Businessman. He is long-remembered as the hero of the sinking of the "RMS Lusitania," besides being a millionaire. A member of the famous Cornelius Vanderbilt family, he inherited the bulk of the family fortune when his eldest brother William Henry died in 1892 and his other brother Cornelius III, who angered his father, was disinherited. He held positions on several railroad companies including the New York Central, Michigan Central, and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie railroads, but his first love was horses. In May of 1915 he set sail from his native New York City for London to conduct a meeting of the International Horse Breeder's Association and to assist the efforts needed for World War I by volunteering as a driver for the Red Cross. On May 7, 1915 when the "Lusitania" was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German submarine, the wealthy sportsman and his valet Ronald Denyer assisted others by guiding children to lifeboats and distributing lifebelts to others. Although he could not swim, he reportedly gave up his lifebelt to a nurse as the ship took her final plunge into the sea. In its May 11th edition, the "New York Times" reported, "People will not talk of Mr. Vanderbilt as a millionaire sportsman… He will be remembered as the children's hero and men and women will salute his name." He became one of the 123 Americans who lost their lives with the sinking of this vessel. His body was lost at sea. Though Alfred Vanderbilt's body was never recovered, a memorial tablet was installed on a vault adjacent to those of his immediate family inside the Vanderbilt Mausoleum, at New Dorp, Staten Island, New York. Besides this memorial, a memorial fountain to Vanderbilt is located in Vanderbilt Park in Newport, Rhode Island and an upright memorial was erected in the English village of Holmwood. He left a widow and three sons, with one becoming the Governor of Rhode Island and two United States Naval officers.