Capt. Philip Mesier Lydig (1867-1929)

He was born on the Lydig estate at West Farms on the Bronx River. He was an only child, his father having died before he was one years old. After graduating from Harvard University (1889) he took a course in finance at Berlin University. In 1897, he was commissioned as a Captain with the U.S. Army for the war with Spain. He served as Chief Commissary of the Artillery Brigade and was Chief Purchasing Commissary at Honolulu, Hawaii. Before resigning in 1899, he was sent to Paris by the War Department to write a government report and he ended up staying there for two years. Returning to New York, he purchased a seat on the Stock Exchange and in 1902 he married Rita, daughter of Ricardo de Acosta, Merchant of Havanna and New York, and the ex-wife of William Earl Dodge Stokes. They didn't have any children but they were conspicuous figures in New York society and Mrs. Lydig (a notorious spendthrift who would eventually go bankrupt) lived and entertained lavishly. When World War I erupted, the Lydigs were travelling in Bohemia and he offered his services to the Allies, purchasing American materials and horses for the French and mounts for the Russian Cossacks. 

In 1915, he joined the Imperial Russian Army, establishing and leading the American Ambulance. Two years later, just as the Americans were entering the war, his wife sued for divorce on the grounds of "incompatibility" which was finalised in 1919. From then, Captain Lydig spent most of his time in Europe, listing his address in the States as the Knickerbocker Club. HIs other clubs included the Army and Navy and Harvard Clubs in Nice, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Loyal Legion and the Spanish-American War Association. He died at Nice in France.