Mrs Thomas Pears (Edith Wearne) was born on 1 September 1889 at Fulham the daughter of Frank Wearne co-founder of the firm of Feuerheerd Wearne (the business was eventually taken over by Gonzales Byass well-known for their marketing of 'Tio Pepe' sherry). Frank Wearne died c.1924.
Edith's mother, Mrs Ada Wearne (nee Morris) was a kindly but severe Victorian matriarch. The Morris family had interests in the well-known City solicitors, Ashurst Morris Crisp and in Property Development.
Edith was educated at Wycombe Abbey School and then lived in France for a period before returning to the family home in Greencroft Gardens, Hampstead, London NW6.
On 15 September 1910, just after her 21st birthday, she married Thomas Pears, the great great grandson of Andrew Pears, the founder of the soap-manufacturing company, A & F Pears Ltd.
Thomas attained a senior position in the company and in 1912 prepared to cross the Atlantic, possibly to look at a site for his company's expansion into America. Edith and Tom boarded the Titanic at Southampton and they occupied cabin C-2.
Edith survived the sinking having been rescued in lifeboat 8 but her husband perished.
Thomas's will left a sum of £16,763 10s 7d so Edith was probably well provided for however, she was shocked to learn that she could not continue to live at 'Mevagissey' as it was a company-owned house.
Edith had four brothers. Keith and Bernard were killed in action, Bernard being awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross and Geoffrey (fighing with the Canadian Army) was in trenches undermined by the Germans and blown up - as a result of which and due to constant shelling, he became very aggressive when demobbed and in 1919 was certified insane, being committed to a mental hospital, where he spent the remaining 58 years of his life.
During this period Edith, at her father's suggestion, was sharing a London flat with Norah, the daughter of an old friend of his, Dr. Crowe. Edith served as a nurse in the British Red Cross, for whom she drove an ambulance. She also joined the WRNS, for whom she drove a cab, her main duties being to fetch Admirals and other senior officers from the Admiralty, from their Clubs at night! Norah's brother Mr D. V. Crowe was an electrical engineer by training. His poor eyesight had ruled him unfit for military service. He, therefore, became a tea-planter in the South of India at Periaburrar Estate, Munmaar P O, near Periyakulam (previously known as Travancore). When he came home on leave, he met Edith while visiting his sister. In due course they were engaged, then married. A daughter, Sheila M., was born in Travancore in 1920 and a son, Frank W., in 1924, at Worcester Park, Surrey.
Edith suffered some form of mental illness and died at Royal Surrey County Hospital on 24 March 1956 from pneumonia caused by having ingested amonia. Edith was cremated at Woking Crematorium Surrey, her ashes were scattered in the Garden of Remembrance there.
Her estate of £36828 was left to her husband and daughter.
Here's a page discussing the brave, tragic military service of Frank Bernard Wearne, Edith Pears's brother: It's complete with photos of him and a few anecdotes of his last days.
That's extraordinary - I was under the impression that VCs were awarded only very, very rarely...so for ex-pupils from one school to win FIVE...wow! By the sounds of it, they more than deserved them. What a bloody conclusion to the so-called 'Gilded Age'. Did I read somewhere that, aside from Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon, the Pears were the only other English couple travelling in first-class? Julia Cavendish was American by birth, so I don't know whether she and Tyrell would qualify. Although my own interest chiefly revolves around the grander first-class passengers - the DGs, Noelle...
I suppose that considering the other passengers included Lucile who was a working re-married middleclass divorcee, and Guggenheim was travelling with his 'barely concealed' mistress, things in first class weren't too formal!!
Yes but...'formal' is only a relative term, isn't it? In my earlier post, I took Thomas and Edith Pears as examples to illustrate my point that the social dynamic in first-class was actually much more varied and complex than most people imagine (or as James Cameron showed in that maddeningly simplistic film of his!) There was almost as great a difference between Colonel Astor and Thomas Pears as there was between Thomas Pears and the humblest steerage passenger. Fifth Avenue and Newport are a long, long way from Isleworth! And I very much doubt that Edith bought her clothes on the rue de la...
So how formal was the "lapin Agile"?!!!!
Or should that be - what kind of woman did Benjamin Guggenheim meet there? Not somebody he'd introduce to his wife, that's for sure. But we're getting off the topic of this particular thread, which is Thomas and Edith Pears.
Martin - it's such a breath of fresh air to have someone discussing passengers whose stories I've always wanted to delve into. The Pearses were among the passengers I put as favorites on that thread, precisely because they weren't typical. My sense is that British travelers of their type generally preferred Cunard, leaving White Star to the showy Americans. I'd say they belong to the class represented by the characters in "Howards End" (I assume you've read that? There's that great line after Colonel Fussell has offered to rally the county families for miles around to call on Margaret....
Forster's 'Howards End' is a magnificent book which was later turned into an equally magnificent film. I first read it when I was in my teens but returned to it last year and was simply blown away. It isn't an easy read by any means but when you 'crack it' - and I've only just scratched the surface, further readings will yield greater and greater riches - it simply takes your breath away. It may be a truism but the English middle classes are, as you say, a law unto themselves; they always have been and they always will be. The nuances and gradations separating the various levels WITHIN...
Howard's End is a wonderful book and film. Some of it was filmed near to where the actual 'Howards End' is. E. M. Forsters other books are also very interesting to read , and to learn from. Passage to India is good, because the class issues are laid bare in conrast to the customs of a foreign land. Maurice will be interesting to anyone who has posted on Gays on the Titanic, and is interested in middle class attitudes to sexuality. I would not read his short stories again though they are really strange!
The book and the movie are both simply beautiful. The book especially I would fail to do justice to. Sashka, another reason I find Maurice interesting is that it deals with the contrasts between the upper classes (the Durhams) and middle classes (the Halls) more than Howards End does. Martin, I've taken note of those recommendations. Thank you. And, as it happens, I have in idle moments pictured the Wilcoxes and Schlegels on the Titanic. When you think about these richly drawn characters placed in that context, it drives home the endless number of ways in which the disaster was a...
Thanks for this, Brian. My thoughts are pretty similar to yours! The theory that wealthy Americans preferred travelling on White Star vessels, whilst the British usually opted for Cunard, is one that I've heard ventured a couple of times now and I'm curious to know if it's mere conjecture (although it would make a kind of sense) or whether this was accepted as a 'fact' at the time. In this particular instance, how would Thomas and Edith Pears have come to be travelling on the 'Titanic'? Would they themselves have selected the ship or would they merely have told a travel agent the date...
When I fly I choose an aircraft based on the price, where it goes from, and what I think of the service. Nice food, facilities,flight times and a safety record help me decide. I expect the Pears considered some of the same things. Some people like to go by a national Airline, like you suggest might happen with Titanic, others don't care. On a long Journey I would think the rooms and food would be one of the main things.
One thing I've wondered about is how switching bookings from one ship to another worked, especially since people seem to have often switched from one line to another. There was the couple whose name I forget who reportedly booked one of the the mega-suites before switching to the Mauretania. The Harts were, according to Eva Hart, switched from the Philadelphia.In 1915, there were the people who switched from the Lusitania to the New York because of the submarine warnings. I can see how switching from one IMM line to another would gain you a rebate, but Cunard of course wasn't part of...
Thanks, Brian. I imagine that I too would have been quite selective - I would much have preferred the 'Lusitania' to the 'Mauretania' (all that lovely plasterwork) but would have chosen an 'Olympic' vessel over either! I don't know how much experience the Pears had on the Atlantic but I'm guessing not much - so I doubt they compared the relative merits of this ship to that so closely. I imagine that they simply took advantage of a rare opportunity to cross by the swankiest means possible. Reading her profile, it sounds as if Edith Pears was a VAD during the First World War - at least, this...
VAD nurses were paid the standard rate for nursing employment, but those with independent means were encouraged to donate their pay to the Red Cross. It's true that some of the volunteers had never scrubbed a floor or made a cup of tea in their lives before, but the representation of social classes in the VAD detachments was probably not far different from that in the Nation as a whole. See my postings in this thread: and check out...