Chip Chick
Millvina and her brother could go to school as kids after receiving some money from the Titanic Relief Fund that was established to support survivors. Millvina’s mother chose not to tell her details about their time on the Titanic until she remarried and Millvina was 8-years-old.
Because she was such a young infant when she boarded the Titanic, Millvina told reporters for the Associated Press that the biggest impact it had on her life was that she remained an English woman instead of becoming an American woman.
When Millvina was older, she attended secretarial school and worked as a mapmaker for the British Army in London during WWII. After the war, she moved back to Southampton, where she worked as a secretary in an engineering firm. She never married or had children of her own. Her mother, Eva Georgette, passed away in 1975 at 96. Her brother, Bertram, passed away in 1992.
She avoided talking about her experience on the Titanic to the public until 1987 when she attended a memorial service for the 75th anniversary of the sinking in Southampton. Then, everyone wanted to know more about her. So Millvina began attending more Titanic-related events and started agreeing to interviews about her life.
I’m sure you’re wondering if she ever saw the iconic 1997 film Titanic. Well, she was invited to a screening along with England’s Prince Charles but declined to go. The tragic depiction of the ship sinking and the passengers struggling to survive would have made her think too much about her father and what he had to endure.
Millvina continued attending Titanic-related events until the 1990s and even got the opportunity to successfully travel from Southampton to New York City in 1998 aboard the reputable ship, the Queen Elizabeth II.
In the early 2000s, Millvina sadly broke her hip, so to raise funds for a decent care home to live in, she auctioned off some of her family’s Titanic memorabilia, including one of their suitcases that they brought on the ship that sold for over $18,000.
The two stars of the Titanic film, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, also donated money to help with Millvina’s care home fees. In May 2009, Millvina died in a care home in Ashurst, Hampshire, England. Not only did she make history as the last living Titanic survivor, but she led a great life.
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