Violet Jessop

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Violet Jessop, c. 1910-1920.

Violet Constance Jessop (born October 2, 1887 at Bahía Blanca , Argentina , † May 5, 1971 in Great Ashfield , Suffolk , England ) was a British stewardess who worked for the shipping company White Star Line and, among other things, on board all three ships of the Olympic class ( RMS Olympic , RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic ) was in service and all three ships were involved in accidents.

childhood

Violet Jessop was born as the first of nine children to Irish émigrés William Jessop and Katherine Kelly Jessop. Only six of the siblings survived; Violet himself contracted tuberculosis at a young age . When the father died, the family moved to the UK. In 1908 her mother became seriously ill. Violet dropped out of school and became a stewardess on the Royal Mail Line. In 1910 she began working for the White Star Line, whose three sister ships Olympic , Titanic and Britannic later achieved notoriety.

The ship accidents

On September 20, 1911, Violet Jessop was on board the Olympic when it collided with the British cruiser HMS Hawke . Both ships were badly damaged but did not sink.

Seven months later, on April 10, 1912, she was one of the twenty-three stewardesses aboard the Titanic . After the ship collided with an iceberg after four days of voyage in the North Atlantic, the Titanic sank with a significant loss of life. Jessop boarded lifeboat No. 16 and was picked up eight hours later by the passenger ship RMS Carpathia , which was taking the survivors to New York.

Jessop as the Red Cross sister on the HMHS Britannic . 1915.

During World War I , Jessop worked as a nurse for the British Red Cross. In 1916 she was stationed on board the HMHS Britannic . On November 21 of that year, the ship was in the Greek Mediterranean and sank due to an explosion, which was probably caused by a German sea ​​mine . Violet Jessop was sitting in one of the two lifeboats that were being pulled into the still rotating propellers, but was able to jump out at the last moment. Although her head hit the keel of the sinking ship underwater, she still managed to surface so that the crew of another lifeboat could rescue her.

Next life

After the war she continued to work for the White Star Line , later for the Red Star Line and then the Royal Mail Line . In her late 30s, Jessop was briefly married, the marriage was childless and was soon divorced. In 1950 she retired in Great Ashfield, Suffolk.

There she died of heart failure in 1971 at the age of 83 as one of the last remaining adult Titanic survivors.

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personal data
SURNAME Jessop, Violet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jessop, Violet Constance (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British stewardess
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH near Bahía Blanca , Argentina
DATE OF DEATH 5th May 1971
Place of death Great Ashfield , Suffolk , England