Millvina Dean was a baby of nine weeks old when the liner sank

The voice on the tape sounds like it comes from another century. And the truth is it does. It belongs to Miss Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of RMS Titanic, then aged 97. I made the recording of our conversation on May 13, 2009 in a Southampton nursing home. Eighteen days later Millvina passed away. I didn’t realise it when I spoke to her, but it was to be the last interview she would do.

Millvina didn’t seem like a woman near the end. Apart from a troublesome cough, which bothered her occasionally, she was full of her customary sharp wit and even sharper observations. Her warm, indefatigable personality filled the entire room. When I addressed her as Miss Dean she immediately picked me up on it. “What? Are you calling me Miss Dean? Call me Millvina, that’s my name!”

It’s an unusual name, I said. “I like it,” said Millvina. “In the book that’s written about me they called it my pet name. But it’s my real name! Everyone imagines it’s a nickname. I hear it from so many people — Miss ‘Millvina’ Dean — in inverted commas. I was so annoyed. I’ll have to announce it on the internet. This is me, Millvina Dean. No inverted commas.”

Indefatigably glamorous in a silver-white wig, scarlet lipstick and a pair of black velvet trousers, Millvina then launched into an anecdote about an over-keen admirer. As the last survivor of the disaster and thus the last living connection with the ship, Millvina was a person of remarkable interest to collectors, who treated her as something of a holy relic.

Everyone wanted a piece of her, sometimes literally. On this occasion a man had written to her asking for a lock of her hair for which he was willing to pay £100. Millvina agreed, chopping off a lock, tying it with a piece of red ribbon, and sending it off in the post. “Two days after, £100 arrived!” recounted Millvina gleefully. “Most extraordinary! I was the only one who believed in him. The next day the doctor came, so I said: ‘Would you like a lock of my hair for five pounds? Special offer’. He thought it was quite uproarious.”

Millvina Dean was the youngest passenger on the most famous ship in history. Just a nine-week-old baby in her mother’s arms when Titanic set sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912, Millvina was so tiny that when the ship struck the iceberg she had to be lifted into a lifeboat in a postal sack.

The young family — mother Eva, father Bertram, and their two children Millvina and Bertram junior — had boarded Titanic as third-class passengers, emigrating to a new life in Kansas. Later Eva told Millvina how they felt the impact of the iceberg as it ripped into the ship’s hull just before midnight on Sunday, April 14.

“They heard a tremor, a tremendous noise, and my father said: ‘I’ll go up on deck to find out what has happened’. He came back and said: ‘Apparently the ship has struck an iceberg. Get the children out of bed and on deck as quick as possible’. And I think that’s what saved us. So many people said: ‘The ship won’t sink, it’s unsinkable’, so they didn’t care. But not my father.”

Millvina’s father died in the tragedy, and at first it seemed as if her brother was lost, too. “My brother was under two,” she said. “My mother got in the lifeboat and found she had me but not him. But she couldn’t do anything about it. It was a bitterly cold night. She had to keep me warm. Anyhow, when we were picked up by the Carpathia (the ship that answered Titanic’s distress call), there he was. He’d been lifted off by another passenger. That must have been an absolutely lovely thing for my mother.”

Afterwards Eva did not talk about what had happened for a very long time. “My mother would never speak of it, because it was her husband and they were only married four years. He was strikingly handsome. I didn’t know anything about it until I was eight years old. And then my mother got married again. That’s when I first heard about the Titanic, and about my father going down, everything like that.

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General Photographic Agency Survivors of the Titanic disaster are greeted by their relatives upon their safe return to Southampton. Hulton Archive Florette Guggenheim (nee Seligman 1870 - 1937, right) and her brother James de Witt Seligman at the offices of the White Star shipping line in New York, April 1912. The pair are waiting to enquire about the welfare of Guggenheim's husband, American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, who was a passenger on board the Titanic when she sank on 15th April. Benjamin Guggenheim was not among the surviviors. Topical Press Agency Index cards from The Associated Press Corporate Archive in New York listing stories written by the wire service about the Titanic. Frank Franklin II A diver accompanies a 17-ton portion of the hull of the Titanic as it is lifted to the surface in the Atlantic Ocean. Anonymous Front page of The Owensboro Daily Messenger headlining news that the Titanic had sunk. In this 1912 photo made available by the Library of Congress, Harold Bride, surviving wireless operator of the Titanic, with feet bandaged, is carried up the ramp of a ship. Crowds gather around the bulletin board of the New York American newspaper in New York, where the names of people rescued from the sinking Titanic are displayed. How the sinking was reported AP The employment record for Captain John Edward Smith. Warwick Family Collection Karl Behr and Richard Williams, who were world-class tennis players who survived the sinking of the Titanic and and went on to win numerous major tennischampionships on both sides of the Atlantic. Duncan Phillips PR/Robert Fuller Merchant Navy Seamen Charles Rice, who was a Fireman on the Titanic and survived. The National Archives/Crown Copy An original Titanic menu from April 10th 1912 Peter Morrison This composite image, released by RMS Titanic Inc., and made from sonar and more than 100,000 photos taken in 2010 from by unmanned, underwater robots, shows a small portion of a comprehensive map of the 3-by-5-mile debris field surrounding the stern of the Titanic on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. Belfast Telegraph:Page One/Titanic. 16/4/1912 BELFAST TELEGRAPH This is an undated photo showing the bow of the Titanic at rest on the bottom of the North Atlantic, about 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland. The first tourists to see the bow up close viewed it from the portholes of a tiny submersible in early September. (AP Photo/Ralph White) RALPH WHITE Launch of the Titanic, published in the Belfast Telegraph 31/5/1911 This composite image, released by RMS Titanic Inc., and made from sonar and more than 100,000 photos taken in 2010 from by unmanned, underwater robots, shows a small portion of a comprehensive map of the 3-by-5-mile debris field surrounding the stern of the Titanic on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. This composite image, released by RMS Titanic Inc., and made from sonar and more than 100,000 photos taken in 2010 from by unmanned, underwater robots, shows a small portion of a comprehensive map of the 3-by-5-mile debris field surrounding the stern of the Titanic on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. Titanic, built by Harland and Wolff, was driven by two gigantic wing propellers measuring over 23 feet in diameter and a center propeller spanning more than 16 feet. A shipyard worker's ticket to the launch of the RMS Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Lord Pirrie, chairman of H&W (left) and Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star, make a final tour of inspection of Titanic before her launch. 31/5/1911. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum NMNI Titanic first class suite bedroom 'b58'. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic at fitting-out wharf with three out of four funnels fitted. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic. Hydraulic launch rams below port bow. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic, double bottom and initial plating of tank top of Olympic, with keel of Titanic laid on No.3 slip. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic, port near profile during outfitting at Thompson deepwarter wharf. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic, upper part of stern frame in position. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum A page of the document written by Laura Francatelli, which is her eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic Henry Aldridge and Son A woman examines a leather boot in an exhibition of artefacts recovered from the wreck of the Titanic on November 3, 2010 in London, England Oli Scarff A photo of the Titanic's giant propellers and rudder. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Marie-Therese Hurson/Harrison Photography 07721918867 The detailed drawing of the RMS Titanic used at Lord Mersey's inquiry into the 1912 disaster. Belfast City Council The Titanic's two main engines near completion in engine works erecting shop. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Duff Gordon, Titanic survivor Titanic. Port bow 3/4 profile afloat immediately after launch. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Launch of the Titanic, published in the Belfast Telegraph 31/5/1911 Titanic first class cafe parisienne. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic. The Great gantry, Queen's Island, Belfast. This photograph shows the enormous scale of the ship, together with the complex structure of the enfolding steel gantry, from which she will soon be free. The photograph also reflects old and new maritime technologies, with the traditional wooden schooner in the foreground contrasting eith the modernity ot Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic. In this photograph of the cabinet shop, taken in 1899, a small army of cabinet-makers are at work. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Titanic workers Workmen prepare the Titanic slipway. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Millvina Dean the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster was today Thursday April 11, 2002, due to open a rejuvenated exhibition to mark the 90th anniversary of the disaster. Ms Dean, 90, was only nine weeks old when the ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank on April 15 1912, claiming the lives of 1,500 people. The survivor will open Titanic Voices the 90th Anniversary Exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Bugle Street, Southampton. The permanent exhibition has been upgraded with new exhibits, including images from the interior of Titanic's sister ship RMS Olympic Chris Ison Dorothy Gibson, Titanic survivor Patrick Dillon, Titanic survivor Titanic leaving Belfast. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum The wedding ring and locket property of Carl Asplund and the wedding ring of Selma Asplund are seen at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth A heavily water stained leather bound journal bearing notes figures relating to the Asplund family, the property of Carl Asplund, is seen at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth A unique emigrant inland forwarding order to the White Star office in New York, is seen at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth Photographs of (from left) Felix Asplund, Selma and Carl Asplund and Lillian Asplund, are seen at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth A gold plated Waltham American pocket watch, the property of Carl Asplund, is seen in front of a modern water colour painting of the Titanic by CJ Ashford at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth An emigration contract/ticket, purchased by the Asplund family for passage from Southampton to New York, and used on the Titanic, is seen at the Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire, England Thursday, April 3, 2008. The locket and one of the rings were recovered from the body of Carl Asplund who drowned on the Titanic, they are all part of the Lillian Asplund collection of Titanic related items. Kirsty Wigglesworth The crew of the RMS Titanic, pictured just before her maiden voyage. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum The hull of the S.S. Titanic. under construction in dry dock. The tragic sinking of the Titanic nearly a century ago can be blamed on low grade rivets that the ship's builders used on some parts of the ill-fated liner, two experts on metals conclude in a new book. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum This photo provided by Christie's auction house shows a life preserver from the ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic found during the initial search for survivors and owned by the same family for 90 years. Going on the auction block in June, it is the first Titanic life jacket to be offered at auction in the United States, and is one of about six believed to have survived to this day, Christie's said Thursday, May 29, 2008. The Dutch Suite aboard the RMS Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Roberta Maioni, a survivor of the Titanic disaster. Torquay Herald Express Roberta Maioni, a survivor of the Titanic disaster. Torquay Herald Express The White Star Line badge that was given to Roberta Maioni, a survivor of the Titanic disaster, by a man she was said to have fallen in love with during the boat's maiden voyage. Torquay Herald Express Sheet music for "Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey" from the Broadway production "Madame Sherry," (1910) is shown as part of the artifacts collection at a warehouse in Atlanta, Friday, Aug 15, 2008. The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912. Stanley Leary Third-class tea cup china used by passengers and the crew, is shown as part of the artifacts collection at a warehouse in Atlanta, Friday, Aug 15, 2008. The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912. STANLEY LEARY Currency, part of the artifacts collection of the Titanic, is shown as part of the artifacts collection at a warehouse in Atlanta, Friday, Aug 15, 2008. The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912. Stanley Leary The work shirt of W. Allen, a 3rd class passenger on the Titanic, is shown as part of the artifacts collection at a warehouse in Atlanta, Friday, Aug 15, 2008. The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912. STANLEY LEARY A seven of clubs card is shown as part of the artifacts collection at a warehouse in Atlanta, Friday, Aug 15, 2008. The 5,500-piece collection contains almost everything recovered from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, which has sat 2.5 miles below the surface of the Atlantic ocean since the boat sank on April 15, 1912. Stanley Leary The pearl penknife, recovered from the body of Edmund Stone, victim of the Titanic disaster The Service ForD "E" deck key, belonging to First Class Steward, Edmund Stone, victim of the Titanic disaster A compensation letter sent to Millvina Dean's mother from the Titanic Relief Fund. HO A 100-year-old suitcase belonging to Millvina Dean, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic Ben Birchall Harland & Wolff drawing room. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Jack Thayer, Titanic survivor The Thermos flask used to feed Titanic survivor baby, Barbara Dainton-West The "unsinkable" four-funnelled ship the SS Titanic. Part of the White Star Line, Titanic sank off Newfoundland on her maiden voyage to the USA after striking an iceberg (14-15/4/1912). Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum PA The Titanic being built in Belfast. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Belfast City Council/PA One of the three Titanic propellers -- the stern section landed upside-down.Photographed by Leonard Evans on 2 September 2000 from submersible MIR 1 -- 2.38 miles below surface of Atlantic Ocean. Bow of Titanic - Photographed by Leonard Evans on 2 September 2000 from submersible Mir-1 -- 2.35 miles below surface of Atlantic Ocean. Titanic stoker William McQuillan was feared lost at sea, but his grave was subsequently discovered in Canada after 93 years... the last resting place of an Ulster-born Titanic victim. An 18-carat gold pocket watch which is among the rare artefacts connected to the Titanic to be sold by Bonhams and Butterfields in Massachusetts in the US on May 1. The watch, which was damaged when disaster struck mid-Atlantic, belonged to Nora Keane, an Irish immigrant, living in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with her brothers and sisters. PA A pair of glasses is displayed in the Titanic: Aritifact Exhibition at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. David Paul Morris Binoculars are displayed in the Titanic: Aritifact Exhibition at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. David Paul Morris One of the images on display at the Titanic - Built in Belfast exhibition in Union Station, Washington DC. John Harrison Story of the Titanic sinking on the Belfast Telegraph front page The transporting of the Titanic's anchor. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum The Titanic Report at a book fair in the Wellington Park Hotel. The document, dated July 30, 1912, was the main attraction at the Belfast Antiquarian Book Fair in the Wellington Park Hotel. The report, which was published three months after the tragedy, was presented for sale by Arthur Davidson of Davidson Books at Spa, Ballynahinch Ian Magill Titanic designer Thomas Andrews. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum A deckchair removed from the Titanic just moments before it set sail from Cork. Lillian Asplund, the last US survivor from the sinking of the Titanic, has died. A ticket for the maiden voyage of Titanic. People look at the 15 ton 13' by 30' portion of the First-Class C-Deck hull, one of the artifacts from the Titanic, at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. David Paul Morris A telegraph wheel from the Titanic is displayed in the Titanic: Artifact Exhibition at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. David Paul Morris Artifacts from the Titanic are displayed in the Titanic: Artifact Exhibition at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. David Paul Morris A bowler hat is displayed in the Titanic: Aritifact Exhibition at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, California. The exhibition opens on June 10, 2006 and will feature more than 300 authentic artifacts that have been recovered from Titanic's debris field. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images) David Paul Morris Olympic and Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Shipyard worker William Parr (background) pictured in the Titanic gym along with instructor T W McCawley Davison & Associates Ltd Giant starboard anchor of the Titanic is raised for the last time. 1.55pm 11th April 1912 in a picture taken by Father Browne. Fr Browne SJ 1st class dining room on RMS Titanic taken by Father Browne. Fr Browne SJ Marconi Room on RMS Titanic showing Harold Bride in a picture taken by Father Browne. Fr Browne SJ White Star Wharf, Queenstown (Cobh) showing crowds waiting to embark on the tenders in a picture taken by Father Browne. Fr Browne SJ Brilliant new footage of a first class cabin on the Titanic. A live television link-up shows spectacular footage of the captain's cabin Brilliant new footage of a first class cabin on the Titanic. A live television link-up shows spectacular footage of the captain's cabin Pipes and the captain's bathtub are shown in this July 2003 photo, of what remains of the captain's cabin on the Titanic more than two miles underwater in the north Atlantic. Recent research dives to the legendary shipwreck are showing the vessel is deteriorating faster than earlier thought. AP Photo/National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration Front page of Belfast Telegraph BELFAST TELEGRAPH Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum undefined The key to the binoculars store on the Titanic PA Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Shipyard men fitting the starboard tailshaft of the Titanic prior to her launch. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk and Transport Museum The Titanic launches into the water. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk and Transport Museum The shipyard men leaving Queen's Island at the end of a working day in May 1911. Some of them have boarded electric trams for parts of the city beyond walking distance. In the background the Titanic can be seen under her huge gantry. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk and Transport Museum A few of the 15,000 workmen employed by Harland and Wolff Ltd. at Queen's Island, Belfast, with Titanic in the background. Three loftsmen, pictured in 1910 chalking the lines of a ship on portable wooden flooring at Harland and Wolff. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk and Transport Museum The Titanic had a fully equiped gymnasium 44 feet long and 18 feet wide. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Titanic. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland. Collection Harland & Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Long-lost film footage of the Titanic, showing the doomed ship moving slowly through Belfast Lough, has been discovered in the loft of a house in Glasgow. The Titanic moored in Belfast before it set sail on its fateful journey Long-lost film footage of the Titanic, showing the doomed ship moving slowly through Belfast Lough, has been discovered in the loft of a house in Glasgow. Frances Godden of Bonhams auction house inspects a silver table centrepiece from the a la carte restaurant on the White Star liner Titanic which sunk in 1912. Michael Stephens A very rare lunch menu for the first full meal served aboard the Titanic, dated April 2, 1914. A letter written by first-class passenger Miss Alice Lennox-Conyngham to her nephew Alan Duff on the Titanic. The letter, postmarked only three days before the liner hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, had been used as a bookmark for years by its unsuspecting owner before a chance conversation revealed its value. OWEN HUMPHREYS Titanic Ship Unknown First class tea cup china used by passengers on the Titanic STANLEY LEARY Third class china used by passengers and the crew on the Titanic STANLEY LEARY FILE - John Zaller, creative director of Premier Exhibitions, discusses objects from the Titanic's Verandah Cafe on display in the "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" at the Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York, in this June 24, 2009 Richard Drew Lord Pirrie, the former head of Harland & Wolff and instigator of the Olympic Class liners constructed on the Queen's Island almost 100 years ago. First Class menu from the RMS Titanic. Belfast Telegraph Lunch menu from the RMS Titanic. Belfast Telegraph Colin Cobb's Titanic Walking Tours. The pump house at Thompson graving dock. Ian Magill Colin Cobb's Titanic Walking Tours. An original keel block from the Thompson graving dock Ian Magill Colin Cobb's Titanic Walking Tours. The Thompson graving dock and pump house Ian Magill Colin Cobb's Titanic Walking Tours. The Thompson graving dock and pump house where the Titanic's hull inspection and propeller work was done Ian Magill Colin Cobb's Titanic Walking Tours. The tour reaches the gates through which the Titanic workers travelled each day. Ian Magill The Titanic Building will immortalise one of history's most enduring tales Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music. April 2012 Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music Belfast's iconic Titanic Building provides a backdrop for a 3D graphics and pyrotechnics light show set to music / Facebook

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Whatsapp Survivors of the Titanic disaster in a crowded lifeboat.

“They ask what effect it had on me, and I think I was quite an odd child, because it had no effect at all. I lived on the farm with a grandfather who adored me, and to me he was my father, and I adored him. So when they said about my father going down, quite honestly, I couldn’t care less — he was a stranger.”

Yet Millvina found herself unable to watch any of the films or documentaries made about the Titanic. “Because that’s the ship on which my father went down. Although I didn’t remember him, nothing about him, I would still be emotional. I would think: ‘How did he go down? Did he go down with the ship or did he jump overboard?’”

The three remaining Deans finally arrived in New York on April 18, later returning to England aboard RMS Adriatic. As a baby who had survived the wreck of Titanic, Millvina was much in demand. As the Daily Mirror reported at the time: “(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 10 minutes.”

The family later settled at Eva’s parents’ farm in the New Forest, near Southampton, an idyllic place that was as vivid as ever in Millvina’s mind.

“It was quite lovely, with all the animals and the orchard. We’d gather the mushrooms that came up in the orchard, and we made our own cheese and butter. In those old days you did the hay-making yourselves — you used to cut it and turn it to dry in sun. Your hands were blistered, but it was lovely. The smell of the hay! There’s nothing more lovely than the smell of hay. I think it should be made into perfume.”

Perhaps surprisingly, much of Millvina’s life was spent in relative anonymity. She worked as a cartographer during the war and it was only in her later years that she decided to embrace her connection with the ship. Soon she started giving lectures about it all over the world, accompanied by her companion Bruno Nordmanis.

“Not lectures, talks,” she corrected me. She was horrified to see herself described as a lecturer when she appeared on board the QE2. “There was a sign saying Sir Bernard Ingham, lecturer, Millvina Dean, lecturer. Well, Millvina Dean nearly had a heart attack on the spot. I’ve never been a lecturer. But once I got on the stage and started talking it was okay. I got a standing ovation. People liked me. It was quite wonderful.”

She also gave many talks to schoolchildren, who proved to be a more demanding audience. “Little boys are the worst, asking me all kinds of things — ‘Miss, miss, how long was the boat miss?’ Well, it was a ship, not a boat. Little boys are dreadful. They asked me everything I didn’t know. The teacher said: ‘Tell me Miss Dean, where do you get your energy?’ At that time I was over 80. And I said ‘sugar’. Wrong thing. The minute I said it I saw her face. I could do nothing then. It’s true anyhow, I love sugar. I always have lots of sugar. In my tea, three spoonfuls, always. If it’s less than three it’s not a bit nice.”

And, of course, she signed many hundreds of autographs. “My hand never got tired, I could have gone on for ever. Though my handwriting is quite a bit wobbly now.”

Despite the enduring global fascination with the stricken liner — not to mention the runaway success of the 1997 film Titanic, which grossed $1.8bn worldwide — Millvina found herself struggling to pay the costs of her room in the nursing home.

In desperation she auctioned off several of her remaining Titanic mementoes, including the very mail sack in which she may have been rescued, and a suitcase filled with the clothes given to her family by the people of New York.

Don Mullan, an Irish author and photographer who was moved by her plight, successfully challenged the wealthy director and stars of the Titanic movie to help her out. Director James Cameron offered a one-off payment of $10,000, while actors Kate Winslet (below) and Leonardo DiCaprio together donated $20,000. It meant that her final days were free of anxiety about the future.

The very last recording of Millvina Dean lay at the bottom of a drawer in my desk for years, until I rediscovered it while having a long overdue clear-up. That was when I decided to let it go, on the basis that it was better off out in the world than sitting unheard under a pile of dusty old papers.

Listening to it again, her voice rings out as clear as ever, undimmed by the passing of time.

The last-recorded interview with Millvina Dean will be auctioned tomorrow by Henry Aldridge and Son, Devizes, Wiltshire, www.henry-aldridge.co.uk

Belfast Telegraph