Millvina Dean

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Millvina Dean in April 1999

Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean (born  February 2, 1912 in London , †  May 31, 2009 in Ashurst , Hampshire ) survived the sinking of the passenger ship Titanic in 1912 . After Barbara Dainton's death in 2007, she was the last survivor of the ship disaster . Like Dainton, she had been a baby at the time of the accident.

Life

Millvina with brother Bertram around 1912

When the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, Millvina Dean was ten weeks old, making it the youngest person on the ship . Her parents, Bertram Frank Dean and Georgette Eva Light Dean, had boarded with her and her brother Bertram Vere (* May 21, 1910, † April 14, 1992) in Southampton as passengers . The parents had sold their pub in London and wanted to emigrate to Wichita, Kansas .

Millvina Dean, her mother and her brother survived the shipwreck after the collision with the iceberg , her father did not. They returned to England on the Adriatic , with the baby being petted by many first and second class passengers. She attended Greggs School in Southampton. The children were raised by a support fund for Titanic victims. At the age of eight, the child became aware of the involvement in the Titanic disaster when her mother tried to remarry. Dean himself remained single. During World War II , Dean worked as a cartographer for the state. Afterwards she worked in the purchasing department of an engineering company. It was not until she was eight years old that people became aware of her as a Titanic celebrity and she was in demand in congresses, exhibitions, documentaries, and radio and television programs.

When Millvina Dean suffered a hip fracture in 2006, she was admitted to a private nursing home in Ashurst . In order to be able to pay for the costs of her accommodation, Dean had memorabilia auctioned off in October 2008. A suitcase with clothes, prints and a compensation letter brought over 30,000 pounds a.

After Dean had difficulties paying the monthly amounts for her retirement home in 2009, photographer Don Mullan, a friend of her, initiated a fundraising campaign (Millvina Fund) for her and asked the main cast of the Titanic film for a donation in a public letter . According to newspaper reports, the actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as well as the director James Cameron should have donated around 30,000 euros.

Millvina Dean died on May 31, 2009, 98 years to the day after the Titanic was launched in Belfast in 1911.

further reading

  • André Groenewoud: I wanted to tell you that. A century of conversation . Topicus, 2019, ISBN 978-2496703184 , pp. 19-29.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "39,000 euros for Titanic survivors", Augsburger Allgemeine, October 20, 2008
  2. ↑ Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio help pay nursing home fees for last Titanic survivor on Telegraph.co.uk
  3. ↑ Martin Halfpenny: Winslet and DiCaprio agree to financial help for Titanic's last survivor, 97 in the Irish Examiner of May 12, 2009
  4. ↑ Last survivor of the "Titanic" died . nachrichten.t-online.de. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Dean, Millvina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dean, Elizabeth Gladys
BRIEF DESCRIPTION last survivor of the "Titanic" sinking
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 2009
Place of death Ashurst (Hampshire)