George Andrew Brereton

My Dad's Uncle George was a professional gambler and somewhat of a con artist as well as a car salesman. Among his gambling activities, were boarding Trans-Atlantic ships to make a living as a gambler. There is some misinformation posted about him and his family on the internet and some of it has been corrected thanks to a letter my Dad sent to my brother Ernie. Ernie forwarded some of the corrections to one of the writers responsible for the misinformation. A couple of the errors were: He spoke with a British accent, he didn't, and that he met his wife Hazel Rell on a cruise ship where her parents had sent her to meet a rich man. The Rell girls were poor farm girls from Wisconsin and had never been near the coast nor a ship during those years. George met Hazel through her sister (Phyllis Kovats (Rell). Her husband, Ernie Kovats, was in business with George's brother in Montana. They either met in Hazel's hometown in Wisconsin or Montana since Phyllis was teaching school there.

Uncle George boarded the Titanic using an alias the he had bought under the name George Arthur Brayton. When the ship sunk on April 15, 1912, he was one of the few males to survive. The story is that he dressed in many layers of clothing including his overcoat and then jumped overboard. My mother always said that he probably dressed up as a woman in order to get on one of the lifeboats. She didn't care for him very much. He was rescued by a lifeboat and then transferred to the Carpathia heading to New York and wasted no time practicing his craft . He tried to involve a 1st class passenger named Charles Stengel, also a survivor, in a horse racing scam in New York but he wasn't buying it. In his post Titanic life, he supposedly was involved in scams such as swindling money and fake horse race deals, and false wire schemes into the early 1930s. It is difficult to asses this information because of the number of inaccuracies written about him and his family. His marriage with Hazel ended in a divorce in 1938.

My Dad remembers him as being a really nice guy when Uncle George and Aunt Hazel were located in the LA area. He felt that he spent more time with him than with his own son Danny. Dad used to spend a week with him and Aunt Hazel for 4 or 5 summers from 1926-1930 where Uncle George took him rowing on a lake near downtown, to the Zoo, and to Griffith Park and always treated him well. Their house was located on Malcolm Avenue near the UCLA campus and he rode the bike that Uncle George had given him around the campus area. He also let him drive on some of the back roads of LA when he was only 9 or 10 years old.

Uncle George was a part owner of a Chrysler Agency for a short time in Santa Monica and later had a used car lot in LA. He invited Dad down to LA in 1935 because Dad had contacted him about buying a car and George told him that he would give him one. Dad and friend, Johnny Johnson, took a trip to LA in his Dad's pick up. Johnny drove because Dad was only 15. They met on the lot and my Dad was "disappointed in his inventory" and it seemed that his Uncle was not doing well. Later that day he told Dad that if he and his friend would pull the weeds in the front of the lot, he would give him the car. The car was an old beat up black sedan from about 1920. Dad thanked him and said no and they drove back to Turlock in the truck. Now, Dad says that he had a lot of gall expecting anything. On one of Uncle George's trips to Turlock my Dad and a friend were going to the County Fair but didn't have a ride. George offered to take them and when he dropped them off gave each one of them $4. Dad couldn't believe it. It was the most money that had ever been in his pocket.

Later on, Dad remembers Uncle George as being somewhat of a lonely man and possibly regretting some of his early life. He saw him just a few more times and the last time was in Oakland when George wanted to borrow his car for the day. Since the car was his aunt's, he said no, and he never saw him again. Dad was surprised when he found out that Uncle George had taken his own life in LA in 1942. Robert Kovats Jr. as told to me by my dad and in a letter he wrote to my brother Ernie.

George A. Brereton - Mystery Man is a summary from Titanic Research by Mike Herbold - interesting read - including -

"My great uncle was one of the surviving passengers of the Titanic. His name was George Brereton and is misspelled on the list. He is listed as Mr. George Brayton..... I was always told he was on his honeymoon though there is no mention of a Mrs. on the list. I suspect there were many errors overall, not just the misspelling of Brereton. My grandmother Emily Brereton Lathrop, her brother George, and several other siblings were from Los Angeles."

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See Encyclopedia Titanica (2018) George Andrew Brereton (ref: #38, last updated: 13th December 2018, accessed 10th September 2023 07:59:44 AM)
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Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Mr George Andrew Brereton (George Arthur Brayton / Bradley)
Titanic Survivor
Born: Thursday 12th November 1874 in Madelia, Minnesota, United States
Age: 37 years 5 months and 3 days (Male)
Nationality: American
Marital Status: Single
Last Residence: in Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation: Gambler
1st Class Passengers
Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 111427, £26 11s
Rescued (boat 9)
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Died: Thursday 16th July 1942 aged 67 years
Cause of Death: Gunshot Wound