A Short Story: Born May 24, 1911, in Bournemouth, England, Dainton was just a little more than a month shy of her first birthday when her family boarded the Titanic at Southampton, England, as second-class passengers en route to Gainesville, Florida.
The Titanic struck an iceberg and went down in the Atlantic on April 15, 1912. Although she was too young to remember it, Dainton was later told that her father waved goodbye as baby Barbara was lowered into a lifeboat along with her mother, Ada (who was pregnant), and older sister, Constance, according to Kamuda.
705 people survived the disaster, but Barbara's father, Edwy Arthur West, was one of the 1,500 who perished. His body was never recovered.
Upon their arrival in New York, Ada took her daughters back to England aboard the Celtic and later gave birth to a third daughter.
In 1952, Barbara West married William Ernest B. Dainton. He was no longer living at the time of Barbara's death.
Her death left one last known survivor of the maritime disaster, according to the Titanic Historical Society. Elizabeth Gladys Dean of Southampton, England, known as Millvina Dean, was just two months old at the time of the sinking. She died on May 31, 2009 at the age of 97. Watch an interview with Millvina Dean at History.com.
The last American survivor, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died in Massachusetts on May 6, 2006, at age 99.
Barbara West Dainton, one of the last known survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, died October 16, 2007, at a nursing home in Camborne, England.
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