Some Titanic survivors became Honorary British Titanic Society members, shared their memories at many conventions and contributed to the Atlantic Daily Bulletin.

Bertram Dean, brother of Millvina Bertram Dean with a model of Titanic

Bertram and Millvina Dean

travelled with their parents Bertram Frank and Eva Georgetta Dean as third class passengers on Titanic. Their father helped put his wife and children into a lifeboat and was lost with Titanic.

1912 newspaper article featuring Millvina with passengers on the Adriatic, returning home after the disaster.

Millvina was just nine weeks old, and her brother was two years old.

A newspaper article from 1912 (left) pictures Millvina, and the text reads: ‘Among the passengers rescued from the Titanic who returned to Liverpool by the Adriatic on Saturday was Mrs. Dean with her two infants. Her husband was lost with the men in the steerage, and the Adriatic passengers collected £65 for the widow. The photograph shows the baby six weeks old at the time of the disaster, in charge of interested passengers.’

Bertram died in 1992 aged 81.

Titanic survivor Millvina Dean

Millvina became the last of the survivors and died in May 2009. The Millvina Dean Memorial Garden in Southampton (near the entrance to the SeaCity museum) opened in 2012 with a dedication ceremony, and remains a peaceful haven in the busy city centre. Details of the ceremony with pictures can be found here.

 

 

     

Edith Haisman, Titanic survivor pictured in later life.Edith Haisman nee Brown

was born in 1896 in South Africa, and boarded Titanic at the age of 15 with her parents as second class passengers. Edith and her mother escaped on lifeboat 14, but her father was never found.

Edith died in 1997 aged 100, the oldest Titanic survivor.

.Millvina Dean & Edith Haisman

                      Millvina Dean and Edith Haisman (above left – Edith)

 

Eva Hart Black & white picture of Eva Hart aged 7 with her father Benjamin and mother Esther           

Eva Hart also attended many conventions and spoke of her experiences. Eva was 7 years old when she boarded Titanic in Southampton with mother Esther and father Benjamin. They travelled as second class passengers and were emigrating to Canada. Eva’s mother had a premonition that something disastrous would happen to the ship, and was waiting wide awake when the collision occurred. Benjamin placed Esther and Eva into lifeboat 14, and that was the last they saw of him. Eva Hart in later years, smiling and holding her autobiography shortly after its publication

In 1994 Eva wrote her autobiography ‘Shadow of the Titanic – A Survivor’s Story’ and took part in many interviews and documentaries. There are two interviews freely available through the BBC archives here. Eva died in 1996 at the age of 91. A Wetherspoons pub near her home in Chadwell Heath, London has been named in her honour – ‘The Eva Hart’.