Winnifred van Tongerloo, who has died aged 98 in Michigan, was one of the four remaining survivors of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Recalling what happened, she said in 1987: "As the years go by, things fade, but that was something you couldn't forget. It was too bad, too terrible."
Born in Devon, England, she moved to the US with her family, but in 1912 she was with her sister and mother in England again, visiting relatives.
Her mother had booked on the Titanic, described by the shipping clerk as "the new wonder of the world", after an earlier booking had been cancelled.
The ship's lead paint made eight-year-old Winnifred seasick. But on the night of April 14th she was feeling better, and the family was asleep in their cabin when the ship struck the iceberg at about 11.40 p.m.
They felt nothing. A passenger alerted them and told them to dress and go on deck.
Winnifred's mother took her time, letting the children sleep and only putting a coat over nightclothes, when a steward appeared and shouted: "For God's sake, get up! Don't stop to dress. Just put on your lifejacket. We've hit an iceberg, and the ship is sinking." On deck Winnifred, shoeless, was loaded with her younger sister, Phyllis, into a lifeboat when a crew member announced: "That's enough. No more."
Her mother protested that she would not be separated from her children; the sailor relented and she climbed in.
As they were rowed away, Winnifred saw the lights of the ship go out as it slid beneath the waves, and heard the screams as people were engulfed in the icy Atlantic. They were rescued at dawn by the British ship, Carpathia, and were met in New York by their father. A wanderer until then, he promised his wife they would never again be parted, and they were not.
Winnifred left school at 12 to work in a sweet factory and a department store. At 19 she married Alois van Tongerloo and they lived in Detroit, raising five children. She declined to sail or fly ever again.
Winnifred Vera van Tongerloo, born January 23rd, 1904; died July 4th, 2002