Winthrop Lee Biddle (1896-1971)

He was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, and was descended on both sides from some of the oldest and wealthiest families in Philadelphia and Boston. He was a star athlete and class president at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. In 1917, he enlisted with the U.S. Navy and served at Cape May, New Jersey, and Battery Point, New York. In 1920, the same year that he was married, he was living at 3915 Locust Street, Philadelphia. When his father died in 1933 he was willed $5,000 and what remained of his father's $35,000 was to be divided between him and his two full siblings when their mother died (his half-siblings were already well endowed through the estate of their grandfather, Anthony J. Drexel). In 1934, his name appeared in the Social Register and during World War II he was appointed a Lieutenant-Commander with the U.S. Navy. 

In 1920, he married Mary Emma Vogdes and they were the parents of two children. She divorced him in 1941 and in 1948 he lost a suit against her to win back a share of the $60,000 left to him and his brother in 1931, having signed it away to his wife in 1936 for a $1,500 loan. His brother recalled: "Money meant nothing to him. He had no more idea than the man in the moon of what to do with it". His last steady job was in the press room of the Curtis Publishing Company in 1940. After the war, he took on various odd-jobs that included being a dishwasher, window cleaner, and shrimp boat fisherman, but lived predominantly on Social Security payments and his pension from the Navy. 

From 1945, he was registered at several different addresses including the Y.M.C.A. in Camden and the police said he lived frequently in basements and attics, and occasionally in jail cells after being accused of crimes ranging from passing worthless checks to stealing from a Biddle family servant: In 1949, in Maine, he was charged with stealing antiques, linen, silverware, jewellery, and a shaving brush worth $1,107 from two relatives of the poet Celia Thaxter. He had been in jail since July for larceny and in October was sentenced to a further six months. On leaving court, he was pictured giving a 'V' for victory sign with one arm, while stuffed under his other arm was his laundry.

In addition to basements and attics, he sometimes slept on park benches, or would stay with various friends. One such friend, Charles E. Quicksill, of Lindenwold, recalled: "He was a glorified hobo. If he wanted to go to Key West or St Thomas, he just went... When he got his check he would treat us all and buy nice things, and when he ran out of money, he would hock (pawn) them." Another friend, David Etheredge, said that he preferred living on the street, "his favorite thing was rescuing kittens, loading them into his grocery cart that he pushed around, trying to find them new homes." He also enjoyed striking up conversations with people he met at diners or on the street, sometimes surprising them by quoting poetry. Towards the end of his life he was a white-bearded old man and a familiar sight, riding his bicycle in a red vest, striped shirt, wide tie, and sports jacket. 

His only ambition had been to write a book called "The Biddles of Philadelphia" which he claimed would expose his family, explaining how he lost his inheritance. That never happened. He was run down by a hit-and-run driver in Haddonfield, New Jersey (a suburb of Philadelphia) while pushing a shopping cart full of his belongings along a main street. He was found wearing three pairs of pants, three pairs of socks, and his sports jacket.