and thought that her rendition had "met with great success." After the recital she joined her husband on deck, but the temperature had dropped to minus one degree C. They shivered, and as they headed inside, Mrs Weisz told her husband she felt "strange." "I guess we're in the ice," he replied. They had just returned to their cabin at 11:40 p.m. when they felt a tremor.

Mrs Weisz survived. He husband did not. Mrs Weisz was in danger of being deported back to England as an indigent until her husband's body was recovered (#293) and the gold sewn inside his coat returned to her.

NO. 293. - MALE. - ESTIMATED AGE, 42. HAIR, DARK. FAIR MOUSTACHE.

CLOTHING - Black coat, fur lined Astrachan collar; grey suit; "W. L" on shirt.

EFFECTS - Key chain and keys; gun metal watch; cigarette case; two pocketbooks; bank book; gold watch; silver wrist watch; two cuff buttons; one gold ring; one pin; one gold chain; £56 in gold; one dollar and coins; £30 in notes; $26 in notes.

SECOND CLASS.

NAME - LEOPOLD WEISZ, Worcester.

His body was shipped to Montreal for burial in Section One of the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery. The exact location of the grave is not known.

Articles

• Montreal Star, 6 May 1912, Body of L Weisz Titanic Victim Buried Here

Documents

• Record of Bodies and Effects: Passengers and Crew, S.S. Titanic (Public Archives of Nova Scotia) (#293)

References

• Birmingham Daily Gazette, 16 - 19 April 1912 inc.
• Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
• Alan Hustak (1999) Titanic, The Canadian Story. Véhicule Press, ISBN 1-55065-113-7
• List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer At Port Of Arrival (Ship: Carpathia)-National Archives, NWCTB-85-T715-Vol 4183
• Montreal Daily Herald, 15 April 1932

Contributors

• Alan Hustak, Canada
• Alan Tucker, UK
• Hermann Söldner, Germany

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)

• Mrs Mathilde Françoise Weisz

Reference - http://www.cjnews.com/canada/headstone-now-marks-titanic-victim’s-grave

Leopold Weisz

• Hungarian-born stone carver from England
• 293rd body recovered from the wreck of the Titanic

Weisz had found work in Montreal carving the friezes over the entrance of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

He also was commissioned to carve the stone shields of Canada’s nine provinces on the new high-rise Dominion Express Building on St. Jacques Street West. Weisz’s work still adorns the edifice.

Weisz left Hungary for England when he was 19 to study at the Bromsgrove Guild of Art in Worcestershire

He planned to immigrate to Canada and set up a business with an Edward Wren in Montreal. Weisz returned to England to get his wife and bring her over.

Weisz bought two second-class tickets for 26 pounds for himself and his wife, the Belgian-born Mathilde Françoise Pëde, who survived the disaster.

Weisz sewed his life savings, much of it in gold, into the lining of his black coat with its Astrakhan fur collar.

“On the night of the sinking, he went for a walk on deck while his wife [a Catholic] took part in the impromptu hymn sing in the second-class dining room…

“After the recital she joined her husband on deck, but the temperature had dropped to minus-one degree Celsius. They shivered, and as they headed inside, Mrs. Weisz told her husband she felt vaguely uneasy.

“‘I guess we’re in the ice,’ he replied” – which will go down as one of history’s great understatements.

They were in their cabin when they felt the first tremor at 11:40 p.m.

She managed to get onto a lifeboat to safety aboard the ship the Carpathia, which arrived in New York on April 18.

Weisz’s body was recovered and transported to Montreal and buried at the Baron de Hirsch. He is one of six Titanic victims buried in Montreal.

His wife faced deportation back to England as an indigent in the days following the sinking until her husband’s body was found and identified, and the 56 pounds in gold and about an equal amount in notes in his coat, was returned to her.

They had no children.

His story is also told in the 2008 book Sacred Ground on de la Savane by Danny Kucharsky, commissioned by the cemetery for its centenary.

Mathilde married her late husband’s would-be partner, Wren, in 1914 and lived in Westmount. She became known not only as a Titanic survivor, but also as an amateur singer.

Kucharsky notes that a street was named for her in her native city of Ghent for her help in raising funds for Belgian charities during World War I.

She died in 1953 in Montreal at age 79 and is interred at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.