Mr Frank Dymond

Mr Frank Dymond was born in Poole, Dorset in 1871^1,2.

On 10 May 1898 he married Mary Jane Lisle and they would have 9 children in total.^3,4

Dymond had been a boxer before going joining the navy as a ship's stoker.  He later entered the merchant service as a ship's fireman (civilian equivalent of stoker) and his ship immediately prior to joining the Titanic was the Teutonic.

He was placed in charge of lifeboat 15, and survived the disaster. In a May 1912 interview he described how the lifeboat was damaged coming down the side of the sinking ship and nearly crushed Lifeboat 13 which had drifted beneath it.  He steered and tried to maintain order in the packed lifeboat despite being frozen.  He gave his sweater to Walter Fredericks to keep warm.  According to Walter Lord "Seaman Diamond [sic], a tough ex-boxer in charge of No.15, swore oaths that turned the night air even bluer."⁵

Dymond returned to sea and served aboard many ships usually as a fireman, leading fireman or greaser.^6,7

Frank Dymond died in Southampton on 19 June 1947 at 33 Derby Road in Southampton and was buried at The Old Cemetery, Hill Lane on 23 June. His wife Mary Jane died 16 June 1971 and was buried in the same plot on 22 June.

Notes

1. In the Titanic crew agreement and in a 1923 identity card he gives his birthplace as Poole.  In the 1911 census his wife gave his birthplace as Southampton.
2. He gave his age as 35 in the crew agreement.  Sometimes this is recorded as 25 as it is hard to read.
3. Mary Jane Lisle (22 October 1881-16 June 1971).
4. Frank William Dymond (1899-1975); Mary Maria Dymond (1902-1902); Elsie Emily Dymond (1904-1974), Kathleen Dymond (1905-1994), Daisy Winifred Dymond (1908-1916), Louisa Dymond (1910-1994), Edward Dymond (1911-2000); Albert George Dymond (1914-1993); Thomas Dymond (1918-1988).
5. His CR1 report from 1923 describes him as 5ft ½ in tall, with dark hair and brown eyes.  He had a tattoo on his left forearm of clasped hands and the letters M.L. (for Mary Lisle perhaps?).  In a November 28 1927 manifest for the Empress of Australia bound for Honolulu, his tattoos were described as "M.L. M.D. & Jap Girl"
6. In a 2012 interview Fank's granson Harry described how Frank suferred from the frostbite he suferred that night.  He also described him as a very tough man who drank heavily.
7. In 1916 he was listed as a passenger to Buenos Aires aboard the Highland Loch (Occupation: Oiler).  Other ships he served on included: Limeleaf (1918); Caronia (1919); Aquitania (throughout 1920s); Mauretania (1922); Vauban (1922:  Donkeyman, bound from Barbados to the River Plate); Empress of France (1923); Tyrrhenia (1923); Canopic (1923: Greaser); Orduna (1924); Orca (1925: Greaser); Homeric (1925: "Attendant"); Empress of Australia (1927: P.E.[?]);
8. On an August 1925 voyage of the Homeric one of Frank's shipmates (a linen keeper) was former Titanic steward Leo Hyland.

References and Sources

National Archives, CR1 Identity Card, BT349 (1923: Discharge No. 680590)
National Archives, CR2 Identity Card, BT348 (1932: Discharge No. 680590)
National Archive, Passengers Lists
United States Senate, Washington 1912. n° 806, Crew List
Archibald Gracie  (1913) The Truth about the Titanic
Meridian TV (2012) Grandad Saved 68 Lives (TV Interview, 5 April 2012)
Walter Lord (1976) A Night to Remember. London, Penguin. ISBN 0 14 004757 3
Craig Stringer (2003) Titanic People (CDROM)
Don Lynch & Ken Marschall (1992) Titanic: An Illustrated History. London, Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0 340 56271 4
Susan Wels  (1997) Titanic: The Worlds Greatest Ocean Liner, Crew list by Michael Findley

Related Articles and Documents

	The Western Times  (1912)	THE STORIES OF SURVIVORS AT PLYMOUTH : FRANK DYMOND
	Daily Mirror  (1912)	THE FIGHT FOR THE TITANIC’S LAST LIFEBOAT