FROM WORKHOUSE TO PRISON TO .......THE TITANIC
by Dinah Burnett
**
Published by: Dinah Burnett
ISBN: 0-9537288-0-3
Binding: Softback
Pages: 126
Price: £11.95
I bought this book because I had heard of the Allison family who had all been
lost apart from baby Trevor and his nurse, a Miss Alice Cleaver. In his book
Titanic: An Illustrated History Don Lynch claims that Alice Cleaver
had been convicted of murdering her baby but had been discharged from prison on compassionate grounds, gaining
her position as nurse by deception. This, as this book proves, is not the case
After two pages or so I felt like taking this book back to the shop. Dinah Burnett (no doubt a pseudonym) had
begun the defence of her mother (Nurse Alice Cleaver) by stating, and I am paraphrasing here I hope you understand,
that those people holding an interest in Titanic are the scum of the Earth, and beneath contempt.
It is the first time I have ever read a book in which the author has isolated 100% of their target
audience before saying anything on their allotted subject, and you will not be surprised to hear me say
that I was far from impressed. Nevertheless, I persevered.
Burnett proves convincingly that Nurse Alice Cleaver and the Alice Cleaver convicted of
murdering her son are two different people, the latter dying in Prison some years after the Titanic sank.
As she goes on to answer the critics of her mother on the subjects of fleeing a sinking ship and her actions on the
Carpathia, Ms Burnett is not nearly as convincing. This is purely because she
cannot offer any proof apart from saying it is not the way her mother would have acted.
We have strong evidence to suggest otherwise.
This book is a reminder that even the best historians make mistakes, and clears the name
of Alice Cleaver when it comes to murder, but in my opinion Ms Burnett should be
left on the shelf as she is more than hostile to the Titanic scholar.
