Annie Louisa Meek

Mrs Howard Martin Meek (Louisa Annie Rowley) was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England in early 1880.

Annie, as she preferred to be called, was the daughter of an English father, George Rowley (b. 1831 in Sharpwick, Somerset) and a Welsh mother, Matilda Ann Llewellyn (b. 1849 in Narberth, Pembrokeshire) who had married in Gloucestershire in 1873. She had two known siblings: Edward (b. 1878) and Albert (b. 1883).
She and her family appear on the 1881 census living at 13 Wellesley Street, Barton Regis, Bristol and her father was described as a railway servant. They later relocated to Wales, settling in Whitchurch, Glamorganshire and are listed there on the 1891 census, living at "Wenalt" in that village. The family were still present at the same address by the time of the 1901 census but Annie was absent and listed elsewhere as a live-in servant (a cook) at 7 Palace Road, Llandaff, Glamorgan, the home of a Mr George W. Moore and his family.

She was married in 1905 to Howard Martin Meek (b. 1884 in Bristol), a general servant, and they had two sons: Edwin Howard (b. 1905) and Arthur Ninian (b. 1910). The family are listed on the 1911 census as living at 2 Windsor Place in Penarth near Cardiff and Howard Meek is described as working in a motor garage.
It is said that Howard Meek later abandoned his wife and children. Annie, in an attempt to provide for her sons, accepted a position as a cook in the USA and purchased passage to that country, leaving her sons in the care of their grandparents.

Annie boarded the Titanic in Southampton on 10 April 1912 as a third class passenger (ticket number 343095, costing £8, 1s). She died in the sinking and her body, if recovered, was never identified.

Back in Wales, the Lord Mayor of Cardiff, upon hearing of the plight of the two orphaned Meek boys, took it upon himself to obtain support for Annie's two sons from local and national fund reliefs. Their education was paid for by the Titanic Relief Fund.

Annie's father survived only months after the death of his daughter and he died in the latter half of 1912; her mother died in Cardiff in 1932.

Her son Edwin was married in 1927 to Beatrice M. White and they had a daughter, Jean. Edwin died in Birkenhead in 1969.

Her son Arthur was married to Dorothy M. Scott (1909-1985) and had two children, Vivian and Gladys. He lived his final days in Penarth where he worked in the merchant service; he died at sea aboard Demeterton (he was 3rd mate) following a head injury on 3 February 1949; he was 39.

Annie's widower Howard had meanwhile settled in Canada and was remarried on 20 June 1912 in Toronto to Emma Charlotte Llewellyn (b. 1887), a native of Liverpool. He and his new wife eventually returned to England and settled in Coventry, Warwickshire, possibly raising a family. Howard died there on 25 August 1953.