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Josephine Brandell Josephine Mary Brandell (September 1887–27 June 1977) was an Austrian-Jewish musical actress and actress notable for surviving the torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. Following her marriage in 1945 to Beresford Cecil Bingham, 8th Earl Annesley she became Josephine, Countess of Annesley. Early lifeAccording to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census and the 1905 New York State Census, Josephine Brandell was actually born as Janetta Kleinberg in Austria in 1887 into a Jewish family, the daughter of Fishel 'Phillip' Kleinberg (born 1848) and Yetta née Goldstein (1857–1953). Her siblings included Samuel Lasker Kleinberg, Sadie Zehring Kleinberg and William Kleinberg. Later in applications for passports and American citizenship she claimed that she was a British citizen born on 26 November 1891 or 1892 in Bucharest in Romania, the daughter of Phillip Brandell.[1] Her father, a tailor by profession, immigrated to the United States of America, settling in New York City in 1895, with the rest of the family following him in 1897 and 1898.[1] Josephine Brandell had ambitions of becoming an actress and attempted to break into show business on the New York stage while in her early teens but this was temporarily put on hold when in 1907 at the age of 19 she married dentist and naturalised American citizen Dr Bernard Black Brandeis (1879–1944), also from Romania. The marriage made Brandell an American citizen[1] but it was short-lived with the couple divorcing in September 1910 following which she assumed the name 'Brandell', possibly to avoid anti-Semitic persecution. After the divorce Brandell resumed her ambition of following a career on the stage.[2][3] Career A soprano, 'Jenny' Brandell's first small role was in the comic-opera Nightbirds by Johann Strauss in which she toured Europe and America with Fritzi Scheff and gaining favourable press coverage for her performance. On Broadway she appeared in The Beauty Spot (1909) at the Herald Square Theatre;[4] as Maline in The Belle of Brittany (1909–1910) at Daly's Theatre;[5] in Tillie's Nightmare (1910–1911) at the Herald Square Theatre and as Sidi in The Merry Countess (1912) at the Casino Theatre.[6] In 1913 she travelled to London to study music and to perform in a number of operatic and other musical productions, living there on and off for the next six years.[1] In 1913 Brandell played her first leading role in the revue Come Over Here, performed at the London Opera House.[7] After that her career took off with engagements in England and Broadway. On her numerous trans-Atlantic crossings one of her favourite ships was the RMS Lusitania, one of the most exclusive and fastest luxury liners of the time.[2][3] Lusitania After Brandell had played on Broadway in the spring of 1915 on May 1 she boarded the RMS Lusitania to return to London. She was accompanied by Mrs Mabel Crichton, the wife of a friend. The actress knew of the danger of being hit by a submarine in British territorial waters and she was not confident that the ship could outrace a submarine and, as she put it, was "in a state" for much of the voyage. She and Mabel Crichton (who did not survive the sinking) became friendly with their tablemates: Max Schwarcz and Francis Bertram Jenkins. However, despite the convivial company on board Brandell never got over her feeling of dread. Jenkins did not help matters by pointing out the shortage of lifebelts on board. Brandell begged Mabel Crichton to allow her to stay the night in Crichton's cabin because she was so frightened. Crichton welcomed Brandell into her cabin and spent most of the night trying to reassure her that nothing would happen to them. However, Brandell's fears were proved right and the next day on May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank. In her written deposition to the authorities Brandell wrote: 
Brandell never fully recovered from this tragedy, having been pulled nearly dead from the water and becoming hysterical when revived - consequently suffering for the rest of her life with nightmares.[2][3] Later yearsOn returning to the United States Brandell filed a claim for compensation with the U.S. State Department. This could not be considered until the War had ended but following her marriage to British stock broker John Ormiston Lawson-Johnson (1877–1955) on 19 May 1920 she gave up her American citizenship. On 19 March 1925 the Mixed Claims Commission refused her compensation claim as she was no longer an American citizen despite the fact that she had been at the time of the sinking.[1] After the Lusitania drama Brandell failed to continue her promising career which had begun so successfully. She had difficulty concentrating and could not put herself in other characters, therefore she appeared only sporadically in small roles and gradually faded from the acting scene. Her marriage to John Ormiston Lawson-Johnson was not happy and ended in divorce in 1928. She quickly entered into a third marriage in London on 1 June 1929 with George John Seymour Repton (1898–1943), who served as a captain in the Irish Guards during World War II; the marriage was harmonious and happy. During World War II Brandell founded the organization 'The American Friends of Britain' designed to foster understanding between the two nations. On May 10, 1943, George Repton died unexpectedly in London, leaving Brandell comfortably off with nearly £50,000 in his will.[2][3][8] On December 7, 1945, in London she married her fourth husband, Beresford Cecil Bingham (1894–1957), the 8th Earl Annesley, and 9th Viscount of Glerawly, giving her the title of Countess of Annesley. Bingham had been a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during World War II; he had also previously served as a Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. After his death on June 29, 1957, she returned to New York, where she led a quiet and unassuming life and there she died in June 1977 at the age of 89. She was buried in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx in New York. She had no children from any of her four marriages.[2][3] References
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