Mr William Mintram

Mr William Mintram, aged 46, was born in Southampton in 1866 the son of William Mintram and Adelaide Elizabeth (nee Light).

Mintram's mother lived in the poor King's Street area of St Mary's Southampton, and it was her that William grew up.

He was married on 16th August 1886 to Eliza Mary Rose Veal. Together they had five children. His eldest daughter Rosina's husband was Walter Hurst (also a fireman on board).

In 1912 Mintram had just been released from prison, he had been found guilty of accidentally killing his wife while drunk - relatives say he was drunk and actually trying to stab someone else but his wife tried to intervene and ended up taking the blade).¹

When he signed onto the Titanic he gave his address as 15 Chapel Road, Southampton (also the home of his daughter, Rosina, and her husband, Walter Hurst).  His previous ship was the Oceanic. As a fireman he received wages of £6. 

William Mintram and Walter Hurst met each other shortly before the Titanic went down. William had found a lifejacket, but Hurst had not, so William gave his lifejacket to his son-in-law. This may have contributed to the fact that Walter was able to stay on collapsible B, and to survive, while William did not.

Notes

1. It may be that William Mintram had 'form'.  In 1882 a William Mintram, 17, was convicted of unlawful wounding.  He stabbed a man after an argument in a pub.  He was sentenced to 1 month in gaol.  It is not yet known if this William Mintram was the same as that on the Titanic.  The 1902 criminal register indicates that he had previous convictions for drunkeness and assauling police.

References and Sources

British Census 1871-1911
GRO Indexes of Births Marriages and Deaths
Craig Stringer (2003) Titanic People CDROM
 

Related Articles and Documents

	Hampshire Advertiser  (1882)	THE CHARGE OF STABBING
	Hampshire Advertiser  (1882)	A SOUTHAMPTON CASE
	(1902)	WILLIAM MINTRAM : CRIMINAL REGISTER 1902
	Worcestershire Chronicle  (1902)	LAW AND POLICE
	Northampton Mercury  (1902)	DOMESTIC TRAGEDY AT SOUTHAMPTON
	The Times  (1902)	FIREMAN KILLED WIFE
	Titanic Research  (2008)	MCGOUGH THE KILLER