Miss Alice Herman

Alice Herman with her family around 1900 (courtesy of Judith Kunze, USA / Phillip Gowan, USA)

Miss Alice Herman, 24, from Castle Cary, Somerset was born on 6 December 1888. She was the daughter of Samuel Herman (butcher and hotelier) and Jane Herman (née Laver).

She boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger together with her twin sister Kate and her parents Samuel and Jane and George Sweet, the adopted son and employee of her father's.

They were bound for Bernardsville, New Jersey, where her mother had a brother. To reach their destination they bought ticket number 220845 for £65.

Alice survived the sinking. She was rescued by the Carpathia in lifeboat 9. After their rescue they went on to her uncle, Mr Laver, at Somerset Hill Country Club, Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Alice Herman married very soon after the disaster to William D. Cleland. The had four children, three sons and a daughter.

Alice Herman Cleland continued to live in Bernardsville, New Jersey, for the rest of her life. She contracted diabetes which hastened her death on 23 March 1947 at the age of 59 and was buried in the St Bernards Episcopal Church Cemetery in Bernardsville.

According to her daughter, Alice never returned to her native England, nor did her sister Kate (who moved on to Portland, Oregon). Their mother, Jane Herman, frequently returned home to visit old family and friends and did not let her experiences on the Titanic get to her.

References
Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer At Port Of Arrival (Date: 18th-19th June 1912, Ship: Carpathia) - National Archives, NWCTB 85 T715 Vol 4183
United States Senate (62nd Congress), Subcommittee Hearings of the Committee on Commerce, Titanic Disaster, Washington 1912

Contributors
Steve Coombes, UK
Michael A. Findlay, USA
Hermann Söldner, Germany

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)
Mr Samuel Herman
Mrs Jane Herman
Miss Kate Herman
Mr George Frederick Sweet