Dorothy Wonnacott was born in Plymouth in 1885. She was a daughter of Arscott and Mary Jane Wonnacott.
Her parents, both originally from the Holsworthy area of mid-Devon had married in about 1878 and were living in Plymouth from that time.
Their first child, Charles Thomas Wonnacott (known as Charley) was born in 1879 and by the time of the 1881 census he was living with his parents at 6 Hollywood Terrace, Wyndham Street, Plymouth. His father, Arscott was described as a carpenter.
In 1883 a daughter Lucy was born followed by Dorothy Anne in 1885. All children were with their parents at 1 Caprera Street, Plymouth at the time of the 1891 census.
In 1894 another daughter, Gertrude was born and by 1900 the family had moved to 2 Staddon Terrace. At that address in 1901 Dorothy, aged 15, was shown in the census to be an assistant in a local stationers shop. Her elder brother Charley, a butcher’s salesman.
In 1908, aged 23, Dorothy married William John Robert Turpin in Plymouth. He was a carpenter by occupation and had probably met Dorothy through a working acquaintance with her father. There were no children of their marriage.
They lived for a time at 59 Chaddlewood Avenue in Plymouth but William secured work as a carpenter in Salt Lake City, Utah and so they both moved to the USA.
They returned to Plymouth in the summer of 1911 to visit their respective parents and other relatives, Dorothy’s parents by then living at 17 Endsleigh Place and according to trade directories the address from which Arscott and his wife rented out apartments.
Their return to America was due to have been on the New York but their passage was switched to the Titanic as a result of the coal strike.
They travelled in second class on tickets costing £21. They were both lost in the sinking, Dorothy was aged 27 and not amongst those persons later recovered from the sea.
Dorothy’s parents remained at Endsleigh Terrace, her father, Arscott died there on 29 December 1917, her mother a few years later.