Anthony Joseph Drexel III

He was the eldest son of Margarita "Rita" Armstrong (1867–1948),^[1] Anthony Joseph Drexel Jr.^[2] Among his siblings were Margaretta^[3] (the wife of Guy Finch-Hatton, 14th Earl of Winchilsea);^[4][5] aviation pioneer John Armstrong Drexel;^[6][7] and Louis Clapier Norris Drexel. His parents divorced in 1917,^[8][9] and his mother married Brinsley FitzGerald (the son of Peter FitzGerald, 1st Baronet of Valencia) in 1918.^[10]

His paternal grandparents were Anthony Joseph Drexel (son of Austrian-born American banker Francis Martin Drexel)^[11][12] and Ellen (née Rozet) Drexel. Through his sister Margaretta, he was uncle to Christopher Finch-Hatton, 15th Earl of Winchilsea.^[13] His maternal grandfather John Armstrong of the Baltimore Armstrongs.^[14]

At the age of nine, his parents took him to England where he was educated at Farnborough and Eton College, which he attended for three and a half years. His father was a close friend of both King Edward VII and Kaiser Wilhelm II.^[15] At age 16, he began a world tour that lasted a year and a half.^[16]

After his world tour, Drexel returned to Philadelphia and began working as a clerk for Drexel & Co., the family firm founded by his great-grandfather Francis in 1838. His grandfather expanded the family fortunes by partnering with J. Pierpont Morgan to form Drexel, Morgan & Co. of New York in 1871 and Drexel, Harjes & Co. of Paris.^[17]

In 1910, he was operating a flying school at Beaulieu, a quaint little village on the verge of the New Forest in England.^[18] After his marriage, he returned again to the U.S. and became a "widely publicized messenger boy for a New York brokerage firm, E. and C. Randolph." He later became a clerk of the firm before becoming a partner in the firm J. R. Williston & Co. for two years. He bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and founded his own brokerage firm, Liggett, Drexel & Co. with fellow New York clubman John E. Liggett (of the Liggett tobacco family), at 61 Broadway in Manhattan. In 1917, his brother-in-law George Jay Gould Jr. joined the firm.^[19] In 1918, he sold his seat to his partner for $55,000.^[20] In 1919, the Intermountain Railway, Light & Power Co. sued Liggett & Drexel's successor, Liggett, Hichborn & Co., for $286,000 seeking damages related to a failed bond issue.^[21] In 1921, the Merchants Trust Company of Waterbury, Connecticut sued Liggett for endorsing bankrupt notes.^[22] Liggett's wife later sued him as well, claiming she helped keep the Liggett & Drexel firm afloat by contributing her own cash, securities and jewelry.^[23][24][25]

During World War I, a member of Squadron A, Drexel served as a Lieutenant of the U.S. Army. After the War, he served as vice president of the Standard Film Industries Corporation in New York.^[26] In 1935, he was present at a New York State Legislative committee's hearing as an advocate of lotteries for charity.^[16]

After he retired from banking, he moved away from Philadelphia, splitting his time between his home in Boca Grande, Florida and his home in Shelter Island, an island at the eastern end of Long Island.^[16] In 1937, Drexel and his wife hosted a dinner in honor of Sir Bede Clifford, Governor of the Bahamas, and Lady Clifford (the former Alice Devin Gundry), at their home, Caprice.^[27] He was a member of the Philadelphia Club, Racquet Club and Corinthian Club in Philadelphia and the Knickerbocker Club, New York Yacht Club, and the Racquet and Tennis Clubs of New York.^[16]

In 1938, he sold his 238-ton steel yacht, Queen of Scots, to the British registry to be used as a hospital ship for the British Red Cross.^[28][29]

When World War II broke out, Drexel and his wife were at their home in suburban Paris, and were forced to flee to their villa in Biarritz, and then to Portugal, where the boarded a ship to America. Upon his return to the United States, he "devoted much of his time to sports, particularly yachting."^[16]