Eva Hart
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| Eva Miriam Hart | |
 Eva Hart with her book in 1994. |
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| Born | January 31, 1905 Ilford, Essex, England |
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| Died | February 14, 1996 Chadwell Heath, Greater London, England Cancer |
| Parents | Benjamin Hart and Esther Ada Bloomfield |
Eva Miriam Hart MBE (31 January 1905-14 February 1996) was one of the last remaining survivors of the RMS Titanic disaster of 1912.
[edit] Early life and the Titanic
Eva Miriam Hart was born on Ilford, Essex, England, the only child of Benjamin and Esther (née Bloomfield) Hart. In 1912, when Eva was seven, the family decided to emigrate to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Mr. Hart planned to open a tobacco shop.
The family boarded the ship at Southampton. Upon settling into their cabin, Mrs. Hart decided that something felt wrong about the ship, fearing that some catastrophe would befall them. "We went down to the cabin and that's when my mother said to my father that she had made up her mind quite firmly that she would not go to bed in that ship, she would sit up at night...she decided that she wouldn't go to bed at night, and she didn't!"[1]
Eva had very vivid memories of the night of the sinking, remembering how she was pulled out of bed by her father and wrapped in the rug on the floor of the cabin. Eva clearly recalled her mother having taken a thick fur coat from their cabin for the bitterly cold night air. Benjamin placed his wife and daughter in lifeboat 14 and told Eva to "go with mummy hold her hand tightly." Benjamin Hart perished in the sinking.
[edit] Later life
Eva was often found on Titanic related television shows and newspaper articles and was firmly in the spotlight until her death in 1996. On 15 April 1995, the 83rd anniversary of the disaster, Eva and fellow second-class Titanic survivor Edith Brown, dedicated a memorial garden plaque in the grounds of the National Maritime Museum in London. [2] Eva lived in Chadwell Heath, Essex and worked as a Barking magistrate. There is a Public House named after her in this area. She was also the recipient of an MBE in 1974. Her life story Shadow of the Titanic - A Survivor's Story was released in 1994. Eva lived the rest of her days in Japan Road, Chadwell Heath until her death from cancer on February 14, 1996.
