My second book about the RMS Titanic and her passengers and crew along with some movie talk. Same rules apply, no drama, trolls, and disrespecting the people on this ship
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February 3rd, 1882 - Unknown
She is a Aquarius.
Elizabeth Anne Wilkinson was born at Hadfield Street in Newton Heath, Manchester, England and was baptized in St Anne's church on March 15th, 1882. She was the daughter of William Wilkinson (born 1855), a wheelwright originally from Dochdale, and Mary Anne Jordan (born 1847) of Bradford who had married in St Barnabas' Church, Miles Plattinng, Manchester on December 30th, 1877. The youngest of the 2 children was Elizabeth's older brother William (born 1880). Lizzie and her family appear on the 1891 census living at Mount Street in Swinton, Manchester, her father having switched career to that of a paper dealer. By the time of the 1901 census the Wilkinsons were still living in Swinton although now at ClarendonRoad and Elizabeth, then at the age of 18, had no stated profession.
In Salford on May 20th, 1907 Lizzie married Manchester-born Samuel Wilkinson (July 4th, 1882), who, like her father, was a paper dealer. Samuel was the son of Frederick and Mary Ann Wilkinson and his father, like Lizzie's own father, hailed from Rochdale and there's a possibility that she and Samuel were 2nd cousins. The marriage between Lizzie and Samuel produced no children and by the time of the 1911 census they lived at Oldham Road, Failsworth (between Oldham and Manchester).
Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912: At some point Lizzie crossed paths with Lincolnshire-born Harry Bartram Faunthorpe (born 1880), am unmarried furniture salesman; although the circumstances of their meeting are unknown they became lovers and presumedly hatched a clandestine plan to run off and live as a couple. Lizzie boarded the RMS Titanic as a 2nd class passenger, posing as the new wife of Harry; they told fellow passengers they planned to honeymoon in California.
'She was asleep, she says, at the time of the collision, but awakened by the shock. When she rushed upon deck she was ordered into a lifeboat, but feared to trust herself in one of the frail craft. While officers with drawn revolvers issued their orders, one of the men, she says, forced her bodily into the second boat.'— The Evening Telegraph, 26 April 1912
Lizzie survived the sinking but which lifeboat she escaped in is uncertain. She said that officers with drawing guns forced her into the '2nd boat'. Edwina Troutt mentions her being with her, but there's uncertainty over which boat Troutt was in (possibly collaspable D one one of the aft lifeboats). Harry was among the lost and his body was later recovered and among his belongings aaa jewellery valued at $1000.
After The Sinking/Later Life/Death: After arriving in New York Lizzie went to her cousin John M. Devine at Brooklyn Street, Philadelphia where she spent several weeks recuperating from shock. According to the Red Cross Harry's body was sent to Lizzie after it was recovered and he was buried at Mount Peace Cemetery, Philadelphia on May 11th, 1912; she later received $600 from various American reliefs funds. In August of 1912 the Toronto Daily Star reported that Lizzie launched a lawsuit against the White Star Line, suing for $10,000 for the loss of Harry.
The American Red Cross report states that Lizzie's lie had been uncovered and she had a husband back in Manchester who, reportedly, accepted her back. She subsequently returned to England to face Samuel. What became of Lizzie and Samuel's marriage isn't clear there is speculation that they eventually divorced and remarried.
