Is this the face of a Perthshire man who went down with the Titanic?
Alexander Cairns boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger and is still remembered on the family grave at Kinfauns Church.
More than 1,500 passengers and crew died in the disaster including Alexander who was the trusted servant of mining tycoon William Carter and his wife Lucile.
Meg Greenwood, who lives in Oklahoma, said her very existence may have rested on whether Alexander survived or not.
A tale passed down through her family from her grandmother Agnes Bryden was that she was engaged to a man called Alex who went down with the Titanic.
Agnes lived in Glasgow and brought the picture with her when she emigrated to the US.
Meg said: “What is my reason for finding out if this man is indeed Alexander Cairns?
“I would not be here if he hadn’t died in the sinking.
“Agnes wed another man in New York City and they had a family.
“Knowing that rare titbit is foremost in my personal drive to get him identified.
“There are so many others who owe their current lives solely to the happenstance of not marrying someone else who died in the sinking.”
Meg is looking to track down surviving relatives in the hope that she might be able to match up the image with that of Alexander and put to rest a family mystery.
“Likely his death was not quick, he surely drowned in frigid waters hearing the cries of others as they each slipped from sight,” she said.
“This picture came to me decades ago and an opportunity now exists to see if it is the man who was once engaged to our grandmother.
“Alexander Cairns could then be memorialized with an image after all these years.”
Who was Alexander Cairns?
Alexander was one of 12 children and was born on April 19 1883 in Kinfauns.
He was the son of William Cairns and Margaret Milne who married in Kirriemuir on March 19 1864.
He had 11 siblings.
Alexander and his brothers, James and William, emigrated around 1905 and settled in Philadelphia where they worked as lace weavers.
Alexander became employed by William Carter as the family’s manservant.
Carter and his wife travelled extensively in Europe with their two children, especially in England where they sojourned for protracted periods.
In May 1911 they sailed to England from the US aboard the Lusitania where they participated in the Coronation celebration of King George V and Queen Mary.
In March 1912 the family decided to come back to America and made reservations on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, departing from Southampton on April 3.
They decided to stay another week and purchased tickets aboard Titanic, departing Southampton on April 10.
Carter brought on board his now famous 1912 Renault Type CB Coupé de Ville 35 horsepower automobile which was portrayed in the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.
Carter and his family survived after the collision with the iceberg but what happened to Alexander was never fully known.
His parents later benefited from the Titanic relief fund.
Carter, who survived, claimed £3,100 for his Renault vehicle that sank which became the first ever claim for a car damaged in a collision with an iceberg.
He died in Florida on March 20 1940.
Was he engaged to a woman from Glasgow?
Meg has Scottish ancestry and inherited the picture from her grandmother.
“She would have received this in Glasgow where she lived before arriving in New York City in 1914,” said Meg.
“This close up picture has writing on the back.
“It says: ‘Merry Christmas’, and ‘Love, Alex’.
“His last name is not on the photo.
“Researching passenger lists led me to believe it was an image of Alexander Cairns.
“There are actually not many men named Alexander listed as passengers.
“We do not have the original envelope to obtain a date of sending.
“For some reason, Agnes brought this picture with her to the US.
“It was important.
“My mother heard the story of Agnes saying she was engaged to a man who died when the Titanic sank and that she was at one time going to be on the ship with him.
“I have spoken with another relative, a cousin named Vera who lives in Idaho and is the daughter of my mother’s sister.
“Vera and I both had heard the story of Alexander saying both he and Agnes would be able to travel on the Titanic, if he could get her a ticket.
“We personally think Mr Cairns may have invented that ticket offer to impress her.
“The descendant of a sibling of his that I met in Perthshire long ago said she was told Alexander had ‘romantic entanglements’ which could fit with the possible ticket offer.”
Meg’s family stories have not filled in any background on this relationship although she said Agnes grew up enduring constant sibling infant deaths.
Meg said: “My mother remembers Agnes would get emotional and start to cry if she was ever asked about her family back in Glasgow so they quickly learned to not ask.
“With all this burdening Agnes, she decided to not pass along the tragedies she carried and the family rarely heard of sadness from her.”
Meg is hopeful of solving the mystery
Lucile Carter filed for divorce in 1914.
The divorce was granted on May 30, although no details were made public at the time.
The following year it was revealed by the newspapers that the grounds for the divorce had been “cruel and barbarous treatment.”
Lucile’s sworn statement revealed that Carter had not accompanied her and the children to Lifeboat 4 to ensure their safety.
Meg said: “My hopes of contacting descendants of Mr Carter and his family were pretty much dashed when I read more about the dreadful divorce which followed the sinking and we were sure that even if personal pictures of Mr Carter existed, the history of that divorce would have not allowed us to find a family member with a possible rare image of Alexander with Mr Carter.”
Meg went searching for answers on the Encyclopedia Titanica website where she discovered a picture supplied by Gilbert Ruiz who referred to him as ‘our uncle Alex’.
There is no further evidence that this is a picture of Alexander but Meg was delighted to have some image to compare with her photo of ‘Alex’.
The story of Alexander is one of many links that Dundee and the surrounding area has with the Titanic.
Others include the Dundee-built SS Californian which was on its way to Boston on the fateful night of April 14 1912 and nearest to the Titanic when it hit the iceberg.
Alexander was mentioned in a Titanic diary
The book Dundee Man Lost at Sea by local author Derek J Byrne documents these social and personal stories linking the city and the ship hailed as ‘unsinkable’.
Derek said: “There is no record of Alexander Cairns ever marrying or having children.
“However despite having no children himself he seemed fond of the Carters’ children and they of him.
“Lucile Polk Carter, daughter of William Carter and who was 14 at the time of the sinking, records in her diary of April 13 1912: ‘Today, with William (her brother) and Alexander, we went to the swimming pool. Alexander is a great man. He taught us how to dive’.
“And later: ‘For dessert, Alexander brought us to the high deck and bought us three ice creams. In the afternoon, always with Alexander, we went to the library’.
“After the tragedy Lucile seems to have forgotten about her diary but found it again in 1923.
“On October 20 of that year she makes the following entry recalling that fateful night of 14/15 April 1912 when the Titanic foundered: ‘Charles Augustus (their father’s driver) and Alexander died and we never found their bodies. I never forget Alexander and I will never forget him’.
“What better tribute or memorial could anyone hope for?”
