William Pusey, taken from a photo showing all the occupants of lifeboat 1.
William Robert Holland Pusey was born on March 1, 1890. He was a native from Hythe, Hampshire, England. His parents were William Pusey, a mariner, and Florence Ellen Holland. His father was from Hampshire and his mother was from Staffordshire. They married in Southampton in 1899. In 1893, he got a brother in Vernon Charles Holland. This was his only sibling from both his father and mother. He was often referred to as 'Robert'.
In 1891 he and his family were living at Rose Cottages, Titchfield, Hampshire. His mother died in 1895 at the age of 32 and his father remarried in early 1900 to Emily Lucy Gregory, also from Hampshire. They had a child in the same year, a daughter named Irene Mary.
The family moved to the village of Fawley, Hampshire by 1901 and would be listed as living at Chapel Street, his father now worked as a fisherman. He died around 1910 and Emily Lucy apparently remarried.
Robert was married in Southampton in 1908 to Edith Kate Prince, a native from Berkshire and they had 4 children: Eric Prince (1909 - 1946), Florence Edith, named after his mother was born in 1910. That same year Robert also lost his father. In 1911 census, Robert is absent from his home at "The Marsh", Hythe, Hampshire where Edith, Eric, and Florence are listed. He is listed elsewhere as a fireman aboard the Osceola, then docked off Southwick, Sussex.
Robert and Edit had more children: a son named Olive Ellen came in 1912.
When Robert signed onto the Titanic on April 6th, 1912, Robert gave his boarding address as Briton Street, Southampton. His last ship had been the Saint Paul. As a Fireman, he received monthly wages of £6. Robert was one of only a dozen occupants in lifeboat 1. He testified at the British Inquiry and recalled how Cosmo Duff-Gordon offered to reimburse the crew for their loss kit.
He returned to England and continued to live at "The Marsh", in Hythe. Another child, a daughter, was born in 1915, named Marjorie.
He was later serving in the Mercantile Marine Reserve following the outbreak of World War I. Robert was serving as a Fireman on the HMS Dirk, a patrol boat, when the ship was torpedoed by UC75 off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire on May 28th, 1918. Robert's body was never recovered but he is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
Edith remarried in 1928 to Victor Edward Pusey (1896 - 1945), Robert's cousin. She remarried in the Hythe area and died on December 31st, 1968 at the age of 80. She was buried in St. John the Baptist Churchyard Hythe, New Forest, Hampshire, England.