Vera Dick

Notes

1. She has an unusual middle name that is hard to discern in handwritten birth and marriage records. Possibly "Thuroid" or "Thorold". Vera was born in Ontario and there is a town of Thorold in that state, close to her parent's homeland of Brant County, perhaps it had some special significance.
2. Her birth year is frequently given as 12 June 1894, that is the date on her death certificate and her grave gives 1894 as the year of birth, but an Ontario birth record gives her date of birth as 12 June 189and her marriage record gives her age as 20.  In the 1901 census she is shown as aged 9, the 1906 Calgary Census 15 and 1921 Census of Canada 29.   
3. Seemingly listed in the 1901 census as Harold.
4. Richard Howells in The myth of the Titanic (1999) questions how likely it is that Mrs Dick could have heard this having left the Titanic on so early a lifeboat.  He suggests her memory may have been coloured by reports of the same hymn being played or sung when the Steamer Valencia went down off British Colombia in 1906.

References and Sources

Comment and discuss

1. In Calgary Herald August 26 1996 there was an interview with Mr. Bruce van Norman. Van Norman s grandmother was Vera Dick on the Titanic. According to van Norman, Vera was saved because she would not go in the boats without her husband. The daughter to the couple Dick, Gilda, died in Calgary at age 77 in 1992. According to the obituary about Vera Dick in the Albertian Oct 7 1973, she had three great grandchildren. They must be children to Bruce van Norman?
2. They are. Last I heard they live in Seattle. There are several stories about how they were saved. Gilda told me that during the trip, a young steward had a crush on her mother, much to Bert Dick's annoyance...it was the steward that saw to it that both Mr. and Mrs. Dick were saved.
3. To my delight, I have just discovered an account of the sinking by Bert and Vera Dick published by Maclean's Magazine, May 1, 1950 - "When That Great Ship Went Down" by Ray Gardner. Kinda pre-dates Walter's book. For those interested, there is also another piece from Maclean's,Nov 21, 1959, by Sir James Bissitt, "I watched the Titanic Rescue..."
4. Alan: Good finds! Is Bisset's article basically a promotion for "Tramps and Ladies" (same year), or is it a quite independent "telling"?
5. It is an independent telling, John. No metion of Tramps and Ladies, all it says is that he was known as "Lucky Bisset, who went to sea at the age of 15. In all of my dealings with the Dicks I never heard tell before that Bert "had been badly clipped by professional gamblers in Naples..." Maybe that is why is wife was cheesed off at him aboard Titanic.
6. Thanks, Alan: Regarding Bert's gambling misadventure and any subsequent familial fallout -- Yep, I imagine that could do it! :-) (Time for some new Inter-library loan requests.)
7. You can find both accounts in a book called In the Face of Disaster, True Stories of Canadian Heroism from the Archives of Mcleans, published by Penquin books. isbn-0-14-028804-x
8. does anybody have any other then a profile shot?
9. Great bit of research Phil. I agree that a bona fide birth record like that is by far the most convincing, even more so than a paper Birth Certificate that a person had. The latter can be - and have been known to be - doctored in the past.

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