Josephine Brandell

Josephine Mary Brandell (September 1887–27 June 1977) was an Austrian-Jewish musical 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 known as Josephine Bingham, Countess of Annesley.

Early life According 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. 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.

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; as Maline in The Belle of Brittany (1909–1910) at Daly's Theatre; in Tillie's Nightmare (1910–1911) at the Herald Square Theatre and as Sidi in The Merry Countess (1912) at the Casino Theatre.

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. 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.

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.