By Kerry Greenaway
31 st Dec 1892 – 4th August 1978
This thread started right at the beginning of the quest; I found a book that had been torn in half. The first side up identified the book as Darwin’s Dragon by Lindsey Galvin. The second half of the book showed pages with a large print of the word Titanic. This felt important and was very early days of the quest. This is a series of 3 books by this author and is followed by the books My Friend the Octopus and The Call of the Titanic which confirmed the Titanic link. The book in the woods was found on the 22nd of January 2025.
Later, in the quest Richard Clements did a history search on St Mary’s Church in Runwell and found a grave in graveyard to a Mr. Edwy Ryerson a survivor of the Titanic Disaster. When we visited St Mary’s Church in Runwell on the 29th of June the name William was important which brought Mr. Ryerson and the Titanic thread back into the forefront
Born William Edwy Ryerson (1878) in Ontario Canada, when he was still quite young, he joined the Royal Canadian Dragoons and later a British Regiment and fought in the Boer War. He got married in 1906 to Florence and had six children. In April 1912 he signed up for the White Star Line Company and was assigned to the RMS Titanic (Royal Mail Ship) and set sail on the 10th of April. On the 14th of April, William was a lucky chap and was assigned lifeboat duty, lifeboat 9 to be precise and on the fateful night the lifeboat was launched with 56 passengers (the full capacity of the boat was 65) which is how he survived the disaster. He was picked up by the Carpathian and returned to England on 29th April. In the first world war William joined the 159th Gun Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, and rose to the rank of Sergeant. After the war he had other jobs and travelled between Canada and the UK eventually retiring in Runwell Essex where he died on 9th Dec 1949. He grave was unmarked until a commemorative stone 100 years later was laid and is now a visual reminder of a man that survived one of most impactful disasters of the 19th century.
At this point we thought that that thread had been exhausted after all it was relevant to the St Mary’s in Runwell which when we had attended a service there the name William had been very significant and after all our Titanic survivor was a William.
On the 3rd of July we decided to visit St Andrews Church in Rochford, we had no reason to visit except the Tudor period kept raising its head in particular the Bolyn family so it seemed remiss to not go and have a look. The house itself was linked to Mary Bolyn who lived there when she was disgraced for marrying beneath her station to Sir William Carey. Now it is a golf course and clubhouse; the church itself is on the grounds of the golf course. Whilst we were there, a fellow quester got the impression of an explorer and happened to mention Darwin’s boat, the HMS Beagle that had apparently been moored at Paglesham. The HMS Beagle had three major epic exploration voyages but was retired and refitted as a static watch vessel for the Essex Coastguard to curb smugglers.
However, on a separate evening I was wandering around the internet and came across Titanic Inquiry Project which are the official enquiry notes taken at the time and just out of curiosity I looked for William Ryerson. What I found wasn’t the person I was searching for but Emily Ryerson, a 1st class passenger on the Titanic whose enquiry account stated that Bruce Ismay had revealed that they would not be slowing down due to ice. A conversation they had on the deck of the Titanic on the evening of the collision with an Iceberg. However, although Emily was very interesting, there were no specific links to the Quest.
I started to wonder if there was any other person in Essex with links to the Titanic, and I found a gentleman called Gus Cohen.
Gus (The Cat) Gurshon Cohen
31st Dec 1892 – 4th August 1978
Gus was born in Whitechapel, now I’m sure you can see why this excited me a little, I had literally just written about how London was pulling me and the thread of Oysters had reminded me about the Jack the Ripper Walk and how I had seen an Oyster Bar. Not only that but throughout the Quest the Bells at churches had been important and at every turn I was expecting to find that the bells had been made by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. This only came to Fruition when we visited St Mary’s in Benfleet.
Gus’s business was sign writing and printing but then went onto Haberdashery (his parents were Tailors) – which is a little weird as I had also been looking into Austin Friars in London and Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell’s second home was in Austin Friars. After he was beheaded, it was given to Anne of Cleves as part of her annulment settlement and the sat unoccupied for 3 years and was then purchased by The Drapers Company. The full name of this company is “The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London”. Although there is no specific link between the person of the company (yet) the fact that they are in the same trade and the company is more of a Guild (like an over house for everyone in that trade) it’s just a strange coincidence. The Drapers Company consisted of Freemen and Freewoman and have many notable personages under their hat so to speak including the wonderfully named Gringling Gibbons who was a master carver, he worked-on St Paul’s Cathedral and is buried in the churchyard alongside his wife Elizabeth. St Paul’s has its own relevancy on the Quest but that is a tale for another day.
His fateful trip on the Titanic was taking him to New York, (NY being another quest sign that keeps coming up) for work. I’m not going to recount Gus’s actual Titanic story here as it’s well documented, he opposes the modern view that the band was still playing at the time Titanic sank and that he was in Lifeboat 12. He also states;
My name was mis-spelled on the list of passengers saved as Morse Code was used forty years ago – and was given as Gust Cohen, my real first name is Gershon, but I have since adopted “Gus”. (https://w.paullee.com/titanic/gcohen.php) which again took me back to the beginning of the quest when we thought we heard Morse Code on one of the voice recordings.
He served in WW1 and lost an eye, and the building he was in in the WW2 had a bomb dropped on it and he survived. His nickname was The Cat. I am trying to find out further details on our Gus’s military career but as always his main information is all about the Titanic.
Now I recall that Marlene had picked up on a Military Man with one eye but in true quest tradition that particular piece of recording is alluding me. I’m sure it will come to light at the right time.
On one occasion he exited a train on the wrong side and fell onto the tracks escaping with some bruising. Trains have also been a thing on the quest which started with one of Darryl’s dreams and led us to Walsingham from the Icon we saw at All Saints Church at Horndon. The train line was also relevant at St Peter’s in Wickham Bishop where we explored a disused railway bridge. We also have the Railway blocking our pathway on the Hadleigh thread. Not only that, but the steam engine has been very relevant on the Beeleigh thread. Recently I was shown the train lines and that was when the London thread was re-ignited at the time I just assumed it was a general direction but now it is starting to seem to be gaining some weight to it.
Gus then retired to Southend on Sea. He died in Rochford Hospital from Renal Failure however the exact location of his burial seems to be lost or hidden at this point in time.
What I can take from all of this is that it is another pointer towards Thomas Cromwell’s House and Austin Friars, and yet I’m sure much more will be uncovered. For now, we honour the man that was Gus Cohen and his extraordinary life.