Maguire, John Edward, 30. 1st Class.
Born on 7 February, 1882, he became a salesman for the Dunbar Pattern Company of Brockton, Massachusetts. In 1910 he was in charge of the Brockton Lodge. He travelled to Europe on a business trip with Walter Porter, 47, and George Clifford, 41. They all died in the sinking. If recovered, Maguire’s body was never recognised.
Maioni, Roberta Elizabeth Mary ‘Cissy’, 20. Maid, 1st Class.
Born in Norfolk in early 1892, she became a lady’s maid and acted as such for Lucy, Countess of Rothes. On the Titanic Cissy became fond of a young crew member, who gave her a White Star badge off his uniform. When the ship sank she was rescued with the Countess of Rothes and Gladys Cherry in Lifeboat 8. Her beautiful hair was soon in tatters, torn and pulled by her efforts to row.
In New York they stayed at the Plaza Hotel, where Cissy wrote a poem about her recent experience. She kept the White Star badge all her life, but never revealed the identity of her suitor, who was lost when the Titanic sank. Her name was incorrectly spelt as ‘Maloney’ on the list of survivors and it was three weeks before her family in England were assured that she had survived.
In 1919 Cissy married Cunliffe ‘Cliff’ Bolling in Lambeth. They had no children. In 1926 she wrote a personal account of her Titanic experience for a Daily Express short story competition. She suffered from severe arthritis, which she attributed to the exposure in the lifeboat. Cissy died on 17 January, 1963, aged 71. Her written account, poem written in New York and the badge were auctioned in Devizes, Wiltshire, England in February 1999.
Malachard, Jean-Noël, 25. 2nd Class.
He was born on 21 December, 1886, and lived in Paris. He boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg and shared a cabin with René Lévy and another. He made the acquaintance of Marie Jerwan in the opposite cabin. After the collision he and his companions saw her on deck and told her, “We’ll take care of you.”
They helped her into Lifeboat 11, then shouted “Goodbye!” and waved to her as the boat was lowered. It was the last seen of them.
Marechal, Pierre, 28. 1st Class.
He was an aviator and the son of a vice-admiral of the French navy. Marechal came from Paris and boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg. During the evening of 14 April he was playing cards in the Café Parisien with three friends, Alfred Omont, Paul Chevre and Lucien Smith, when the collision occurred.
Marechal, Omont and Chevre were rescued in Lifeboat 7. They later described the ordeal in an article in the Le Matin and The Times. “
Marsden, Evelyn, 28. Stewardess.
Evelyn Marsden (Wikipedia).
Evelyn Marsden was born on 15 October, 1883, at Stockyard Creek, Dalkey, about 80 km north of Adelaide, Australia. By 1912 her father was the station master at Hoyleton, a further 20 km north. As a teenager Evelyn learnt to row on the Murray River by friends at Murray Bridge.
She trained at the Melbourne Hospital, then did a trip by sea to England as a shipboard companion. This induced her to seek a position on the water. She became a stewardess on the Oceanic, Olympic and later the Titanic. She became engaged to a doctor on the Macedonia.
After the ship struck she and May Sloan were given brandy to drink by Dr Simpson. Evelyn escaped on Lifeboat 16. Shortly afterwards she married Dr William James, who also worked for the White Star Line. In November 1912 they returned to Adelaide where he worked at the local hospital. They had no children, but moved to Wallaroo, then to Bondi at Sydney.
Evelyn died on 30 August, 1938, aged 54. A relative said that Dr James arranged to die soon afterwards as he couldn’t live without her. They are buried in Waverley Cemetery, Sydney. A gravestone was erected to mark the site on 5 October, 2000.
Marvin, Daniel Warner, 19. 1st Class.
Marvin (née Farquarson), Mary Graham, 18.
Marvin’s father, Henry Norton Marvin, was the founder of early motion picture production houses. The studios were situated in an old New York City brownstone building on 5th Avenue and 14th Street.
Although Marvin’s marriage to Mary Farquarson wasn’t filmed at the time, it was restaged. The London Daily Mirror reported that it was the first wedding to be ‘cinematographed’. They honeymooned in Europe and returned as first class passengers aboard the Titanic.
While the ship was sinking Marvin assisted Mary to Lifeboat 10 and said, “It’s alright, little girl. You go. I will stay.” Mary was reported as having seen a passenger with a revolver force his way onto a boat and threaten to shoot anyone who interfered. Marvin died in the icy Atlantic. Crowds at the White Star Line in New York included their respective mothers, who learnt that Mary had been saved, but that there was no word of Daniel Marvin.
McCoy, Agnes, 28. 3rd Class.
McCoy, Bernard ‘Barney’, 23.
McCoy, Alicia, 22.
The three siblings came from a large family in County Longford, Ireland. Barney was born on 28 September, 1888. In 1900 Agnes, then 16, had come to New York with brothers William and Patrick and a sister, Mary. Agnes returned to Ireland, then a few years later returned, bringing Barney and Alicia with her on the Titanic. They boarded in Queenstown as third class passengers.
All three were rescued in Lifeboat 16, which held other
Irish steerage passengers such as Anna Kelly. Barney never married and worked in a number of jobs around West New York. He enlisted in the US Army in April 1918 and was discharge over a year later. In 1920 he was naturalised. He later worked in a laundry until his health failed and he was admitted to a Veterans Hospital in the Bronx. He died in 19 July, 1945, aged 56, and was buried in the Long Island National Cemetery.
Agnes died under unexplained circumstances at her apartment on 14 January, 1957, aged 73. Alicia married and had a daughter. She died in New York on 28 December, 1959, aged 69, shortly after the untimely death of her daughter.
McCrae, Arthur Gordon, 32. 2nd Class.
He was born in Adelaide, Australia, on 7 January, 1880. His grandmother was an illegitimate daughter of George, 5th Duke of Gordon and Jane Graham. His father, Farquahar (1838-1915) was a former inspector of the bank of Australasia.
McCrae graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering at Sydney University, then worked at a West Africa goldmine before becoming assistant manager of a copper mine in Siberia. He became engaged to the daughter of the mine manager. He travelled on the Titanic to meet friends in Canada, but died in the sinking. His body was recovered and buried at Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia. A celtic cross was later erected there, the tallest in the Titanic section.
McDermott, Bridget Delia, 28. 3rd Class.
Born in County Mayo, Ireland, Bridget lived in a thatched cottage with her parents. In Spring 1912 she prepared to travel to her cousin, Mary Finnerty, who lived in St Louis, Missouri. Bridget joined the party of 14, led by Katherine McGowan, and purchased a third class ticket on the Titanic.
Before her departure Bridget purchased a pretty red hat for the trip. Her niece later told of a chilling encounter Bridget had, “She was in Lahardine with friends when suddenly a hand tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and there was a little man there whom she thought was a traveller. My aunt went to give the man a few pennies and he told her he knew she was going on a long journey. ‘There will be a tragedy but you will be saved’, the little man said before disappearing”.
When Bridget told her friends about the man, they said that they hadn’t seen anybody. She therefore began her journey with some misgivings. She was asleep when the collision occurred. Bridget was woken by a steward who told her to get dressed and go topside. Officers held passengers back at the companionways under the pretext that things were not ready.
She was among the first to find a lifeboat, then risked her life by returning to her cabin for her smart little red hat. John Bourke and Peter Canavan had previously explored the ship and knew of a ladder that led to the upper decks. They shepherded the women and girls to it and helped them climb. In order to board Lifeboat 13 Bridget had to jump 15 feet from a rope ladder into the boat. They were then picked up by the Carpathia.
Bridget later moved to Jersey City where she met and married a railway man, John Lynch. They had two girls and a boy. She ran a boarding house on Union Street, Jersey City, where she died on 3 November, 1959, aged 75. Bridget is buried in the Holy Name Cemetery. Three other Irish survivors are buried there: Margaret Devaney, Elizabeth Dowdell and Thomas Mc Cormack.
McElroy, Hugh Walter, 37. Purser.
Although his family was originally from Ireland, McElroy was born in Liverpool on 28 October, 1874. He had a brother and two sisters, all staunchly Roman Catholic. When he was 16 he became a student for the priesthood. He joined the White Star Line and earned the Transport Medal during the South African War.
McElroy served on the Majestic and Adriatic under Captain E J Smith. He must have changed his mind about being a priest, for in 1910 he married Barbara Mary Ennis, 32. They went to stay with her father in his rambling ten-room house in County Wexford for a year. They had no children.
He was then was transferred to the Olympic and then the Titanic as chief purser. Besides Bruce Ismay and Captain Smith he was the most popular officer to dine with. Among those he dined with were Arthur Gee, William Harrison, Frederic Seward, Lawrence Beesley, William Stead and Genevieve Cassebeer.
After the collision he assisted First Officer Murdoch. At Collapsible C he fired a revolver into the air twice to dissuade men from rushing the boat. He also assisted in loading Lifeboat 9.
When the water reached C Deck he stood with a group of friends, Dr O’Loughlin, Dr Simpson and Assistant Purser Reg Baker. Lightoller, sweating from his exertion at the boats joined them and Dr Simpson joked, “Hello Lights. Are you warm?” The men shook hands and said goodbye.
Stewardess Annie Robinson saw McElroy and Captain Smith walking toward the mail room. He was last seen on the boat deck near the gymnasium beside Mail Clerk William Logan Gwinn. Neither man survived. McElroy’s body was recovered and he was buried at sea on 22 April, 1912.
McGowan, Katherine, 36. 3rd Class.
McGowan, Anna ‘Annie’, 15.
Katherine was born in Ireland in September 1869. She went to America and lived with a sister in Cleveland, Ohio, then moved to another sister in Chicago, Illinois. After some years Katherine returned to Ireland, where she organized a party of young people from County Mayo to sail with her on the Titanic as third class passengers. Her niece, Annie McGowan had been born on 5 July, 1897, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so was returning to America to be with her aunt, Katherine’s sister, in Chicago.
The group included Katherine and Annie McGowan, Annie Kelly, Bridget McDermott, John, Catherine and Mary Bourke, Patrick and Mary Canavan, James Flynn, Bridget Donohue, Nora Fleming and Mary Mangan. After the collision Bourke and Canavan led the party to a ladder which they had noticed went up to the boat deck.
Most of the party, including Annie were saved on Lifeboat 13. Katherine did not board as she was possibly searching for others of her group.
McNamee, Neal, 27. 3rd Class.
McNamee (nee O’Leary), Eileen, 19.
The son of a farm labourer, he was born at Ruskey, County Donegal, on 29 August, 1884. McNamee worked for Liptons Grocers and Provision Merchants in Salisbury, where he met an employee Eileen O’Leary. The daughter of a sergeant of the Royal Engineers, she had been born in Plymouth on 16 December, 1892, and had moved to Salisbury with her family.
They married on 17 January, 1912, and travelled on the Titanic partly as a honeymoon and partly for McNamee to take up a Liptons appointment in America. Sir Thomas Lipton had himself written a letter of introduction to his general manager in New York.
They both died in the sinking. Eileen’s body was recovered and buried at sea on 22 April, 1912. A bench with a plaque and a tree were placed in their memory in the Winston Churchill Gardens, Salisbury. They were destroyed by vandals and replaced in 1999.
Minahan, William Edward, 44. Doctor, 1st Class.
Minahan (nee Thorpe), Lillian E, 37.
Minahan, Daisy, E, 33.
The son of Irish immigrants, William Minahan was born on 20 April, 1867, while his sister, Daisy, was born in Wisconsin on 9 January, 1879. She became a schoolteacher and lived at Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Lillian moved to Kansas, where she married the portrait painter, Paul Lawrence. Minahan studied medicine and became a prominent doctor in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin. He met Lillian Thorpe, then a widow, in 1903 and they were married soon after. Lillian was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on 7 February, 1875. Along with his sister, they visited his family in Ireland then returned on the Titanic.
Daisy recalled, “I was awoken by the crying of a woman in the passageway.” She believed that the crying woman was Madeleine Astor. Dr Minahan saw his wife and sister safely to Lifeboat 14 and his last words to them were, “Be brave”. They were transferred to Collapsible D during the night.
Minahan’s body was recovered and sent to Green Bay for burial. Daisy never recovered from the ordeal. Within a month she was admitted to a sanatorium in Wood County with pneumonia. She move to Los Angeles about 1918, where she died on 30 April 1919, aged 40.
Lillian also moved to California where, in 1914, she married Dr Lee Kaull. After World War I they moved to Jerome, Arizona, but after his death she returned to live in Hollywood until she married C D Danielson. In 1947 Lillian moved to Laguna Beach, California, where she died in 1962, aged 86.
Molson, Harry Markland, 55. 1st Class.
Harry Molson was born in Montreal, Canada, on 9 August, 1856, the fourth generation of a wealthy family that had made a fortune in beer brewing, building steamships and banking. He was educated from 1873-7 in Paris and Germany.
Molson inherited a fortune when his uncle died. He became a director of Molson’s Bank, Worshipful Master of Quebec’s oldest Masonic Lodge, Alderman of Montreal, Mayor of Dorval, President of the Canadian SPCA, Commodore of the Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club and Governor of the Montreal General Hospital, as well as being a member of various Montreal clubs and of the Athenaeum of London, England.
In 1899 Molson swam away from the sinking Scotsman in the Gulf of St Lawrence. In 1904 the Canada collided with a collier in the St Lawrence River. The Montreal Herald reported , “He jumped through a stateroom window and a short time afterwards was picked up by a lifeboat. As soon as he was rescued from his own predicament he took a very active and helpful part rescuing those in the water.”
Molson was known as a playboy, who loved sailing his yacht, the Alcyone. His cousin, Alexander Morris, with his beautiful wife, Florence Nightingale Morris, were his guests on its maiden voyage. They were extremely close, even sharing Florence’s charms. The liaison or ménage a trois was common knowledge in Montreal. Before leaving for England in February 1912 Molson changed his will, leaving property and money to Florence.
While in England Molson, who was a director of one of Major Arthur Peuchen’s companies, was persuaded by Peuchen to accompany him home on the Titanic. After the collision he was seen removing his shoes in order to swim to a ship, whose lights could be seen in the distance. His body was never found and there is a memorial to him in Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery.
Moody, James Paul, 24. 6th Officer.
James Moody (Wikipedia).
James Moody was born at Scarborough, England, on 21 August, 1887. His grandfather had been the town clerk and his father served on the council. He graduated from a London Nautical School and passed his Masters Examination in 1911. He was living at Grimsby, Lincolnshire, when he transferred from the Oceanic to the Titanic.
Sixth Officer Moody stood the 8 – 12 watches (am and pm) and the 4 – 5 pm Dog Watch. He was thus on the bridge when Lookout Fleet phoned. Moody said to First Officer Murdoch, “Iceberg right ahead.” After the collision he assisted Chief Officer Wilde in filling Lifeboats 12, 14 and 16.
Being among the youngest of the junior officers Moody should have been in command of a boat, however there were too few seamen to do the essential work of loading boats, so he remained to the end, thereby saving many lives. There is a memorial plaque to Moody at the Church of St Martin on the Hill and in Woodland Cemetery, Scarborough.
Moor, Beila, 29. 3rd Class.
Meier, 7.
Born in Russia on 20 May, 1882, she was a tailoress, who married and had a son, Meier, on 15 November, 1904. That year she lost her husband in the war. She and Meier travelled to America but found that the relatives they sought had moved. They returned to England then decided to travel to America on the Titanic.
During the voyage Meier collected cigarette cards featuring cowboys and Indians. After the collision Beila recalled that they were jostled up a staircase onto the Boat Deck, where they managed to board Lifeboat 14. As he watched the ship sink Meier most regretted the loss of his cards! After their rescue by the Carpathia they travelled to Canada, then moved to Chicago. They changed their names to Bella and Meyer and she remarried.
In 1937 Meyer married Henrietta, and due to her arthritis moved to El Paso, Texas. He worked as a jobber, buying merchandise for wholesalers. He was a sociable man who loved parties, but would never go on boat trips. Bella came to live with them and died on 30 January, 1958, aged 75.
As an old man Meyer became a fatalist, declaring that “If you’re born to be hanged, you’ll never be drowned or shot.” He died on 15 April, 1975, aged 70, the 63rd anniversary of the sinking. Other survivors who died on 15 April are Selma Asplund and Bertha Moran. Meyer and his mother are buried in the B’Nai Zion Cemetery, El Paso.
Moore, Clarence Bloomfield, 47. 1st Class.
Moore was born on 1 March, 1865. He lived in Washington having married Mabel Swift, and they had five children. He was a member of a brokers firm in Washington and owned a farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, where he raised horses and cattle. He went to England to purchase fox hounds for the London Hunt. He purchased fifty pairs but they didn’t return with him on the Titanic.
His manservant, Charles Harrington, accompanied him. When the Titanic collided he was playing cards in the smoking room with Major Archibald Butt, Harry Widener and William Carter. He had related stories to them of adventures he’d had in the West Virginia forests and mountains. The group remained pretty well together and he died in the sinking. His widow put in claims, which were limited by US law.
Moore, Leonard Charles, 19. 3rd Class.
He was a bricklayer from Kingston-on-Thames, London, who had emigrated to America with his brother, John, a year before. They lived at Jhooboken, New Jersey. returned to England to visit his mother and on the return journey on the Titanic met his end. His body was not recovered.
Moran, Bertha Bridget, 28. 3rd Class.
Moran, Daniel James, 27.
Miss Moran was born on 9 September, 1883, at Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland. She and her brother, Daniel, 27, were travelling to the Bronx, New York, and boarded the Titanic at Queenstown.
After the sinking Bertha was probably rescued in Lifeboat 16. Daniel was lost. She remained in the United States, married and lived in Michigan. She died on 15 April, 1961, aged 77, one of three survivors known to have died on that auspicious date. The others are Mrs Selma Asplund and Mr Meyer Moor.
Moraweck, Ernest, 54. Doctor, 2nd Class.
He was born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1858 and had a younger sister, Claudine, and brother, Alvin. His family moved to Tell City, Perry County, Indiana where his parents ran a hotel. Moraweck studied medicine and became a world-renowned specialist, well known in Vienna and Berlin. He moved to Frankfort, Kentucky.
Dr Moraweck returned from one of his European trips on the Titanic and shared a dining table with Kate Buss. After the collision he saw Kate and offered to investigate why the engines has stopped. He died in the sinking and left his entire estate to his sister and brother.
Morley, Henry Samuel, 39.
A rich candy store owner, Morley fell in love with his teenage assistant. He left his wife and 12-year-old daughter in England to elope with Kate Phillips, 19, on the Titanic. They boarded as Mr and Mrs Henry Marshall and intended to settle in San Francisco.
. After the ship struck she boarded a lifeboat clutching a diamond necklace which he had given to her as a sign of his undying love. He was lost in the sinking.
Nine months later, in January 1913, Kate gave birth to Ellen in the USA. She eventually returned to her parents and remarried.
A Henry Samuel Morley was purported to have married in Papua, New Guinea, and fathered five children. This is regarded as a good yarn, but no more.
Mulvihill, Bridget Elizabeth ‘Bertha’, 25. 3rd Class.
Bertha had returned to Ireland from the USA to attend a wedding in Athlone. She was returning with a trousseau for her own wedding. Her travelling companions were Eugene and Maggie Daly. The two women were berthed close to the boilers.
After the Titanic hit the iceberg she and Maggie were escorted to Lifeboat 15 by Eugene. Bertha suffered a couple of broken ribs during the evacuation. During the night she was fascinated by a large ice-flow which kept on bumping against the lifeboat.
After reaching New York she was met by her fiancee Henry Noon, a master welder. They married and had five children. Following the book ‘A Night to Remember’ she was featured in the Providence Journal in 1956. Bertha died on 15 October 1959, aged 73, and was buried at St Francis Cemetery, Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Murdoch, William McMaster, 39. 1st Officer.
'Will' McMaster Murdoch (Wikipedia).
He was born at Dalbeattie, Dumfries, Scotland, on 28 February, 1873. After serving on sailing ships he joined the White Star Line and served on the Australian run and later the Atlantic run, including the Arabic, Adriatic, Oceanic, Olympic and finally the Titanic. Shortly before sailing day he was replaced as chief officer by Henry Wilde of the Olympic, causing him to become first officer and Lightoller second officer.
Murdoch was on the bridge when the lookout, Fleet, reported an iceberg ahead. He issued instructions to the helmsman, Hichens, and reversed the engines, but the giant ship grazed the berg and sealed its fate. He then worked diligently in loading boats on the starboard side. Where there was room after all women and children were loaded he allowed men to board, unlike Lightoller who allowed women and children only. Murdoch died in the sinking and his body was never recovered. Any inference that he committed suicide, as shown in Cameron’s film, has been vehemently denied by his family.
Murphy, Margaret Jane ‘Mary or Maggie’, 25. 3rd Class.
Murphy, Catherine ‘Kate’, 18.
The Murphy sisters came from County Longford, Ireland. Margaret was born on 24 September, 1886, and Kate on 13 September, 1893. Their father had died and their mother was sickly, so the oldest brother was head of the family. He was overbearing and allowed them little latitude. As they had two sisters and a brother living in America they wanted to go and live there, but he refused to allow it.
Their neighbours, the Kiernans, bought third class tickets for themselves on the Titanic, then secretly did the same for the sisters. Margaret and Kate pretended that they planned to see them off on their journey, then boarded the Titanic at Queenstown as third class passengers. They shared a cabin on E Deck with Kate Gilnagh, 17, and Kate Mullen, 21.
On the night of the collision the Kiernans came and told them what had happened. On the way to the lifeboats the four girls were held up at a locked gate by an intransigent crewman. James Farrell shouted, “Great God, man! Open the gate and let the girls through!” The crewman relented and they all managed to reach and board Lifeboat 16. Their neighbours, the Kiernans, and James Farrell did not survive.
On arriving in New York they were sent to St Vincent’s Hospital to recuperate. Their siblings, Patrick Annie and Bridget, then collected them. They sent a cable to inform their mother that they had survived.
Margaret settled in New York, where she married Matthew O’Reilly. They had three children, Margaret, Matthew and Ann. Her husband died on 15 April, 1939, 27 years to the day since the Titanic sank. Margaret died while on holiday at the family summer house in northern New York state on 29 September, 1957, aged 71. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York City.
Kate married a Mr Guilfoyle and had three children, Marie, Michael and Rita. Unlike her sister Margaret, Kate didn’t like to discuss the Titanic. She died in 1968, aged 74.
Nakid, Sahid, 20. 3rd Class.
Nakid (nee Mowad), Waika ‘Mary’, 19.
Maria, 18 months.
Sahid Nakim was born in Syria in 1891, while Mary Mowad was born in Lebanon on 18 November, 1892. They married and had a daughter Maria in May 1910. They boarded the Titanic in Cherbourg, intending to travel to Waterbury, Connecticut. During the sinking they managed to escape in Collapsible C.
They had a tragedy later when Maria contracted meningitis and died on 30 July, 1912, thus becoming the first Titanic survivor to die. She is buried in an unmarked grave at the Calvary Cemetery in Waterbury.
The couple had another daughter, Catherine, and four sons. Sahid died of tuberculosis on 30 December, 1926, aged 35. Mary died of pneumonia on 23 January, 1963, aged 70, and is buried alongside Sahid in the Calvary Cemetery.
Navratil. Michel. 2nd Class.
Michel Marcel, 3.
Edmond Roger, 2.
Born in Slovakia, he moved to Hungary then to Nice, France, where he worked as a tailor. On 26 May 1907 Navratil married Marcelle Caretto in London and they had two sons in Nice, Michel (Lolo born 12 June, 1908) and Edmond (Momon born 5 March, 1910). In 1912 his business had major problems and he accused Marcelle of having an affair. They separated and the boys went with Marcelle.
Navratil collected his sons at Easter, then disappeared with them. He booked second class passages on the Titanic under assumed names, Louis M Hoffman (who had helped him to leave France) and sons Loto and Louis. Passengers believed that his wife was dead. A Swiss girl, Bertha Lehmann, who spoke French but no English, baby-sat for him on occasion.
While the ship sank he and a friend dressed the boys. Michel recalled, “My father entered our cabin where we were sleeping. He dressed me very warmly and took me in his arms. A stranger did the same for my brother. When I think of it now, I am very moved. They knew they were going to die.”
They took them to Collapsible D, where Second Officer Lightoller was allowing only women and children through. Navratil said to Michel, “My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World.”
Navratil died when the Titanic sank. His body was recovered with a revolver in his pocket. As he had used a Jewish surname he was interred in the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery. Michel recalled being hauled aboard the Carpathia in a burlap bag. “I thought it was extremely incorrect to be in a burlap bag.” The boys were sheltered in the New York home of Margaret Hays under auspices of the Children’s Aid Society. They were the only children not claimed and dubbed ‘The Orphans of the Titanic’, until Marcelle recognised them from newspaper articles. The White Star Line brought her to America where she was reunited with them. They returned to France on the Oceanic.
Michel went to University and in 1933 married a fellow student. He became a professor of psychology and lived at
Michel Navratil (Wikipedia).
Montpellier, near Nice. In 1987, to mark the 75th anniversary of the sinking, he visited America. On 27 August, 1996, he visited his father’s grave in Halifax. He was the last living male survivor and died on 30 January, 2001, aged 92.
Edmond became an interior decorator, then an architect and builder. He was married. During World War Two he fought in the French Army and was captured by the Germans. He managed to escape from the POW camp, but his health suffered and he died in 1953, aged 43. His mother, Marcelle, died in 1974.
Newell, Arthur Webster, 58. 1st Class.
Madeleine, 31
Marjorie Anne, 23.
Arthur Newell was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on 30 January, 1854. He proved to be a brilliant student and went on to work in a Boston bank. On 11 October, 1877, he married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Greeley, and they had three daughters: Madeleine on 10 October, 1880, Alice in 1882 and Marjorie on 12 February, 1889. In 1888 he moved with his family to Lexington, Mass, where he had a large house on a gentleman’s farm.
A member of the Hancock Congregational Church, he was strictly fair in his dealing with all. Although outwardly puritanical he had a kind and affectionate nature. In 1897 he was elected chairman of the Fourth National Bank. He played the cello, his wife the piano and he had his daughters take violin lessons. Madeleine and Alice attended Smith College, while Marjorie, who was not academically inclined, preferred music.
In 1909 Newell took his family on a three month tour of Europe. In 1912 he decided to repeat the trip. As a student of the bible he specially wished to visit Egypt and Israel, the Holy Land. His wife and daughter Alice were not up to the trip, so he took his daughters Madeleine and Marjorie. They spent three months visiting the Middle East, which impressed him tremendously. They then travelled via Marseilles to Cherbourg where they boarded the Titanic as first class passengers.
Every evening the girls would play their violins in their cabin for about an hour. At dinner on the evening of the 14th Marjorie marvelled at the beautiful gowns that ladies wore, “I had been given my first long train gown before I left home, and I took great pleasure in wearing it that night.” A woman who was sitting next to Marjorie said to her, “Don’t you think the ship is going too fast? We are in the icebergs and I think we should slow down.”
The Newells retired at 10.30 pm. Marjorie recalled being awakened by the collision. Shortly afterwards Newell knocked at the door and said, “Get up, girls, and get dressed. Put on your warmest clothes and follow me.” When they reached the Boat Deck they saw a lifeboat being lowered. He led them to Lifeboat 6 and told them that they would need to get into a lifeboat and row around until the damage was fixed, then added “It does seem more dangerous for you to get into that boat than to remain here with me here, but we must obey orders.” The last they saw of him was stepping back to help other women into the boat.
Madeleine recalled, “From about a mile away we saw the Titanic sink. From the time we left her she was sinking slowly at the head but began to sink faster. The water got into the engine room for we heard a terrific explosion. The stern of the Titanic lifted way out of the water and the ship’s keel showed. The tipping of the vessel threw everybody towards the bow and the ship went to the bottom.”
The Carpathia arrived a few hours later and the Newell sisters climbed its rope ladders. They went in search of their father, but to no avail. Their mother and sister were too emotional to meet them at the pier, so they met at a hotel. Marjorie said, “As Madeleine and I stepped out in the hall of the corridor where mother was waiting for us, she had her arms outstretched and anxious to embrace what she hoped would be three people. When she just saw Madeleine and me, she let out a terrible scream.”
Newell’s body was found and buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. His wife never remarried and spent her life in mourning, sleeping with his watch under her pillow. She died in November, 1957, aged 103. Neither Alice nor Madeleine ever married. They both died in Lexington, Madeleine in April, 1969, aged 88, and Alice in July, 1972, aged 90.
Marjorie married Floyd Robb in 1917 and had three daughters and a son, the latter named Arthur Newell Robb. She became a music instructor, specialising in the violin and piano. From 1920 to 1950 she lived at South Orange, NJ, and eventually became a founder member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She returned to Massachusetts and moved to Fall River in 1990.
After her mother and sisters had passed away Marjorie began to speak of the Titanic. At the age of 97 she addressed audiences on the subject, “I’ll never forget the screams of the drowning. It was absolutely terrible.” She would regain her composure, as she spoke out of respect and honour for her lost father. She died in her sleep on 11 June, 1992, aged 103, the last of the first class survivors. She is buried with her family at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.
Newsom, Helen Monypeny, 19. 1st Class. (Pic in Commutator 176 p219 &225)
She was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 30 December, 1892, to Logan and Sallie Newsom. She had a brother, William. After her father died her mother remarried Richard Beckwith. She boarded the Titanic with her mother and stepfather at Cherbourg. By ‘coincidence’ a former classmate and champion tennis player, Karl Behr, was aboard. He had been pursuing her despite her mother’s disapproval – hence the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe.
They were all rescued in Lifeboat 5. Some newspapers reported that Behr had proposed to her in the lifeboat. They were married in the Church of Transfiguration, New York, in March 1913 and had four children: Karl, Peter, James and Sally. After Behr’s death in 1949 Helen married one of his best friends and tennis partners, Dean Mathey (1890-1972). She died at Princeton, New Jersey, on 7 September, 1965, aged 72. She is buried in a private family plot.
Nicola-Yared, Jamilia ‘Amelia Garret’, 14. 3rd Class.
Nicola-Yarred, Elias ‘Louis Garrett’, 12.
Jamilia was born on 15 April, 1898, and lived at Al Hakur, a mountain village about 85 miles north of Beirut, Lebanon. Her father, Nicholas, was the village miller. They decided to emigrate to the United States. Mother and two daughters left in 1904. They were joined by a son, Isaac, in 1906 and moved to Jacksonville.
In March 1912 Nicholas, Jamilia and her 12-year-old brother, left for Marseilles, where due to an eye infection, Nicholas had to stay behind. Jamilia and Elias then journeyed to Cherbourg, where they boarded the Titanic order to travel to Jacksonville, Florida. Some of their family were still in Lebanon.
After the collision she felt a bump, then asked her brother to investigate. He wasn’t interested but she insisted. They followed others to the Boat deck Jamilia then remembered the $500 her father had given her for the trip, so returned to their cabin, which was probably in the bow. They found water in the passageway, which prevented them from opening the door, so they returned to the Boat Deck, where they were allowed to board Collapsible C.
After arriving in New York they were taken to Nova Scotia by their uncle, until their father arrived from France a month later. The family then went to Jacksonville, where their names were anglicised, Jamilia to Amelia Garret and Elias to Louis Garret.
Jamilia married Isaac Isaac, a Jacksonville grocer, when she was 16 and they had seven children. He died in 1942. In 1953 Jamilia attended the Clifton Webb movie Titanic, held in her honour at the Florida theatre. She died on 8 March, 1970, aged 72, and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville. Elias died in Atlanta, Georgia, on 31 May, 1981, aged 81. Their story and photographs appear in the Titanic Commutator (Vol 12 No 1 1988).
Norman, Robert Douglas, 28. 2nd Class.
He came from Glasgow, where he had worked as an engineer for AEG Electric Company. On Sunday evening he played the piano at Rev Ernest Carter’s service, at which Marion Wright sang.
After the collision Norman told Marion and Kate Buss that the ship had struck an iceberg, but that there was no danger. He later escorted them to a lifeboat but wasn’t allowed to board despite Kate’s pleas. He died and his body was recovered by the MacKay Bennett. Norman was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Nye, Elizabeth, 29. 2nd Class.
Elizabeth Ramell was born in Folkestone, Kent, on 27 May, 1882, the daughter of a Salvation Army bandsman. Her first sweetheart was washed off the Folkestone Pier and drowned. On 26 December, 1904, she married Edward Nye, 24. They had a daughter, Maisie, who died aged nine months in 1906. They moved to live in New York about 1909, Edward died there, aged 30, on 22 May 1911.
Elizabeth returned to England to visit her parents and was due to return to America aboard the Philadelphia, but the sailing was cancelled due to the coal strike and she was transferred to the Titianic. She shared Cabin F33 with Mildred Brown, Selena Rogers Cook and Amelia Lemore.
After the collision she was in Lifeboat 11 when apparently baby Frank Aks was tossed to her and she wrapped him in a steamer blanket. She suffered from exposure and was later awarded $200 for an operation.
Elizabeth settled back in New York, where she married the Salvation Army Colonel George Darby, who had been born in England in 1883. They had a son, George Ray Darby (1915-79) who married Kathleen James (died 2004) and had two children. Colonel George Darby and Elizabeth supported the Salvation Army in America and England.
Elizabeth died on 22 November, 1963, aged 81, and was interred at Kensico Cemetery (Salvation Army Section) Valhalla, New York. George Darby died on 7 May, 1968.
The story of the great Titanic is heart-touching and i have sympathy with those who died in this incident. There was surely some mistakes resulting to sank the Titanic