Died January 9th 1988. RICHARDS, William (Willie) Rowe Richards
of Carbis Bay whose death at the age of 78 is reported on page 7 was
one of the few survivors remaining of the Titanic disaster in which
in April 1912 claimed 1,500 lives. Billy Richards was three years old
and with other members of his family, including his mother, brother,
uncle, aunt and grandmother was bound for America to start a new life
with his father in Ohio. His uncle was drowned. Wearing only a potato
sack he was thrown into a lifeboat from where he was rescued by the
Carpathia which also rescued other members of his family. Mr. Richards,
a retired fish trade worker, who was born in Penzance, remembers little
of the disaster apart from the "terrible screams" as the Titanic sank
and streamers and bunting at Southampton as she left on her maiden voyage,
but his story has been printed in newspapers, magazines and books throughout
the world. When he and his wife moved to Longstone, Carbis Bay in 1986
after their retirement home at Whitehouse Close, Carbis Bay had been
made unsafe through subsidence, he decided to call their new bungalow
"Carpathia".
[Mr. Richards is shown holding a framed photograph of himself
aged three, with the sack in which he was rescued.]