Charlotte Caroline Collyer

Mrs Harvey Collyer was born as Charlotte Caroline Tate ¹ at The Tilth, Cobham, Surrey, England, on 17 June 1881. She was baptised on 2 October 1881 at St Andrew's Church in Cobham.

She was the eldest daughter of Allen Tate (1853-1911), a coachman, and Louisa Anne Townsend (1853-1931), both Surrey natives who had married in Essex in 1880. Charlotte had six known siblings: Louise Alice (b. 1883), Nellie (b. 1885), Lily Maud (b. 1886), Allen (b. 1888), Gladys Florence (b. 1891), and Eva Elsie (b. 1893).

She first appears on the 1881 census living at an unspecified address in Cobham, showing up as a resident of Kings Head Alley in Leatherhead, Surrey by the time of the following census in 1891. By the time of the 1901 census Charlotte had left home and was working as a domestic cook for the Reverend Sydney Sedgwick, a Church of England clergyman who lived at Fanfield Hill, Leatherhead. It was perhaps through the church that Charlotte met her future husband, Harvey Collyer (b. 1880) who was the church sexton and verger.

Harvey and Charlotte were married in St Mary and St Nicholas' Church in Leatherhead on 5 May 1903. Their respective addresses at the time were given as Church Walk and Hill Street, both in Leatherhead, and Harvey was described as a warehouseman. The couple had one child, a daughter, born in 1904 and whom they named Marjorie Lottie.

The family later moved to Bishopstoke, Hampshire, following the Reverend Sedgwick who had moved to his new Parrish church there, St Mary's. Harvey would continue to work for the church as verger, on the church council and as a bell ringer and he also ran a grocery store in the town. Charlotte also continued to work at the church and the family were well respected within their community.

The family appeared on the 1911 census living at 82 Church Road in Bishopstoke, Hampshire and Harvey was then described as a grocer and sexton.

Friends of the family had gone to Payette, Idaho, several years before and made a success of the fruit farm they bought there. They wrote glowing accounts of the climate to the Collyers and advised them to come to seek their fortune in Idaho. The Collyers did not seriously consider the proposition until Mrs Collyer began having respiratory problems (she was afflicted with tuberculosis), at which point they decided to buy a farm in the same valley as their friends in America (Mrs Collyer later felt guilty that it was her own health problems that eventually caused the death of her husband).

"The day before we were due to sail (our neighbours) made much of us, it seemed as if there must have been hundreds who called to bid us goodbye and in the afternoon members of the curch arranged a surprise for my husband. They led him to a seat under the old tree in the churchyard and then some went up into the belfry and, in his honour, they rang all the chimes that they knew. It took more than an hour and he was very pleased. Somehow it makes me a little sad. They ran the old chimes as well as the gay ones and to me it was too much of a farewell ceremony."  Charlotte Collyer (the Semi-Monthly Magazine) R

The next morning the Collyers went to Southampton, where Mr Collyer drew from the bank the family's life savings (including the money from the sale of their store in Bishopstoke). He took the money in banknotes instead of a draft and put the money in the inside breast pocket of his coat. In the Titanic's hold were the few personal possessions that the family had kept after the sale of their home -- which meant that everything the Collyers owned was on board the Titanic, which they boarded under joint ticket number 31921, which cost £26, 5s).

When the Titanic collided with the iceberg, Charlotte was in bed feeling nauseous due to her meals having been too rich that day. Her husband went out to investigate and reported back, saying: 'What do you think? We've struck an iceberg - a big one - but there's no danger. An officer told me so!' She just asked her husband if anybody seemed frightened, and when he said no, she lay back again in her bunk (Lord 1976).

Charlotte and Marjorie were rescued in lifeboat 14, but Harvey Collyer died in the sinking, and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Following her arrival in New York, she later wrote to her mother:

Charlotte and her daughter also received relief from both the Mansion House Titanic Relief Fund:

Charlotte and Marjorie did not settle in the USA as planned and returned to England where, towards the end of 1914, she was remarried, much to the chagrin of her deceased husband's family. Her new husband was a Liverpool native named James Ashbrook Holme (born 1885), a licensed victualler, and the couple lived at The Fox and Pelican in Greyshott, Haslemere, Surrey.

Charlotte finally succumbed to tuberculosis which had plagued her, on 28 November 1916, aged 35. Her second husband James Holme died less than three years later on 22 March 1919, leaving little Marjorie to be raised by her uncle Walter Collyer, a gamekeeper.  

Charlotte is buried in St Mary's churchyard, Eastleigh, Bishopstoke, Southampton not far from where they lived there is also a plaque on the residence to Harvey Collyer.