Mourners are due to gather in Southampton to say a final farewell to Millvina Dean, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic disaster, today.
Millvina, who died aged 97, was the youngest passenger on board the illfated White Star liner when the ship left on her maiden voyage from Southampton in April, 1912.
Just nine weeks old when the liner struck an iceberg and sank, Millvina – too small for a lifejacket – was lowered over the side of Titanic in a sack to be rescued, along with her mother and brother.
Ironically Millvina, whose home was at Woodlands near Southampton, died on May 31, 2009 – exactly 98 years to the day that Titanic was launched in Belfast.
The funeral service at Southampton Crematorium was set to include the seafarers’ hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save, which includes the famous chorus: “For those in peril on the sea.’’
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