Encyclopedia Titanica

Mary Kezia Roberts

Stewardess

Mary Kezia Roberts
Mary Kezia Roberts

Mrs Mary Roberts was born as Mary Kezia Humphreys 1 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 19 October 1870.

She was the daughter of Welsh parents Hugh Humphreys (1838-1899), a joiner, and Elizabeth Williams (b. 1846), both Anglesey-natives who had married in Liverpool in 1868. She had six known siblings: Catherine Jane (b. 1869), Robert Richard (b. 1872), Hugh John (b. 1874), William M. Edward (b. 1879), Angharad Lloyd (b. 1881) and Gladys Elizabeth (b. 1883).

Mary first appears on the 1871 census and at that time she and her family were living at 31 Hunt Street, Everton, Liverpool. For unknown reasons, Mary is not listed with her family on the 1881 and 1891 census returns; at those times her parents and siblings were listed as living at 55 Bulwer Street, West Derby and 1 Hemer Place, Bootle, respectively. The whereabouts of Mary at this time is not certain.

Mary was married in Shardlow, Derbyshire on 2 December 1896 to Scotsman, David Roberts (3 June 1875 in Dundee, Scotland) who worked as an electrical engineer. They lived at different times in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, settling in the latter, and they went on to have five children: Frank (b. 1899-1985), Kathleen (b. 1899-1986) Kezia Norah (1901-1984), Daisy Bell (1906-2003) and Jean (b. 1907-2000).

The 1901 census shows Mary and her family living at 3 Huston (?) Street in Derby, Derbyshire and the following 1911 census has the family at 9 Chestnut Grove, West Bridgford in Nottingham. No profession was stated for Mary on either record but she reportedly worked for the White Star Line for a number of years prior to the Titanic. Her husband reportedly ran the West Bridgford Motor Company.

When she signed-on to the Titanic on 6 April 1912, Mary gave her address as 9 Chestnut Grove, Nottingham. Her last ship had been the Adriatic. As a stewardess she received monthly wages of £3, 10s.

On the Titanic one of the passengers she served was Edith Rosenbaum, who recalled that they had been together on a previous voyage.

Mary was rescued from the sinking together with fellow stewardess Miss Gregson in lifeboat 11. A letter from Edith Rosenbaum (later Russell) stated that Miss Roberts took care of youngster Frank Philip Aks who had become separated from his mother. 

WEST BRIDGFORD LADY SAFE
Mr. Roberts of 9 Chestnut Grove, West Bridgford, whose wife was a stewardess on the Titanic, has received a cablegram announcing that she is safe.

A NOTTINGHAM STEWARDESS
Mrs. M. K. Roberts, one of the stewardesses, is the wife of the principal of the West Bridgford Motor Company, 9, Chestnut Grove, West Bridgford, and has been in the service of the White Star Line for some years. She was recently transferred to the Titanic and was at home with her husband and family only a few weeks ago for a brief stay prior to proceeding to Southampton.
It is understood that Mr. Roberts has not yet received any official communication in regard to the matter. He has, of course, despatched messages in request of information, but it is not probable that any definite reply will be obtained before Friday.
The case is rendered all the more painful by the fact that there are five children, the oldest of whom is 13 and the youngest three years of age.

After surviving the Titanic Mary Roberts continued her life at sea on the Majestic for the rest of 1912.

During the First World War Mary served aboard the hospital ship HMHS Rohilla. In late October 1914 that ship departed from the Orkney Islands; on 30 October Rohilla was sailing in the North Sea off the coast of Whitby in North Yorkshire when in gale conditions she struck rocks only a couple of hundred yards from Whitby's cliffs. Despite the poor conditions (Whitby's lifeboat had severe difficulties getting deployed) a rescue operation lasting nearly fifty hours was mounted and Mary was one of around 140 survivors.

Mary Roberts continued to work at sea up until the late 1920s, latterly serving on the SS Rajputan in 1929. She and her family later settled in Epsom, Surrey where she died in the Cottage Hospital on 2 January 1933. She is buried with her husband (who died in December of the same year in a motorcycle accident) in the church of St Mary the Virgin Church, London Road, Ewell, Epsom, Surrey. Her grave wrongly gives the year as 1932.

Mary Roberts Grave
Grave of Mary Kezia Roberts at Ewell, Surrey
Courtesy of Mary Griffiths

 

Notes

  1. Her name is given as Mary Kezia Dooley Humphreys in her marriage record.
  2. Their grave gives David's birth year as 1870, it was actually 1875, and Mary's death year as 1932, it was 1933.

References and Sources

Death Certificate

Research Articles

Titanica! (2017) Shipwrecked again!
Titanic passengers and crew that experienced shipwrecks either before or after the Titanic disaster.

Documents and Certificates

Agreement and Account of Crew, National Archives, London; BT100/259

Acknowledgements

Sam Dunsmore
Fiona Kilbane
Mary Kezia Roberts family photograph Mary Kezia Roberts family photo Mary Kezia Roberts photographed a board a ship Mary Kezia Roberts, family photo Mary Kezia Roberts Mary Kezia Roberts in a car with her husband David Roberts Letter from Edith Russell concerning Mary Kezia Roberts Death Certificate of Mary Keziah Roberts

Comment and discuss

  1. Fiona Kilbane

    Fiona Kilbane

    Five! Jean was the youngest
  2. Fiona Kilbane

    Fiona Kilbane

    Hi Would love to make contact… we are related. I am saddened to hear this of my great grandmother!

Showing 2 posts of 17 total. View all.

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Titanic Crew Summary

Name: Mrs Mary Kezia Roberts (née Humphreys)
Age: 41 years 5 months and 27 days (Female)
Nationality: English
Marital Status: Married to David Roberts
Last Residence: at 9 Chestnut Grove Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
Occupation: Stewardess
Last Ship: Adriatic
Embarked: Southampton on Saturday 6th April 1912
Rescued (boat 11)  
Disembarked Carpathia: New York City on Thursday 18th April 1912
Cause of Death:
Buried: St Mary the Virgin Church, Ewell, Epsom, Surrey, England

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