Antoinette Flegenheim

Antoinette "Tony" Flegenheim (11 May 1863 – 8 April 1943) was a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Antoinette Flegenheim
Born
Berta Antonia Maria Wendt

(1863-05-11)11 May 1863
Himmelpfort, Kingdom of Prussia
Died8 April 1943(1943-04-08) (aged 79)
Frankfurt, Nazi Germany[1]

Early life

Flegenheim was born Berta Antonia Maria Wendt on 11 May 1863 in Himmelpfort near Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia.[2][3] Her parents were Wilhelm and Pauline Wendt.[4]

In 1890, she moved to New York and married a fellow German, Alfred Flegenheim.[2] Alfred died on 23 November 1907.[5][4] Flegenheim was wealthy and possessed residences both in Berlin and Manhattan.[4]

Sinking of Titanic
Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic

Flegenheim was one of the 281 passengers who boarded RMS Titanic on 10 April 1912 when it took its first stop in Cherbourg, France.[6][7] She travelled in first class.[2] The vessel would take one more stop in Queenstown, Ireland before the ill-fated transatlantic crossing.[8] On 14 April 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic Ocean.[9]

At 00:45 on 15 April 1912, Flegenheim departed Titanic with 27 others on Lifeboat No. 7, the first to be lowered.[7][10] The lifeboat was deployed without its plug and began to take on water which, as fellow lifeboat occupant Dorothy Gibson put it, was "remedied" by lingerie and garments being stuffed into the hole.[11]

Flegenheim and the other Lifeboat No. 7 occupants were rescued approximately four hours after they were lowered from Titanic by RMS Carpathia.[12]

Later life

Soon after the sinking of Titanic, on 20 June 1912, Flegenheim married Briton Paul Elliot Whitehurst (born c. 1878).[4]

She and Whitehurst lived in The Hague, Netherlands during the First World War but the two separated in this period.[2][4]

Flegenheim died in Frankfurt, Nazi Germany on 8 April 1943.[1]

References
  1. Schmidt-Grillmeier, Gerhard (15 April 2016). "Further On the trail of Mrs Flegenheim". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  2. "Antoinette Flegenheim – Titanic First Class Passenger". www.titanicpages.com. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  3. Schmidt-Grillmeier, Gerhard (17 June 2012). "Antoinette Flegenheim – First Class Passenger on the Titanic". Encyclopedia Titanica. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  4. "First Class Passengers". www.sigtheatre.org. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  5. "Antoinette Flegenheim: Titanic Survivor". www.encyclopedia-titanica.org. 13 December 1999. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  6. "The ship's 281 passengers". www.cherbourg-titanic.com. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  7. "FLEGENHEIM, Mrs Antoinette - Titanic First Class Passenger Biography". www.titanic-titanic.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  8. "RMS Titanic – last port of call – Queenstown – Cobh". www.whitestarmomentos.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  9. Halpern, Samuel; Weeks, Charles (2011). "Description of the Damage to the Ship". In Halpern, Samuel (ed.). Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal. Stroud, UK: The History Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-7524-6210-3.
  10. Wormstedt, Bill; Fitch, Tad (2011). "An Account of the Saving of Those on Board". In Halpern, Samuel (ed.). Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal. Stroud, UK: The History Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-7524-6210-3.
  11. Bottomore, Stephen (2000). The Titanic and Silent Cinema. Hastings, United Kingdom: The Projection Box. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-903000-00-7.
  12. "United States Senate Inquiry - Day 1 – Testimony of Arthur Rostron, cont". www.titanicinquiry.org. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
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