Miss Julia Smyth was born in Pottlebawn, Kilcogy, Co Cavan, Ireland on 3 August 1893.¹

She was the daughter of Henry Smyth (b. 1839), a farmer and his wife Mary, née Cunningham (b. 1863), Cavan natives who had married on 1 March 1881. 

One of seven surviving children from a total of nine, Julia's surviving siblings were: Mary Anne (b. circa 1882), Henry (b. 4 June 1884), James (b. 13 December 1886), Agnes (b. 28 February 1889), Delia (b. 8 August 1890) and Margaret (b. 17 March 1900). Her family were Roman Catholic and spoke both Irish and English.

Julia appears on the 1901 census living at house 8, Pottlebawn and on the 1911 census living at house 9, Pottlebawn.

She decided to leave Ireland and settle in New York where she already had at least one sibling, her brother Henry, who had recently emigrated. She boarded the Titanic at Queenstown as a third class passenger (ticket number 335432 which cost £7, 14s, 8d) and she was destined for 462 West 20th Street, Manhattan. Her cabin mates were fellow Cavan girls Mary McGovern and Kate Connolly and Co Clare girl Mary Agatha Glynn.

Julia and her roommates all survived the sinking. Her cabinmate Kate Connolly had leapt into the boat first and Julia followed, crediting her long legs for helping her cross the chasm between the deck and the lifeboat. Upon arrival in New York Julia was described as a 20-year-old and headed to a person named Faulkner at 462 West 20th Street, New York. She was eventually reunited with her brother. Whilst aboard Carpathia she had begun to feel ill and this later developed into scarlet fever not long after landing. After her recovery, she soon found work as a domestic.

Julia was married in Manhattan on 30 November 1917 to William Harper Glover (b. 4 June 1891 in New Rochelle, New York), a US Army Officer, who was the son of Irish parents George Glover and Sarah Lindsey. The couple remained childless and made their home in Manhattan, appearing on the 1920 census as residents of West 95th Street and Glover was by then described as a salesman.

The marriage later fell apart and Julia described herself as single by the time of the 1930 census when she was still living in Manhattan as a live-in servant to an elderly lady named Ella Baker Weir. Her ex-husband moved to Chicago and remarried before retiring to Florida where he died on 19 September 1976.

Julia was later remarried to Thomas White (b. 12 June 1894), an Englishman by birth.

Julia returned to her native Ireland for a visit in the 1960s. In 1958 she had been present at the New York premiere of A Night to Remember and was photographed alongside several of her fellow Titanic survivors.

Julia White, née Smyth, formerly Glover, died in Manhattan on 27 April 1977 and was later buried in St Raymond's Cemetery in Bronx, New York.  Her widower Thomas died on 28 April 1983.