R. Norris Williams: the Titanic Survivor Who Won Olympic Gold

Williams, commonly known as R. Norris Williams, was born on January 29, 1891, in Geneva, Switzerland, though his parents were from the US, The New York Times reported.

A descendant of Benjamin Franklin, he grew up in a wealthy family as the son of a prominent lawyer, Charles Duane Williams, who taught him how to play tennis as a child.

After a bout of measles halted his original travel plans to the US, where he planned to attend Harvard University, he booked a ticket on the Titanic, the Times reported.

Williams was 21 when he and his father, 51, boarded the ship at Cherbourg, France, on April 10, 1912.

They both held first-class tickets, according to the Mariners’ Museum and Park.

Of all the first-class and second-class passengers who boarded the Titanic, 45% of those passengers died in the sinking, according to Britannica, compared to 75% of third-class passengers who died.

Williams later recounted the events of the ship’s sinking in an unpublished memoir, which was passed on to his widow and his four children after his death, Main Line Times & Suburban reported.

During the sinking, he freed a passenger trapped in one of the cabins by breaking down a door that was stuck, Sports Illustrated reported. A member of staff then approached him and threatened to fine him for damaging the ship’s property.

A similar scene occurs in James Cameron’s film “Titanic,” when Jack and Rose break down a door during their escape and are reprimanded for damaging White Star Line property.

Both men either jumped into the water or were washed overboard, The New York Times reported.

Williams later wrote in his memoir, parts of which were republished by Main Line Times & Suburban in 2012, that his father was crushed by a falling funnel, though his accounts differed slightly at different points in his life.

To escape the sinking boat, Williams removed his shoes and swam to a lifeboat about 100 yards away, although he recalled being weighed down by a fur coat he was wearing over his life jacket, The New York Times reported.

He reportedly held on to the lifeboat before climbing into it, and sat up to his knees in freezing water and waited to be rescued.

The Times reported that “only about a dozen” of the passengers in Williams’ lifeboat survived.

Once on the Carpathia, Williams was told by a doctor that his frostbitten legs would need to be amputated.

However, the aspiring tennis professional refused.

“I refuse to give you permission,” Williams said, according to his 1968 obituary. “I’m going to need these legs.”

Determined to save his legs, Williams walked around Carpathia’s deck every two hours, eventually regaining sensation in his lower body, The New York Times reported.

The same year he survived the Titanic sinking, Williams won the US National Tennis Championships in mixed doubles alongside Mark K. Brown and ranked among the top 10 players in the world, according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

In 1916, he won the national title again and became the highest-ranked tennis player in the US.

In addition to his prowess on the tennis course, Williams also served in the US Army during World War I and was awarded two honors, the Légion d’Honneur and the Croix de Guerre, according to the Olympics.

After the war, Williams resumed his tennis career, and in 1920, he won a Wimbledon doubles title, The New York Times reported.

However, his tennis career reached its peak at the 1924 Paris Olympics when Williams won a mixed-doubles gold medal with his tennis partner, Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman.

According to the Olympics, after retiring from professional tennis, Williams worked as an investment banker and then served as president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

He was named a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957, nine years before his death at the age of 77.

Williams died on June 2, 1968, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

According to his New York Times obituary, he was survived by his widow, Frances “Sue” Gillmore Williams, three sons, and one daughter.

His widow died on June 13, 2001, according to Main Line Times and Suburban.