Annie Robinson in Plymouth after the Lapland had docked. She had a talk with a Second Class Smoke Room steward named James Witter.
Annie Robinson was one of the better known stewardesses on the RMS Titanic.
Background[]
Annie Robinson was born in Bedford, England on February 27, 1865 as Elizabeth Annie Franklin, the eldest daughter of Charles Simeon Franklin and Elizabeth Ann Franklin. The family lived on Maitland Street, St. Paul's Bedford. Three siblings would be born after her: Mary Albina in 1867, Sarah Emma in 1870 and finally a brother named Charles who was born in 1875.
On August 29th, 1885, Annie married an accountant named Tom Snell (Henry) Grierson-Kerswell. The wedding took place at the Parish Church in Liverpool. Two daughters were conceived: On July 16, 1886 Annie gave birth to Annie Grierson-Kerswell. Dorothy Albyne Grierson-Kerswell followed on September 28th, 1893.
Interestingly, before sailing on Titanic, she had been aboard another ship that collided with an iceberg, It was the Canadian Pacific’s Lake Champlain, that sailed from Liverpool to Montreal, but the ship survived as the damage was minor.
Titanic[]
In 1912, she signed on to Titanic as a First Class stewardess and joined on April 6th in Southampton. She was 47 years old at the time. She had worked on the Lake Manitoba before joining the new liner. She is believed to live in either Southampton or Liverpool at the time.
On the late night of April 14, Titanic hit an iceberg. Annie was in her bed at the time of the collision. She got up and dressed. It must have taken her a while to get ready, because she moved to the part of E-Deck where she could still see Postal Clerks coming from down the stairs, and the water was not far away as she would describe when she reported at the British Inquiry.
Annie came across Thomas Andrews for a brief moment, and he wanted her to put on her lifeboat and make it visible to the passengers as a good example. She did was she was told.
Annie would save a lot of lives that night. She knocked on various doors to alert passengers, their maids and a governess. She also made sure that most of her colleagues headed up as well and convinced them they should move to the Boat Deck. She finally could save herself around 1:35 A.M. as she boarded lifeboat 11 which left the ship soon afterwards.
The lifeboat was picked up by the Carpathia, which had come to the rescue and took all survivors to New York. She testified at the British Inquiry after she had taken the Lapland back to England. She was compensated £ 11 for her sharing her account.
Later life[]
After the ordeal was over, Annie carried on working aboard ships. In 1913, she was a stewardess on the Galatea when the British King and Queen were aboard. The royal couple apparently spent a long time in conversation with Annie about the disaster but she didn't want to share much, as the whole tragedy had scarred Annie and the effect still linguered for two years.
This would become clear when, on October 9, 1914, she was traveling across the Atlantic again, this time as a passenger. She had taken voyage on the Davonian of the Leyland Line and was on her way to Boston to visit her daughter Gladys. The passage would probably have conjured bad memories in the best of circumstances. But then the ship hit very thick fog.
Witnesses said Annie became very anxious about this, while the sound of the foghorn is believed to have worked on her nerves. She was said to be very afraid of another disaster. She was last seen in the main salon of the ship on 10.30 P.M. on a Friday night. The next day, she did not turn up to breakfast, nor was she found onboard the ship. It is assumed that she was so terrified of being involved in a third disaster that she must have committed suicide by quickly by jumping into the ocean. Her body was never found.
Popular Culture[]
In James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster ‘Titanic’, a blonde stewardess is seen helping the Bukater family in their Stateroom. The actress is not credited nor is it known if she portrays a real character.
In one scene during the sinking, Thomas Andrews tells her in all seriousness that she has to put on her lifeboat as a matter of life and death. This alligns with Annie Robinson’s story so perhaps it was her who was portrayed.
It’s unsure however as the other well-known stewardess, Violet Jessop is also mentioned as being portrayed, but the stewardess in the movie has a very different personality than Jessop. Some others say the actress portrayed stewardess Lucy Sharp but she worked for the Second Class.