From Titanic Survivor to World Traveller: The Remarkable Life of Georgette Madill
Georgette Alexandra Madill was born on the 15th of March 1896 in St Louis, Missouri in the United States. She was the daughter of George Alexander Madill, who was a respected legal professional with Irish heritage, and Elisabeth Walton McMillan. Georgette grew up in a wealthy family and her father already had two sons from a previous marriage, they were much older than her.
On the 11th of December 1901, when Georgette was still very young, her father died, leaving her mother widowed with a small child. In 1904, Elisabeth remarried Edward Scott Robert, a lawyer who had been a close friend of Georgette’s father. For a while the family seemed to be stable, they continued living in their home on Lindell Boulevard in St Louis.
But tragedy hit the family again when Georgette’s stepfather died in December 1911. Probably looking for a break from the sadness and a change of scenery, Elisabeth decided that it would be good for them to travel. So both her and Georgette, who was only sixteen at the time, began to travel around Europe.
After their time in Europe, they began preparing their return to America in April 1912. After buying thickets, they boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as first-class passengers. Georgette’s cousin, Elisabeth Walton Allen, and the family maid, Emilie Kreuchen were also with them. Georgette and her cousin shared cabin B5.
For Georgette, the voyage must have been exciting. The Titanic was promoted as the largest ship in the world and it represented modern luxury beyond many other ships in its class. For a young sixteen year old woman, crossing the Atlantic on such a ship may well have felt like an adventure.
As we know, everything change on the night of the 14th of April 1912, when the ship hit an iceberg. At first many passengers struggled to believe that anything serious had happened. The Titanic had been widely believed to have been practically unsinkable. But reality soon began to set in and confusion and fear spread through the ship.
Georgette, her mother, her cousin, and their maid were eventually able to make their way to the lifeboats. They were given a place in lifeboat number 2 and were lowered down into the Atlantic. Sitting in the lifeboat, watching the liner vanish under the water, must have been a terrifying experience.
They were later rescued along with all the other survivors by the RMS Carpathia, after having spent hours waiting in the darkness and cold. They were then taken to New York, large ocean liners were often greeted with excitement, but the mood could not have been more different. News of the disaster had already spread around the world.
For Georgette, the disaster could have easily cast a shadow over her life. But remarkably, she seemed determined not to let it define her future.
Georgette continued to travel widely and became involved with the Red Cross. During the First World War she travelled as far as Japan, China, and even Siberia. After the war she continued to explore Europe, visiting countries like Italy, France, Switzerland, Greece, and Britain.
In October 1931 she married Alfred Joseph Anthony Alexander Gilbert Bagshawe Mattei, a London-born barrister of Maltese heritage. They lived in London and during the Second World War her husband served in British intelligence and was later honoured with an MBE.
Georgette and her husband did not have children, but they remained close and continued to live in London for decades.
She died on the 14th of February 1974 at the age of seventy-seven and was buried in Clevedon Cemetery in Somerset. Her husband’s ashes were later placed beside her.
Do you think surviving an event like the sinking of the Titanic would have made someone more cautious about life, or perhaps encouraged them to live it even more boldly?
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