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Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971) was an Argentine-born British ocean liner stewardess and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse during World War I.

She is notable for having survived the sinking of both RMS Titanic in 1912 and sister ship HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been aboard the eldest of the three ships of that class, RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.

Born in the Pampas on 2 October 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Violet Constance Jessop was the eldest daughter of Irish immigrants Katherine (née Kelly) and William Jessop, a sheep farmer. Jessop spent much of her childhood caring for her younger siblings. When Jessop was 16 years old, her father died of complications from surgery and her family moved to England, where she attended a convent school and cared for her youngest sister while her mother was at sea working as a stewardess. When her mother became ill, Jessop left school and, following in her mother's footsteps, applied to be a stewardess.

In 1911, Jessop began working as a stewardess for the White Star liner RMS Olympic. Jessop was aboard on 20 September 1911, when Olympic left from Southampton and collided with the British warship HMS Hawke.

Jessop boarded Titanic as a stewardess on 10 April 1912, at age 24. Jessop described in her memoirs how she was ordered up on deck to serve as an example of how to behave for the non-English speakers who could not follow the instructions given to them. The next morning, Jessop and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York City on 18 April. According to Jessop, while aboard Carpathia, a woman, presumably the baby's mother, grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off crying, without saying a word.

In the First World War, Jessop became a nurse for the Voluntary Aid Detachment. On the morning of 21 November 1916 she was aboard the hospital ship Britannic, the younger sister ship of Olympic and Titanic, when it sank in the Aegean Sea after detonating a German naval mine. While Britannic was sinking, Jessop and other passengers were nearly killed by the ship's propellers that were shredding lifeboats that collided with them.

Jessop returned to work for White Star Line in 1920, before joining Red Star Line and then Royal Mail Line again. In her time with Red Star, Jessop went on two cruises around the World on the company's flagship, Belgenland. When Jessop was 36, she married John James Lewis, a fellow White Star Line steward. Years after her retirement, Jessop claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Jessop if she had saved a baby on the night that Titanic sank. However, Tannūs died on 12 June 1931, so he could not have phoned Jessop two decades later.

Titanic, Jessop is depicted as an elderly stewardess played by Madge Ryan. (Jessop was 24 at the time she served on the Titanic; Ryan was 60 at the time the movie was made.) Lunn played the role of Violet Jessop, re-enacting her jumping into the water, from her lifeboat which was being drawn into Britannic's still turning propellers. The character of Jessop is featured in the Chris Burgess stage play Iceberg – Right Ahead!, staged for the first time Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, March 2012, to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of Titanic. Arthur Priest, a stoker who also survived the sinking of Titanic and Britannic and was on Olympic during the collision with HMS Hawke, as well as other shipwrecks Violet Jessop third from left; with fellow Titanic Stewardesses at Millbay Dock, Plymouth England after return on SS Lapland April 1912

Quick Facts

• Born in the Pampas on 2 October 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Violet Constance Jessop was the eldest daughter of Irish immigrants Katherine (née Kelly) and William Jessop, a sheep farmer.
• Titanic, Jessop is depicted as an elderly stewardess played by Madge Ryan. (Jessop was 24 at the time she served on the Titanic; Ryan was 60 at the time the movie was made.)
• Violet Jessop third from left; with fellow Titanic Stewardesses at Millbay Dock, Plymouth England after return on SS Lapland April 1912
• Years after her retirement, Jessop claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Jessop if she had saved a baby on the night that Titanic sank.
• Jessop returned to work for White Star Line in 1920, before joining Red Star Line and then Royal Mail Line again.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Violet Jessop". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.