Dickinson Bishop

Dickinson H. Bishop (March 24, 1887 – February 16, 1961) was an American businessman who traveled on board the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic while on his honeymoon with bride Helen, née Walton. They both survived the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912.

Early life Bishop was born in Dowagiac, Michigan, son of George and Virginia Bishop. He was 24 when he married Mary Beckwith Lee, an heiress who died in 1910 thirteen days after giving birth to a daughter; the infant died minutes after being born. Bishop married his second wife, Helen Walton, in November 1911; their four-month honeymoon was to Europe and North Africa, arranging the return on the Titanic. However, this was not mentioned during her later testimony at the US Inquiry into the disaster. At the inquiry, Helen Bishop also recalled seeing John Jacob Astor IV urging them to put their lifebelts on and board a boat.

Boat 7 was the first to be lowered from the Titanic, being launched at about 12:45 am on the early morning of the 15th, and was rescued by the sometime after 4:10 am. The Bishops, along with other survivors, were transported to New York City aboard the Carpathia.

Dickinson Bishop's testimony mainly dealt with the inability to lock the ship's watertight compartments. He recalled the sailors trying to turn the locks and not being able to close them properly on either side of the ship.

Bishop was later rumored to have dressed as a woman to get his spot in the lifeboat; this rumor, in part, led to the divorce of the couple. On 8 December 1912, Helen gave birth to a boy, Randall Walton Bishop, who died two days afterward. In an attempt to save Helen's life, her doctors tried what was then a new technique: a silver plate was affixed to her skull to cover the badly injured area.

In January 1916, Dickinson and Helen divorced. Charging her husband with cruelty and drunkenness, Helen Bishop was granted a divorce and $100,000 in alimony. She died two months later, on March 16, 1916, after falling at a friend's home on a visit to Danville, Illinois. Dickinson married his third wife, Sydney Boyce, a daughter of William D. Boyce, two days before the death of his second wife, Helen. The announcements of Dickinson's remarriage and Helen's death were both front page stories of the Dowagiac Daily News on the same day.