RMS Titanic Book 2

Annie Caton

February 12th, 1879 - May 28th, 1947

She is a Aquarius.

Annie Caton was born in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England to Charles George Caton (1849 - 1895) and Mary Ann Wheldon (1851 - 1923), both Middlesex-natives who had married on January 20th, 1872 and their marriage registered in Holborn. Annie was one of 12 children born to her parents with 10 living last infancy. Her siblings were: John Wheldon (December 2nd, 1872), Mary Ann (June 3rd, 1874), Elizabeth Emily (December 13th, 1875), Charles William (October 12th, 1877), Alice (December 12th, 1879), William Robert (1882 - 1885), Herbert Frederick (August 18th, 1884), William Gustave (February 10th, 1886), Edith May (June 13th, 1888), Wheldon Frederick (born 1890), and Dorothy Ellen (1894 - 1894).

On the 1881 census Annie and her family were living at Warren Street, Clerkenwell, Middlesex and her father was described as a fishing rod maker. In 1882, at the same address, she was listed as having been enrolled at the White Lion Street school for her primary education. By the time of the 1891 census the family were living in Islington, Annie then described as a scholar and her father still in the same profession. On the 1901 census Annie was living with her family—her father by then having passed on—at Essex, Road, Islington. By the time of the 1911 census Annie, spuriously giving her age as 28, was listed with her family at Highbury Hill, Islington. She was listed as unmarried and her profession as a massainere (masseuse).

Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912:
When she signed onto the RMS Titanic on April 9th, 1912 Annie gave her address as Highbury Hill, Islington. The Titanic was her first ship, and as a Turkish Bath stewardess, she received monthly wages of £4 and worked alongside Maude Slocombe.

Annie survived the sinking, some researchers placing her in lifeboat 11 but wasn't required to give advice to either the British or American inquiries into the sinking. She and numerous other female crew survivors were pictured together at Plymouth (note at foot).

After The Sinking/Later Life/Death:
During her crossing from the USA to Britain aboard the Lapland Annie penned a letter to Charles, then a resident of Norman Road in St Leonard-on-Sea, Sussex; it's reprinted in the Hastings And St Leonard Observer on May 4th, 1912. Annie continued a career at sea, later working on the RMS Adriatic. Just before the closing of WWI in 1918 Annie, although unmarried, gave birth to a daughter, Annie Mary Constance; the father of this child is unknown. 

Following the war Annie worked aboard the SS Majestic on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on May 10th, 1922. 
Returning to England briefly, she and her daughter boarded the Beltana in August of 1924, bound for a new life in Australia. Their London address was stated as Yerbury Road, Holloway. She married shopkeeper William Richard Howland in Clarence Town, New South Wales in 1930 and they made their home at Berner St, Merewether, Newcastle. Over the years Annie frequently gave interviews about her experiences on Titanic to the local media, describing how her memories were still very fresh despite the passage of time.

Widowed in 1944 Annie remained in Merewether. Following a battle with cancer, Annie died on May 28th, 1947 in Merewether Newcastle, New South Wales. She was cremated and her ashes lie at Newcastle Memorial Park. Her estate was divided through Mary and Mary Ann. Mary Ann, better known as Marie, was married in 1945, becoming Mrs. Vernon Alfred Walsh. She worked as a teacher and was still living in Lang, New South Wales in 1980. Annie's Certificate of Discharge was sold in auction at Christie's, London on December 31st, 2002 for £6,463 ($10,075). A silver fob watch which had belonged to Annie was sold in auction by Bonhams, London in March of 2005 for $1560.  

Sources:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

Rest In Peace Annie Caton.