Hello, welcome to Clifford Ismay's bio page

About the author

 

Clifford Ismay is 5th cousin (once removed) to Joseph Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line and notably RMS Titanic's most infamous survivor. He was privileged to have been a Governor and the Northern England representative for the Titanic Heritage Trust until the death of its founder Howard Nelson. He is a member of both the British Titanic Society and Titanic International Society. He has taken part in Titanic documentaries and been interviewed for television and radio news. He has given a number of talks on the Ismay family as well as RMS Titanic. Clifford lives in Cumbria, England where he is currently engaged as director of Maryport Maritime Museum.

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Career

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Throughout much of his career Clifford's worked as Electrical Engineer on numerous projects including Nuclear Energy and for Her Majesty's Government. He currently sits on the board of Maryport Maritime Museum as a Director.

 

His interest with Titanic began at the age of eight years; he remembers it well. Clifford says, "I was watching the 1958 film A Night To Remember with my father and was in awe when I saw the huge ship [Titanic] sailing across the Atlantic, then I saw J Bruce Ismay (played by Frank Lawton), my father turned to me and said 'son, you are related to Bruce'. That was my first indication that we had Titanic connections".

 

Now retired, Clifford decided to turn his attention to his fifth cousin J Bruce Ismay. During his research Clifford was astounded by what he found and decided that the time was right to rewrite part of Titanic's history, at least as far as Bruce Ismay was concerned. Once he found the direction of his new book Clifford began to search for a publisher. Knowing the difficulties new author's faced he first contacted the UK’s largest dedicated history publisher The History Press and was delighted to be offered a contract.

Understanding J Bruce Ismay was released in April 2022 and quickly gained in popularity on the international market.