Millvina Dean

Who Was Millvina Dean?

Millvina Dean, born Elizabeth Gladys Dean, was the youngest survivor of the RMS Titanic disaster. At just nine weeks old, she was aboard the ill-fated ship with her parents, Bertram and Georgetta (Ettie), and her older brother, Bertram Jr. When the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, Millvina became the youngest passenger to survive the tragedy. In her later years, she participated in various Titanic-related events, particularly after the shipwreck’s discovery, becoming a prominent figure in the historical narrative surrounding the disaster. Millvina Dean passed away at the age of 97, making her the last living survivor of the Titanic sinking.

Early Life

Millvina Dean was born on February 2, 1912, in London, England. Her parents, Bertram and Georgetta Dean, made the decision to emigrate to Wichita, Kansas, where they hoped to establish a tobacco shop with the support of family and friends. Originally, the Dean family, including Millvina’s older brother Bertram, who was born in 1910, had booked passage on another White Star liner, likely the Adriatic. However, due to a coal strike, they were given the opportunity to board the maiden voyage of the luxurious Titanic. The family embarked as third-class passengers from Southampton on April 10, 1912.

On the fateful night of April 14, while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Millvina’s parents felt the ship collide with an iceberg. Her father left the cabin to investigate the situation and returned with urgent instructions for his wife to dress their sleeping children and proceed to the deck.

The Titanic Tragedy

Millvina Dean, her mother, and brother were among the first steerage passengers to escape the sinking RMS Titanic, finding refuge in Lifeboat 10. After drifting for some time, they were rescued by the RMS Carpathia, which had responded to Titanic’s distress signals. The family arrived safely in New York City on April 18, 1912.

Ultimately, 705 individuals survived the disaster; however, Millvina’s father, Bertram Frank Dean, a 25-year-old, was among the approximately 1,500 who perished. Like many men aboard the ill-fated vessel, he chose to remain on the ship, meeting his fate when it sank in the early hours of April 15. His body was never identified, if recovered at all.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Millvina’s mother initially intended to continue to Kansas to fulfill her husband’s dream of starting a new life in America. However, faced with the challenges of being widowed and caring for two small children, she decided to return home. Following a two-week stay in a New York hospital, Millvina, her mother, and brother sailed back to England aboard the Adriatic. As a survivor of the Titanic disaster, Millvina garnered considerable attention during the voyage home. Passengers frequently lined up to hold her, and many photographs were taken of the family, some of which were subsequently published in newspapers.

The Daily Mirror reported on May 12, 1912, that Millvina was “the pet of the liner during the voyage,” noting the rivalry among passengers to nurse her, leading one officer to limit the time each passenger could hold her to ten minutes.

Life After the Wreck

Millvina and her brother were raised with the support of various charitable organizations dedicated to helping Titanic survivors. It wasn’t until she was eight years old, during her mother’s engagement to remarry, that Millvina learned of her family’s connection to the Titanic tragedy.

Millvina never married. During World War II, she contributed to the British government by drawing maps. Following the war, she worked in the purchasing department of a Southampton engineering firm until her retirement in 1972.

Over the years, Millvina gained a level of fame from her association with the Titanic. Initially reluctant to embrace the spotlight, she eventually accepted her role in the ship’s storied history. In her later years, Millvina traveled extensively to attend Titanic-related events, demonstrating her resilience and lack of fear of the sea by crossing the Atlantic on the renowned Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1997.

That same year, James Cameron released his Academy Award-winning film about the 1912 sinking, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Despite her father’s tragic loss during the disaster, Millvina reportedly never watched the film in its entirety.

Tragically, her older brother passed away on April 14, 1992—exactly 80 years after the Titanic struck the iceberg.

Memories of the Titanic

Despite the passage of time, Millvina carried the pain of her father’s loss throughout her life. At the age of 95, she publicly criticized the BBC for “poking fun” at the Titanic tragedy in a Doctor Who Christmas special in December 2007. “The Titanic was a tragedy that tore so many families apart,” she stated from her nursing home. “I lost my father, and he lies on that wreck. I think it is disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy.”

Millvina became the last living survivor of the Titanic on October 16, 2007, following the death of Barbara West Dainton, who passed away at age 96. The last American survivor, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died in Massachusetts on May 6, 2006, at the age of 99.

Death

Millvina Dean, the final survivor of the Titanic, passed away on May 31, 2009, at the age of 97 in a nursing home near Southampton, England. Coincidentally, her passing occurred on the 98th anniversary of the launch of the Titanic’s hull on May 31, 1911.