Mrs Boulton Earnshaw (Olive Potter) was born on September 9, 1888 the daughter of Thomas Potter Jr. and Lily Alexenia Wilson. The family resided in Mt. Airy, Pennsylvania.
In December 1911, Lily Potter, now widowed, decided to take a European vacation with her daughter, Olive. The marriage between Olive and her husband Boulton Earnshaw was crumbling, and Olive filed for divorce. In an effort to take her daughter's mind off the divorce proceedings, Lily Potter took her to Europe. Travelling with them was Miss Margaret Hays of New York City. Olive and Margaret were school friends from Briarcliff School in New York.
Returning to America from their travels they boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg on the evening of April 10, 1912. Olive and Margaret shared cabin C-54.
Olive, her mother, Margaret Hays (and her dog) and their self-appointed "escort", Gilbert Milligan Tucker, Jr. boarded lifeboat 7 which was lowered away at 12:45 a.m.
Olive Earnshaw in the 1920s
(© Michael A. Findlay, USA)
When the Carpathia arrived in new York Boulton Earnshaw travelled to Pier 54 to meet his soon-to-be ex-wife and the Potter party returned to Philadelphia later that night.
Olive Earnshaw eventually obtained her divorced for her husband and later, like her mother, volunteered her services to the American Red Cross, she would continue her volunteer work to the Red Cross for the rest of her life.
In 1920, she remarried to Allen P. Crolius, and the couple had two sons, Thomas and Allen. Mr Crolius died in 1936.
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Olive never gave up travelling, in spite of her experience on the Titanic. She travelled to Spain with her husband and sons in the mid and late 1920s, and also sailed to Bermuda on a number of occasions.
Olive Crolius in Red Cross uniform
(© Michael A. Findlay, USA)
Olive Crolius died of cancer on April 21, 1958 at the age of 69. She was bruried in the same grave as her mother at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA.
(© Michael A. Findlay, USA)
Notes
Boulton Earnshaw was born 8 November 1880 in Riverton, New Jersey; he worked as a purchasing agent for the University of Pennsylvania. After his divorce he was remarried to Ethel Yarnell. He died in Norristown, PA on 28 March 1971 at the age of 90 from an acute pulmonary embolism.
