The last surviving passenger on the Titanic has died at the age of 97. At just nine weeks old, Milvina Dean was the youngest passenger on board the liner when it sank in 1912.

She died early yesterday after being cared for at a Southampton nursing home. Elizabeth Gladys Dean, known to friends as Milvina, was born on 2 February 2, 1912, and boarded the ship as a third-class passenger with her parents Bertram Frank and Georgette Eva and her elder brother Bertam.

Her family were emigrating to Kansas, where her father had hoped to open a tobacconist’s shop. He died in the disaster but Milvina’s mother and brother survived and returned to the UK.