William Thomas Abrams

Biography
Mr. William Thomas Abrams was born in June of 1878 in Gosport, Hampshire, England. He was the son of Charles Henry Abrams (1831 - 1915) and Elizabeth Esther Andrews (1837 - 1897), both Hampshire natives married sometime after 1861. He was the youngest of seven children. His siblings being Elizabeth Sarah (1857 - ?), Mary Ann (1859 - ?), William John (1862 - ?), Alice (1867 - ?), James (1869 - ?) and Ellen (1875 - ?).

William is first seen on the 1881 census as a three-year-old living with his family at 2 Russell Street, Alverstoke, Hampshire, England. His father was described as a sawyer. On the 1891 census, the family still live at 2 Russell Street but now William is listed as a thirteen-year-old scholar.

After his studies, he would pursue a career working at sea and on the docks. In early 1899, he got married to Nellie Scott (1876 - 1907), a girl from Gosport but they never had children. On the 1901 census, they are listed as living at 97 Whitworth Road in Alverstoke and William is listed as a merchant stocker. However, in 1907, William was widowed after the passing of Nellie. This is when he remarried to Mabel Constance Hosmer (February 13th, 1888 - May 31st, 1965). On the 1911 census, William is listed as an inmate at HM Prison Winchester on Romsey Road in Winchester, Hampshire, England. His crime remains unknown. His wife must have been ashamed by her husband's crime since she listed herself under her maiden name and gave her marital status as single. She worked as a domestic housemaid at the Grand Hotel on Fir Vale Road in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England. After he got out, he and Mabel moved to Southampton, Hampshire, England.

On April 6th, 1912, William signed to work on the Titanic. He gave his adress as 3 Charles Street, Southampton, and his previous ship as being the R.M.S. Olympic. He would work as a fireman and receive monthly wages of £6. William was lost in the sinking. His last moments remain unknown. His body, if recovered, was never identified.

The following death notice appeared in the Hampshire Independent, probably published by Mabel:

''Abrams - April 15th, at sea aboard Titanic, in fond and loving memory of my dear daddy, William Abrams, of 3 Charles Street, Southampton, aged 33. Gone from our sight, but to memory ever dear.''

Mabel had been pregnant at the time of William's death and in late 1912, she gave birth to the couple's only child, Nancy. Sadly, little Nancy wouldn't live past her third birthday and died on September 28th, 1915. Mabel remarried in 1916 to Arthur H. Ford (? - 1919) only to be widowed again around 1919. She remarried for the second time that year to Frederick Chalk (1879 - 1965). In 1917, they had a daughter, Annie.