Helen Loraine Allison (June 5th, 1909 - April 15th, 1912) was a First Class Passenger on the RMS Titanic who died with her parents during the sinking.
The Allison's booked first class passage on board the Titanic, bound for Montreal. They boarded the ship in Southampton along with four servants: a maid Sarah Daniels, a nurse Alice Cleaver[1], a cook Amelia Mary Brown and a butler George Swane. Hudson and Bess occupied Cabin C-26, Sarah and Loraine occupied C-22, and Alice and Trevor occupied C-24. Two second class cabins were also booked for George and Amelia.
Hudson and Bess were dining companions with Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen. At dinner on April 14th, they brought Loraine to the dining room with them so she could see how pretty it was.
After the collision Trevor went missing with Alice. When the Allison's realized this, they resolved that they would not get in a lifeboat until he was found, nor would they be parted from Loraine. They were last seen standing together, smiling, on the promenade deck.
Loraine was the only child in First Class to die, while none in Second Class did and fifty-three of seventy-six in Third Class did. Her body was never recovered.
What really happened to Loraine?
In 1940, a woman named Helen Loraine Kramer claimed that she was Loraine[2] and that, at the last minute, Loraine's parents gave her up to a man named Hyde (whose identity she said to be that of shipbuilder Thomas Andrews) who raised her on a farm in the American Midwest. Her claim, however, was not accepted by the Allison's. Eventually, she moved to the western United States and they never heard from her again.[3]
In December 2013, the Loraine Allison Identification Project announced results of mitochondrial DNA testing performed on mitochondrial DNA donated by female-line descendants of Kramer, and descendants of the Allison's. The test was performed by DNA Diagnostics Center, a facility accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. The results were negative, demonstrating that no relationship existed between Kramer and the Allison's.
Popular Culture
- Main article: Allison family in popular culture
- ↑ "Miss Alice Catherine Clever". Encyclopedia Titanica. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/74/. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ↑ "Child Feared Lost On Titanic Reported Living In Michigan". http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/466748012.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+5%2C+1940&author=&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1923-1963)&edition=&startpage=18&desc=CHILD+FEARED+LOST+ON+TITANIC+REPORTED+LIVING+IN+MICHIGAN.
- ↑ Geller, Judith B. (October 1998). Titanic: Women and Children First. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-393-04666-3.