Mabel Fortune Driscoll

The Fortune Family, ca 1900

Mabel Helen Fortune Driscoll (November 3, 1888 – February 19, 1968) was a RMS Titanic passenger and survivor. Later she married but left her husband to live with a woman, therefore, it has been suggested that she was one of the LGBT passengers aboard the Titanic. This claim is unfounded conjecture. (Her immediate family who lived with her never saw any signs of a relationship of this type up until her passing)

Biography

Mabel Helen Fortune was born on November 3, 1888, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the daughter of Mark Fortune, a wealthy real estate speculator and city councilor, and Mary McDougald.[1][2]

At 23 years old, Fortune fell in love with a jazz musician, Harrison Archer Driscoll. The family decided to spend a long vacation in Europe hoping their daughter would forget the man.[1]

All the family, minus one son and one daughter, boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passengers. Her father and brother died in the sinking, Mabel, her sisters, Alice Elizabeth and Ethel Flora, and her mother were rescued.[1]

In 1913, Mabel Fortune married Harrison Driscoll and they had one son, Robert Fortune Driscoll (1914–1990).[3] The marriage did not last and not long after Mabel Fortune went to live with another woman, a widow by the name of Charlotte Fraser Armstrong. Armstrong as well had a young son and lived in Ottawa. For the rest of her life Fortune lived with Armstrong in Victoria, British Columbia, in an house they bought. The house was designed by architect Francis Rattenbury and in the next 50 years, Fortune had it restored twice, first by Samuel Marcus and second by James & Savage, both times enlarging it to accommodate a swimming pool, maid's quarters, greenhouse, garages and chauffeur's quarters.[1][2]

Armstrong was the first to die. A stained-glass windows in the west balcony level of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Victoria is dedicated to Armstrong.[4] Mabel Fortune Driscoll died on February 19, 1968, in Victoria, British Columbia, and is buried at Royal Oak Burial Park Cemetery.[1][2][5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Miss Mabel Helen Fortune". encyclopedia. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Lazarus, Eve. "The Titanic's British Columbia Connection". Eve Lazarus. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  3. ↑ "Society - 04 Aug 1913, Mon • Page 7". The Winnipeg Tribune: 7. 1913. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  4. ↑ "Mabel Helen Fortune Driscoll, St. Andrew's Connection to the Titanic Disaster" (PDF). standrewsvictoria. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Mabel Helen Fortune - Titanic First Class Passenger". titanicpages. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.