Ethel Flora Fortune

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Ethel Flora Fortune
Born(1883-09-22)September 22, 1883
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DiedMarch 22, 1961(1961-03-22) (aged 77)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Spouse(s)Crawford Gordon I (1883-1957) 2 children

Ethel Flora Fortune was a first-class passenger and a survivor of RMS Titanic.

RMS <i>Titanic</i> British transatlantic passenger liner, launched and foundered in 1912

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history's deadliest commercial marine disasters during peacetime. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.

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Early life

Ethel Flora Fortune was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on September 22, 1883. She was the second daughter and third child of Mark and Mary Fortune. Her parents, Mark and Mary, invited her to join them and her younger siblings on a Grand Tour of Europe. She had 3 younger siblings, Alice Elizabeth (b. May 10, 1887), Mabel Helen (b. November 3, 1888) and Charles Alexander (b. October 13, 1892). Ethel's two elder siblings Robert William H. (b. July 1, 1877; d. Dec 28, 1965) and Clara Alma (b. Aug 2, 1879; d. 1964) did not accompany the rest of the family on their tour. Ethel was engaged to Crawford Gordon I, a rising Winnipeg banker. Ethel agreed to postpone her wedding so that she could shop for a trousseau in Europe and chaperone her younger siblings. She bought gowns from the leading fashion house, Worth, in Paris.

Winnipeg Provincial capital city in Manitoba, Canada

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. Centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, it is near the longitudinal centre of North America, approximately 110 kilometres (70 mi) north of the Canada–United States border.

Manitoba Province of Canada

Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is often considered one of the three prairie provinces and is Canada's fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi) with a widely varied landscape, stretching from the northern oceanic coastline to the southern border with the United States. The province is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territories of Nunavut to the north, and Northwest Territories to the northwest, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.

A chaperone in its original social usage was a person who for propriety's sake accompanied an unmarried girl in public: usually she was an older married woman, and most commonly the girl's own mother.

RMS Titanic

Ethel boarded RMS Titanic at Southampton as a first-class passenger together with her parents and siblings. They occupied staterooms C-23-25-27.

Southampton City and unitary authority area in England

Southampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. It is 70 miles (110 km) south-west of London and 15 miles (24 km) west north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest. It lies at the northernmost point of Southampton Water at the confluence of the Rivers Test and Itchen, with the River Hamble joining to the south of the urban area. The city, which is a unitary authority, has an estimated population of 253,651. The city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing to "So'ton" or "Soton", and a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian.

She thought getting into a lifeboat was a waste of time. She left her two sisters on the deck to return to her cabin. In her cabin, a steward informed her that her mother had gone on deck. The steward escorted her to lifeboat 10, just as it was being lowered. She jumped into the lifeboat. The people in the boat caught her. By the time Titanic went down their lifeboat was a mile away from the site. The thought of Charles floundering in the water while crying out for help stayed with her for the rest of her life.

Later life and death

Ethel married Crawford Gordon I in 1913. Seven years later they moved to Jamaica. They, again, moved to Toronto, Ottawa and London, England when Crawford Gordon I was appointed manager of the Bank of Commerce in United Kingdom. They had two sons, William Fortune Gordon and Crawford Gordon Jr. Crawford Jr. became the head of the Canadian aircraft manufacturing plant A.V. Roe. In the 1950s Crawford II was responsible for producing the Avro Arrow aircraft.

Jamaica Country in the Caribbean

Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola.

Toronto Provincial capital city in Ontario, Canada

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada, with a population of 2,731,571 in 2016. Current to 2016, the Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA), of which the majority is within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), held a population of 5,928,040, making it Canada's most populous CMA. Toronto is the anchor of an urban agglomeration, known as the Golden Horseshoe in Southern Ontario, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Ottawa Federal capital city in Ontario, Canada

Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec; the two form the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (NCR). As of 2016, Ottawa had a city population of 964,743 and a metropolitan population of 1,323,783 making it the fourth-largest city and the fifth-largest CMA in Canada.

Ethel died in Toronto on March 22, 1961. She is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto cemetery in Toronto, Canada

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The cemetery was opened in November 1876, and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery still has many miles of walking paths, interspersed with fountains, statues, botanical gardens, and rare and distinct trees designed by architect Henry Engelhardt with influences from Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston.

References

    http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/ethel-flora-fortune.html


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