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 KaiserWilhelm II.[15] At age 16, he began a world tour that lasted a year and a half.[16]
Career
After his world tour, Drexel returned to worked 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 & Drexell'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]
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]
Edith Kingdon Drexel (1911–1934), who married Henry Sergeant Cram (1907–1997), son of John Sergeant Cram and Edith Claire Bryce, in 1931.[33] After her early death, Cram married Ruth Vaux, a granddaughter of Richard Vaux.[34]
Marjorie Gould Drexel (1916–1947), who married John Murton Gundry Jr. (1896–1961) in 1935.[37][38][39] They divorced in 1945 and she married Axel Julius Danielson (1897–1961) in 1946.
Drexel died of a heart attack at his home in Boca Grande on February 25, 1946.[16] His widow died on November 29, 1955, in Manhattan.[41]
Descendants
Through his daughter Edith, he was a grandfather of John Sergeant Cram III (1932–2007), who married Lady Jeanne Campbell, the only daughter of Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll.[42] She had previously been married to American writer Norman Mailer. Lady Jeanne and John had a daughter, Cusi Cram (b. 1967), an actress, a Herrick-prize-winning playwright, and an Emmy-nominated writer for the children's animated television program, Arthur.[43][44]
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