Service for last Titanic survivor

Advertisement

Millvina Dean's ashes were scattered on the water from where Titanic set sail

The ashes of a woman who became the last survivor of the Titanic have been scattered following a memorial service.

Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the liner sank after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton on 15 April 1912.

Miss Dean died in a care home in Hampshire on 31 May at the age of 97.

Miss Dean's ashes were scattered from a small launch on the water of berth 43/44 at Southampton Docks, the terminal from which the ship set sail.

Miss Dean's partner Bruno Nordmanis scattered the ashes accompanied by a small group of friends and relatives and the port's chaplain, the Reverend Andrew Huckett.

It followed a service at St Mary's Church in Copythorne, Hampshire, on Saturday morning.

Youngest passenger

The disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, largely due to the lack of lifeboats on board.

Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the Titanic sank

Miss Dean had been travelling with her family in third class from Southampton to America where they hoped to start a new life and open a tobacconist's shop in Kansas City.

Miss Dean's mother, Georgetta, and two-year-old brother, Bert, also survived but her father, Bertram, was among those who perished when the vessel sank.

Elizabeth Gladys Dean, better known as Millvina, was the Titanic's youngest passenger when her family boarded the liner.

Another baby on board, Barbara Joyce West, was nearly 11 months old when the vessel sank. She also survived.

Barbara Joyce Dainton, as she became when she married, died in October 2007, leaving Miss Dean the last Titanic survivor.