Eliza Gladys Dean (2 February 1912 – 31 May 2009), known as Millvina Dean, was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 until her death in 2009. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.
Family Dean was born at Culverwell House in Branscombe, on the south coast of Devon, England, on 2 February 1912, to Bertram Frank Dean (1886–1912) and Georgette Eva Light (1879–1975). She had an older brother, Bertram Vere Dean, born 21 May 1910. She never married and had no children. Her father died on the Titanic; her mother died on 16 September 1975, aged 96; and her brother died on 14 April 1992, aged 81, the 80th anniversary of the iceberg collision. Millvina Dean's father, Bertram Dean, was born and grew up in Branscombe. He moved to London as an adult, where he married Millvina's mother, Ettie. The couple owned and ran a public house in London for several years.
Aboard the Titanic In 1912, the Deans decided to leave the United Kingdom and emigrate to the United States; they were planning to relocate to Wichita, Kansas, where Bertram had relatives, and he planned to become a stakeholder in a tobacconist's shop that his cousin owned. Bertram sold the pub and purchased a third class ticket for his family, costing £20 11s 6d, equivalent to £2,032.4 in 2025. Before leaving the United Kingdom, the Deans paid a visit to Branscombe to say goodbye to their family, and while there, Ettie Dean gave birth to Millvina. The Deans were not originally supposed to be on board the Titanic, but due to a coal strike, they, along with many other passengers, were transferred onto the Titanic and boarded as third-class passengers at Southampton, England. Dean was nine weeks old when she boarded the ship. Her father felt its collision with the iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912 and, after investigating, returned to his cabin, telling his wife to dress the children and go up onto the deck. Dean, her mother, and her brother were placed in Lifeboat 10. Her father did not survive, and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
Return to the United Kingdom
As was the case with many of Titanic's immigrant widows, Ettie Dean surrendered any notion of remaining in the United States once it was clear her husband had not been saved. In the 2000 PBS documentary Lost Liners, in giving her account of the disaster, Millvina described the state her mother was in during the aftermath of the disaster:
[W]e stayed in a hospital for two or three weeks for my mother to recover a little bit, and then we came back to England; because we had nothing, we had no clothes, we had no money and of course she was so broken-hearted, she just wanted to get home. The White Star Line offered Ettie and her children passage back to England aboard RMS Adriatic. While aboard the ship, Dean attracted considerable attention. An article in the Daily Mirror dated 12 May 1912 described the ordeal:
[She] was the pet of the liner during the voyage, and so keen was the rivalry between women to nurse this lovable mite of humanity that one of the officers decreed that first and second class passengers might hold her in turn for no more than ten minutes. Dean attended the Gregg School in Southampton. In her younger years she did not know that she had been on the Titanic, and only found out when she was eight when her mother became engaged. Dean worked for the British government during World War II by drawing maps, and later served in the purchasing department of a Southampton engineering firm. She worked there as a secretary until her retirement in 1972.
Later years It was not until Dean was in her seventies that she became involved in Titanic-related events. Over the years, she participated in numerous conventions, exhibitions, documentaries, radio and television interviews, and personal correspondence. In 1995, Millvina flew to New York City to attend a conference of RMS Titanic, Inc. and the Titanic International Society. One of the highlights while attending the conference, officers of both organizations hosted Millvina and her escort at the Windows on the World restaurant, located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. In 1997, Dean sailed to New York, along with several members of the Titanic Historical Society, aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2). After a few days in New York, she travelled to Kansas City, and visited the house that her uncle owned, where her family was going to settle. Several of her uncle's descendants met her for the first time. In 1998, she travelled to the United States to participate in a Titanic convention in Springfield, Massachusetts, and another in 1999 in Montreal, Quebec. She had also been scheduled to appear at a commemoration of the 94th anniversary of the sinking in 2006, but a broken hip prevented her appearance. She also appeared in the History special Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces. Her brother Bertram, who had been a carpenter, also became active in Titanic-related commemorations until his death at the age of 81. Coincidentally, Bertram died on 14 April 1992, the 80th anniversary of the sinking. Dean staunchly refused to see James Cameron's film Titanic (1997). She recalled having nightmares after seeing A Night to Remember (1958), the film based on Walter Lord's book with the same title, and did not wish to imagine her father as one of the people in the crowd of passengers stranded on the sinking liner. She declined invitations to the premieres of Titanic and Ghosts of the Abyss (2003). In December 2007, she criticised the BBC and its television programme Doctor Who for including an episode with a starship "cruise liner" called the Titanic which was similar in appearance to the historical liner. Speaking from her nursing home, she said: "The Titanic was a tragedy which tore so many families apart. I lost my father and he lies on that wreck. I think it is disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy." A spokeswoman for the show said: "No offence was intended. 'Voyage of the Damned' is set on a spaceship called The Titanic and not a boat."
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