Encyclopedia Titanica

Bess Waldo Allison

Bess Waldo Allison
Bess Waldo Allison

Mrs Hudson J.C. Allison (Bess Waldo Daniels), 25, was born on 14 November 1886, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The youngest daughter of Arville Daniels and Sarah McCully. She had an older sister, Mabel who had been born three years earlier in 1883. She also had another sister, Myrtle who had been born in 1873 and was a child from Arville's first marriage to Mary Bowden.

Bess met Hudson Allison, a wealthy Montreal stockbroker, on a train in 1907. They married later that year in her home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On 5 June 1909 the couple's first daughter, Helen Loraine was born. She was soon followed by a brother, Hudson Trevor who was born on 7 May 1911.

Mrs. Allison was travelling with her husband Hudson and the two children.

Mrs Allison, her husband, son and daughter, boarded the Titanic at Southampton as first-class passengers.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Alice Cleaver took Trevor and left with him in lifeboat 11. Bess Allison was put in a boat with Loraine but refused to leave the ship without her baby. She dragged Loraine out of the boat and started searching for Alice and Trevor.

"Mrs Allison could have gotten away in perfect safety," Major Arthur Peuchen told the Montreal Daily Star "But somebody told her Mr Allison was in a boat being lowered on the opposite side of the deck, and with her little daughter she rushed away from the boat. Apparently she reached the other side to find that Mr Allison was not there. Meanwhile, our boat [Lifeboat 6] had put off."

Major Peuchen, also gave this account of Mrs. Allison's last moments "She had gone to the deck without her husband, and, frantically seeking him was directed by an officer to the other side of the ship. She failed to find Mr. Allison and was quickly hustled into one of the collapsible life-boats, and when last seen by Major Peuchen she was toppling out of the half-swamped boat."

Bess's body, if recovered, was never identified.

Newspaper Articles

Toronto Daily Star The Allisons
Unidentified Newspaper PERISHES WITH BABE
The Globe (16 April 1912) Many Canadians on Fated Steamer
Milwaukee Journal (17 April 1912) Milwaukee Girl Lost
Former High School Girl, Not on Titanic's Rescued List
Milwaukee Journal (19 April 1912) BABY ONLY ONE LEFT OF ALLISON FAMILY
Mr. and Mrs. Allison and Young Daughter Go Down with 1,000 Others on Titanic
Chooses To Die With Husband
Evening World (22 April 1912) Mrs Allison

Documents and Certificates

(1900) census (13)
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Titanic Passenger Summary

Name: Mrs Bess Waldo Allison (née Daniels)
Age: 25 years 5 months and 1 day (Female)
Nationality: Canadian
Marital Status: Married to Hudson J.C. Allison
Last Residence: in Montréal, Québéc, Canada
Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 113781, £151 16s
Cabin No. C22/26
Died in the Titanic disaster (15th April 1912)
Body Not Recovered

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