General Chat

The last survivor of the sinking of the Titanic has died aged 97.
Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the liner sank after hitting an iceberg in the early hours of 15 April 1912, on its maiden voyage from Southampton.
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people in the north Atlantic, largely due to a lack of lifeboats.
Miss Dean, who remembered nothing of the fateful journey, died on Sunday at the care home in Hampshire where she lived, two of her friends told the BBC.
Her father, Bertram, perished when the vessel sank.
Her sister and mother also survived and they returned to Southampton, where Miss Dean spent most of her life.
She had recently been struggling with monthly bills of £3,000 at her care home and had been in danger of losing her room.
She began selling some of her Titanic-related mementoes to raise funds, and in April a canvas bag from her rescue was sold at auction raising £1,500.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8070095.stm

RIP Millvina and all those who sailed on the Titanic.

Yes Joan, the article does go onto say:

Actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, who appeared in the 1998 movie Titanic, contributed towards her care costs, along with the film's director James Cameron, by donating to the Millvina Fund which was set up by her friends.

However, having to sell her mementoes is very sad.

Yes Joan, but how shameful that ANY old person should have to struggle to keep a room in an old folks home.
We certainly have our priorities wrong in this world, don't you think?
Bless her.
Deanna X

Very true Deanna and Joan.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the person who bought the canvas bag at the auction actually gave it back to Miss Dean - which if true was a very kind thing to do.

Kath. x

Kathleen, if that's true, I'm so pleased. Yes it was very kind.

I've just looked up the article on the CNN News website and it does say that a young man bought the bag for £1,500 and donated it back to Miss Dean. He did not reveal his identity.

Kath. x

Hi Chris, That would be remarkable in its own right :-)

Rip a grand old lady..


well Chris, you only have to watch the film, to find out what happened........surely?










tongue deeply in cheek!!.......

Bob

An amazing life; I have enjoyed reading about her :-)

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/4409544.Millvina_Dean__last_survivor_of_Titanic__dies/

Miss Dean was just nine weeks old when the historic liner sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on her maiden transatlantic voyage from Southampton.
She died this morning after being cared for at a nursing home in Woodlands, in the New Forest.

Elizabeth Gladys Dean, known to friends as Millvina, was born on February 2, 1912 and boarded the doomed ship with her parents Bertram Frank and Georgette Eva and her elder brother Bertram. The family, who were third class passengers, were emigrating to Wichita, Kansas, where her father had hoped to open a tobacconist shop. When the accident happened, her father felt the ship shudder and quickly told his family to get on deck. Miss Dean, her mother and brother were among the first steerage passengers to escape the sinking liner, but Mr Dean was unable to get onto a lifeboat and perished in the disaster.

They returned to England aboard the Adriatic where "Millvina became quite a spectacle: that such a tiny baby could have came through the ordeal alive," according to Encyclopedia-Titanica.

Miss Dean's family returned to Southampton and she did not find out that she had been on board the vessel until she was eight and her mother was planning to remarry.