Violet Jessop

Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an Irish-Argentine ocean liner stewardess and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been aboard the eldest of the three ships of that class, RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.

Early life

Born in the Pampas on 2 October 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Violet Constance Jessop was the eldest daughter of Irish immigrants Katherine (née Kelly) and William Jessop, a sheep farmer. She was the first of nine children, six of whom survived. Jessop spent much of her childhood caring for her younger siblings. She became very ill as a child with what is presumed to have been tuberculosis, which she survived contrary to doctors' predictions that her illness would be fatal. When Jessop was 16 years old, her father died of complications from surgery and her family moved to England, where she attended a convent school and cared for her youngest sister while her mother was at sea working as a stewardess. When her mother became ill, Jessop left school and, following in her mother's footsteps, applied to be a stewardess. Jessop had to dress down to make herself less attractive to be hired. At age 21, her first stewardess position was with Royal Mail Line aboard Orinoco in 1908.