Mary Fortune
Mausoleum: Room C, Crypt 30
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
On the evening of April 14, 1912 the stately RMS Titanic ploughed its way across the North Atlantic striving, some said, to set a new trans-Atlantic speed record. At precisely 11:40 p.m. that evening, the huge vessel struck a massive iceberg and in less than three hours the ill-fated Titanic slipped beneath the waters of the cold Atlantic, taking 1502 souls to their icy graves.
When the Titanic set sail from her Southampton, England port on April 10, 1912, six passengers were from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mark Fortune had taken his wife Mary and their four children, Ethel, Alice, Maud and Charles, with him on his business trip to Great Britain. The return trip on the maiden voyage of the White Star Line’s newest ship was to be the highlight of the Fortune family’s trip.
When the extent of the loss of life after the great ship foundered was finally established, two of the dead were Mark Fortune and his young son, Charles. Mary and the girls were fortunate to be counted among the pitifully meagre list of survivors that in total amounted to just 705. Following her rescue, Mrs. Fortune was reported as confirming that one of the passengers in her lifeboat was a man dressed in woman’s clothing. Some years later, Mary Fortune moved to Toronto and resided at 7 Rose Park Crescent where she died on March 8, 1929.
Mike Filey
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide
Second Edition Revised and Expanded