mark garfien
Guest
Sylvia Passed away on October 3, 1969 in England
-Mark
-Mark
Sylvia Lightoller
- Thread starter Mary S. Lynn
- Start date
Lucy Steigerwald
Member
How much younger than Lightoller was Sylvia, and how old was she when she died?
mark garfien
Guest
Lightoller was 29 years old and Sylvia was 18 years old when they met. They had an 11 year age diffference. Sylvia was 84 when she passed away.
Lucy Steigerwald
Member
Thanks, Mark!
*ponders chances of interesting 30 year old British merchant sailers picking self up and carrying self around a ship* Slim...slim.
*ponders chances of interesting 30 year old British merchant sailers picking self up and carrying self around a ship* Slim...slim.
mark garfien
Guest
lol!
Pat Winship
Member
It is amusing to compare the real-life shipboard romance of the Lightollers with the fictional Jack and Rose. They could have given the two callow teens a lot of pointers on how the thing SHOULD be done. Sweeping the girl off her feet is a lot more fun than teaching her to spit, and placing her in a very unsafe location on the ship's bow.
Lucy Steigerwald
Member
Yes indeed! I would take Lightoller anyday of the week. I mean, he wasn't fictional anyway, that's a good start. British is always better, because somehow they sound much more charming (and Jack could have used some charm.) And Lightoller's adventures could give most gentlemen, fictional and non, a run for their money.
Plus, even a strong girl such as I doesn't mind the idea of being picked up by a nice sailor. Especially since I have a bad leg myself! Jeez, maybe I should go on ships more often...
Plus, even a strong girl such as I doesn't mind the idea of being picked up by a nice sailor. Especially since I have a bad leg myself! Jeez, maybe I should go on ships more often...
Dr Raymond J. RITCHIE
Member
Aunt Sylvia
Sylvia Lightoller was my grandfather's cousin. I met her 2 times as a kid in the 1960s (10 & 12) when she visited Australia. Some relatives called her Aunt Sylvia but my mother refused to.
*She was a grand old lady and had had an adventurous life.
*My father had been in the Australian navy in WWII in the mediterranean and happily compared notes with her. Dad was at the evacuations of Greece and Crete and Sylvia talked about Dunkirk.
*Do you know that her daughter worked in Naval Intelligence?
*Sylvia and Herbert both worked for Naval Intelligence - what do you think they used their cabin cruiser "Sundowner" for every summer?
*She is described as having a club foot. I do not remember that. I remember that she had a malformed hip and a limp. Her mother had fallen from a horse while carrying her. I did at one stage have a walking stick of hers but somehow lost it. She waved it around at me.
*She drank whiskey and Creme le Menthe (known in the navy as Starboard Lights). That did not not go down well with some of the more prudish Hoadley family: she stayed with the free-thinking ones.
*I actually saw the manuscript written by Herbert that he was banned from publishing. My father was allowed to read some of it. Does the family still have it? I remember hearing something about the steering but I was too young.
*She said straight out that Captain Smith was an alcoholic and drunk on the night.
* Her father was a gold mine engineer. William Hawley-Wilson was american. I am fairly sure he was a civil war veteran (North). I have some recollection of a hat badge. A cousin still had his old Winchester rifle when I was a teenager.
* Her brothers were Ohio, Toledo and Vermont. I was surprised to learn last night on this site that one of Sylvia's names was Iowa. That fits. Vermont died of old age in the US. Ohio died on the Klondike and Toledo died under mysterious circumstances.
* Sylvia was very good at getting people to do things for her. She used to ring up Naval Offices and tell them who she was and she would get sent a nice young naval officer to look after her. Worked like a charm in Gibraltar, Cape Town, Sydney and NZ. Got dinner at NSW Government House with the governor the same way. She made very nasty comments about 1960s South Africa (Guess why? See above).
* My granmother (Greenacre) taught her music before she married Sylvia's cousin JW Hoadley. That is probably how they met. My granmother's brothers however would not allow her to go to tutor her at Hawley-Wilson's hotel because a respectable woman was not supposed to be seen there.
Sylvia Lightoller was my grandfather's cousin. I met her 2 times as a kid in the 1960s (10 & 12) when she visited Australia. Some relatives called her Aunt Sylvia but my mother refused to.
*She was a grand old lady and had had an adventurous life.
*My father had been in the Australian navy in WWII in the mediterranean and happily compared notes with her. Dad was at the evacuations of Greece and Crete and Sylvia talked about Dunkirk.
*Do you know that her daughter worked in Naval Intelligence?
*Sylvia and Herbert both worked for Naval Intelligence - what do you think they used their cabin cruiser "Sundowner" for every summer?
*She is described as having a club foot. I do not remember that. I remember that she had a malformed hip and a limp. Her mother had fallen from a horse while carrying her. I did at one stage have a walking stick of hers but somehow lost it. She waved it around at me.
*She drank whiskey and Creme le Menthe (known in the navy as Starboard Lights). That did not not go down well with some of the more prudish Hoadley family: she stayed with the free-thinking ones.
*I actually saw the manuscript written by Herbert that he was banned from publishing. My father was allowed to read some of it. Does the family still have it? I remember hearing something about the steering but I was too young.
*She said straight out that Captain Smith was an alcoholic and drunk on the night.
* Her father was a gold mine engineer. William Hawley-Wilson was american. I am fairly sure he was a civil war veteran (North). I have some recollection of a hat badge. A cousin still had his old Winchester rifle when I was a teenager.
* Her brothers were Ohio, Toledo and Vermont. I was surprised to learn last night on this site that one of Sylvia's names was Iowa. That fits. Vermont died of old age in the US. Ohio died on the Klondike and Toledo died under mysterious circumstances.
* Sylvia was very good at getting people to do things for her. She used to ring up Naval Offices and tell them who she was and she would get sent a nice young naval officer to look after her. Worked like a charm in Gibraltar, Cape Town, Sydney and NZ. Got dinner at NSW Government House with the governor the same way. She made very nasty comments about 1960s South Africa (Guess why? See above).
* My granmother (Greenacre) taught her music before she married Sylvia's cousin JW Hoadley. That is probably how they met. My granmother's brothers however would not allow her to go to tutor her at Hawley-Wilson's hotel because a respectable woman was not supposed to be seen there.
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