Mr Thure Edvin Lundström was born on 8 March 1880 in Gislöf, Östra Nöbbelöv, Kristianstad (Skåne), Sweden.
He was the son of Nils Olof/Olsson (a blacksmith b. 9 July 1842 at Järrestad, Kristianstad County, d. 1 July 1929 at Östra Nöbbelöv) and Ingrid (née Olsdotter, b. 1 January 1850 at Järrestad, d. 10 December 1887). His parent married 22 December 1867.
Following the death of his first wife, Thure's mother, his widowed father married Johanna Örnberg (b. 11 March 1842) on 7 November 1890.
His known brothers and sisters were; Mathilda, b. 12 December 1868, Olof, b. 20 March 1871, Johanna, b. 9 September 1873, Johan Anton, b. 12 August 1876, and Viktor Sigfrid, b. 18 October 1882.
He had moved to Malmö 3 May 1898 and emigrated to the USA in 1900.
A carpenter and fervently religious man, Lundström reportedly emigrated to California 1 and spent time in China between 1905 and 1911 as a missionary, learning to speak at least one Chinese language. Just before the "Boxer-rebellion" he returned to Sweden and in 1912 was travelling with his fiancée Elina Olsson to Los Angeles, California. They travelled via Copenhagen and boarded the Titanic at Southampton as third class passengers. Among their party were Mrs Sandström and her two daughters and Mrs Hulda Klasén and her party, Klas and Gertrude Klasén and Hulda Veström, all of whom were travelling to California.
Lundström told that when the ship was sinking he had placed members of his group, including his fiancée, in lifeboats but these had all capsized before he jumped into the water and was rescued by a passing lifeboat. While this cannot be disproved it is more likely that he simply got into a lifeboat on the starboard side where Officer Murdoch was letting men board. Few of the party he was with survived and his fiancée was among the lost.
In New York Lundström was quartered at St. Vincent Hospital and made his way to Chicago, Illinois with other Scandinavian survivors but eventually settled in Los Angeles.
He was married in Los Angeles on 31 December 1913 to a fellow Swede, Signe Louise Petersson (b. 25 August 1888). They initially lived in Los Angeles before spending a portion of time before the 1920s in Chicago, resettling permanently by the time of the 1920s in California and appearing there on census records from 1920 through to the 1940. Lundström never returned to Sweden and he became a naturalised US citizen2, working at various times as a barrel maker, parquet floor layer and painter. He and his wife had four children: Enez Mathilda (1915-2001, later Mrs Morris Simon Kasperson), Louis Daniel (1917-2000), Helen Elisabeth (1919-2003, later Mrs Stanley Frederic Peterson) and Ingrid Sylvia (1927-2006, later Mrs Carl Sigurd Wikström).
Edvin Lundström died suddenly following a stroke while on a carpentry job in Las Vegas, Nevada on 10 October 1942. He was buried on the 14th October 1942 in Inglewood Park Cemetery Los Angeles, California (division B, lot 192, Greenlawn plot). His widow never remarried and remained in Los Angeles for the rest of her life where she died on 5 September 1976.
Comment and discuss
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Do you know why Thure Lundstrom was saved but his fiancee Elina Olsson was lost? And does anybody know more about her? Regards, Andrew
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Dear Andrew, Elida Olsson was born in Östra Nöbbelöv, Sweden (this is in the southeast of Sweden). She was on her way to her brother Olof who resided in St Paul, Minnesota. She had been working as a maid earlier, and was now looking for that kind of occupation in America. It is possible, however, that she intended to follow her fiancé Thure Lundström, to Los Angeles. For some reason they became separated during the night and he entered boat No 15 after having seen several other Swedes into boat 13. Elida was lost at the age of 31.
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Thanks for the information, Regards, Andrew
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The case of Thure Lundtstrom and Elida Olsson is very unusual in that they are perhaps the only couple in the Titanic disaster (although they were engaged, rather than married) where the woman was lost and the man survived. There is no definite evidence that Lundstrom got into Lifeboat #15. He reportedly helped Mrs Sandstrom and her daughters into Lifeboat #13 and then was trying to get into a "Collapsible" with his fiancee Elida which the lifeboat "capsized" and Elida was lost. Here on ET that story has been doubted because the only capsized lifeboat was Collapsible B and there is not record of a woman being on it. However, I wondered about another possibility. As has been mentioned by other members in different threads, many continental Europeans with limited English often use the word "capsize" for toppling sideways, even temporarily. So, I wonder whether Elida Olsson and Thure Lundstrom were actually near Collapsible A and Elida was one of the women seen near that boat by...
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Hello, Long time listener,… I read his letter about his party’s lifeboat capsizing and went looking for more information as that detail stood out as odd. It could have been collapsable A but his letter claims to see them off and then head stern before praying. Not much mention of how he got in a boat. Thoughts? Could he simply have been a human in terrible circumstance and saved himself then made up a story later? What other possibilities could there be for the ‘capsized boat’ that caused his party to perish?? My curiosity got me here,… thanks to any additional thoughts!!
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While it is possible that Thure Lundstrom was referring to Collapsible A (although it toppled sideways when the wave hit rather than capsize), there are several things that go against that conjecture. The main reason is that Lundstrom himself definitely survived; since we know that for certain, the question arises on which lifeboat. If he had seen his fiancee Elida Olsson washed away when Collpasible A toppled sideways after being hit by the wave, that means that he was still on board the sinking Titanic himself at that moment. If so, the only lifeboats that he could have reached to save himself were Lifeboat #4 (which picked-up Hemming) and the overturned...
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I agree with Aaron’s assessment of his boarding lifeboat #15. With few exceptions it is consistent with my understanding of my grandfather’s actions based on my own research and some family accounts. However according to my relatives, he rarely if ever spoke of it to my dad or his sisters. Whether survivors guilt or PTSD it seemed to have profoundly shaped the remainder of his life.
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One possibility that I have thought about regarding Lundstrom and his lost fiancée Edna Olsson is whether they were both on the port side somehwhere close to where Lightoller and his men were trying to position Collapsible B; the couple might have been hoping - at least for Edna - for places in it. When the crew tried to push the lifeboat onto the boat deck from the roof of the Officer's Quarters, it fell upside down, a sort of equivalent of "capsized" (the lower port side of the boat deck was already flooding by then due to the port list). The 'wave' hit very soon afterwards and Edna could have been washed away like Lundstrom said while he managed to cling on to something. There is just the possibility that Lundstrom then managed to swim to #B and get on top. There is no evidence that he did of course, but not all those who stood on top of the overturned Collapsible were identified and recognition of each other in that cold, dripping and dishevelled state in the darkness would have...
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