Bess Waldo Allison

Who was Mrs Bess Waldo Allison?

Mrs Bess Waldo Allison was a 25 (twenty-five) year-old Canadian first-class passenger aboard the RMS Titanic. She was the wife of wealthy Montreal stockbroker Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison and mother of two young children. Tragically, Bess perished in the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912, after refusing to leave the ship without her infant son.

Early Life and Family

Bess Waldo Daniels was born on November 14, 1886, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was the youngest daughter of Arville Daniels and Sarah McCully. Bess grew up in a family with two older sisters:

• Mabel, born in 1883
• Myrtle, born in 1873 (from Arville’s first marriage to Mary Bowden)

A Fateful Meeting and Marriage

Love on the Rails

In 1907, at the age of 21 (twenty-one), Bess’s life took a romantic turn when she met Hudson Allison, a wealthy Montreal stockbroker, on a train. Their chance encounter blossomed into a whirlwind romance, culminating in their marriage later that same year in Bess’s hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Motherhood and Family Life

The Allisons quickly started a family after their marriage:

1. On June 5, 1909, their first daughter, Helen Loraine, was born.
2. Less than two years later, on May 7, 1911, their son Hudson Trevor joined the family.

The Fateful Titanic Journey

Embarking on a Tragic Voyage

In April 1912, the Allison family, including Bess, Hudson, and their two young children, boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as first-class passengers. They were assigned cabin C22/26, reflecting their affluent status. The family’s ticket number was 113781, and they paid a substantial fare of £151 16s (equivalent to approximately £18,000 or $23,000 in 2021).

The Night of the Disaster

When the Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, chaos ensued. The following events unfolded for the Allison family:

1. Alice Cleaver, the children’s nurse, took baby Trevor and escaped in lifeboat 11.
2. Bess was initially placed in a lifeboat with her daughter Loraine.
3. Refusing to leave without her baby son, Bess made the fateful decision to drag Loraine out of the boat.
4. She began a frantic search for Alice and Trevor on the rapidly sinking ship.

Bess’s Final Moments

Major Arthur Peuchen, a fellow passenger, provided a heart-wrenching account of Bess’s last known moments to the Montreal Daily Star:

“Mrs Allison could have gotten away in perfect safety, but somebody told her Mr Allison was in a boat being lowered on the opposite side of the deck, and with her little daughter she rushed away from the boat. Apparently she reached the other side to find that Mr Allison was not there. Meanwhile, our boat [Lifeboat 6] had put off.”

Major Peuchen further described:

“She had gone to the deck without her husband, and, frantically seeking him was directed by an officer to the other side of the ship. She failed to find Mr Allison and was quickly hustled into one of the collapsible life-boats, and when last seen by Major Peuchen she was toppling out of the half-swamped boat.”

Legacy and Remembrance

Bess Allison’s body, if recovered, was never identified. Her tragic story serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of the Titanic disaster. The Allison family’s tale is particularly heartbreaking, as Bess and her daughter Loraine might have survived had they remained in the lifeboat. Instead, a mother’s love and the chaos of that fateful night led to their untimely deaths.

Today, Bess Waldo Allison is remembered not only as a victim of one of history’s most infamous maritime disasters but also as a symbol of maternal devotion and the split-second decisions that can alter the course of lives forever.