Frederick Thomas Rice

[Miranda Martin]

Frederick Thomas Rice was four years old, travelling to America with his mother and brothers. Strangely, his name is not mentioned on any passenger list. Was he a clandestine? He could'nt of been left in Ireland since his father died several years before. Does anyone know anything about Frederick?
M.

[Moderator's Note: This message, originally placed in another "Passenger Research" subtopic, has been moved to this one in light of its content. MAB]

 

[Lester Mitcham]

Miranda,

From where please have you got the name Frederick Thomas Rice, aged 4?

The Rice children were: Albert [10], George Hugh [8], Eric [7], Arthur [4] and Eugene Francis [2].

I have never seen any reference to a child called Frederick Thomas Rice.

I hope that helps,
Lester

 

[Miranda Martin]

I got it from a french site. There is a page about the Rice family and it says that there was a sixth child name Frederick.
Maybe Frederick died before or he was being looked after by another member of the family.

 

[Lester Mitcham]

Thank you. - I do not see any mention of any such child in Senan Molony's: The Irish Aboard Titanic. I note he gives the ages of Eric as 6 and Arthur as 5.- Please provide a link to the French site.

 

[Emma Richardson]

I think it may be from

www.perso.orange.fr/titanic/page83.htm#rice

 

[Lester Mitcham]

Hello Emma,

Thank you for that. That would seem to be the web-site.

Lester

 

[Lester Mitcham]

I should have looked more closely at the photograph.
Top row: Albert & Frederick Thomas
Bottom Row: Arthur, Eugene & Eric.

Where is George Hugh?

 

[Miranda Martin]

Hi everyone,
Emma's right.
I think that George Hugh was not in the photo because he was sick, or at school, or he took it.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Some of the material on that French site seems to have been translated from biographical material here at ET. If that's the case, note the 3rd paragraph in the ET biography of Eugene Rice:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/1158/

It seems likely that Frederick Rice started life as a typo.

 

[Miranda Martin]

But then who is the boy in the photo? I can't be George Hugh!
On the french site, there is a photo of Eino Panula and it says it comes from ET!

 

[Miranda Martin]

Maybe the children on the photo weren't:
(top) Albert, Frederick Thomas
(bottom) Arthur, Eugene Francis, Eric
Me and my sister looked closely at the photo and thought that maybe the children could have been in this order:
(top) Albert, Arthur
(bottom) Eric, Eugene Francis, George Hugh
That would explain why George Hugh was not on the photo!

 

[Bob Godfrey]

The names given for the faces in the photo were probably guesswork based on apparent ages and the assumed presence of 'Frederick'. But if Frederick didn't really exist, it's gotta be Eugene on Mama's lap and Albert (the oldest) at top left. My own guess for the others would be the same as yours. The photo was taken probably in 1910, so everybody would be a little younger than the ages usually quoted.

 

[Miranda Martin]

Thanks everyone for your answers!
You helped me a lot with the question I have been thinking about for a long time.

 

[Melinda Laura Varju]

I think Frederick Thomas is his real name, but he was called Eric, just as Eugene Francis called Frank by their mom.

 

[Lester Mitcham]

Melinda,

If you look at the photograph it supposedly contains both Frederick Thomas and Eric.