Roger Marie Bricoux

Personal

Vocation

French cellist, one of the eight musicians employed on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. After the ship struck an iceberg, they played music, intending to calm the passengers, for as long as they possibly could, and all went down with the ship on 15 April 1912. All were recognized for their heroism. Roger Bricoux was the son of a musician, and the family moved to Monaco when he was a young boy. He was educated in various Catholic institutions in Italy. It was during his studies that he joined his first orchestra and won first prize at the Conservatory of Bologna for musical ability. After studying at the Paris Conservatory, he moved to England in 1910 to join the orchestra in the Grand Central Hotel in Leeds. At the end of 1911, he moved to Lille, France, lived at 5 Place du Lion d'Or, and played in various locations throughout the city. Before joining the Titanic, Bricoux and pianist Theodore Ronald Brailey had served together on the Cunard steamer RMS Carpathia before joining the White Star Line. He boarded the Titanic on Wednesday 10 April 1912 in Southampton, UK. His ticket number was 250654, the ticket for all the members of Wallace Hartley's orchestra. His cabin was second class, and he was the only French musician aboard the Titanic. Bricoux was 20 years old when he died. His body was never recovered. In 1913, after his apparent disappearance, he was declared a "deserter" by the French army. It was not until 2000 that he was eventually officially registered as dead in France, mainly due to the efforts of the Association Française du Titanic. Link to Wikipedia biography