April 22nd, 1887 - November 10th, 1972

She is a Taurus.

Emily Hocking was born in Penzance, Cornwall, England to William Rowe Hocking (born 1854), a baker and confectioner, and Eliza Needs (born 1858). Her father bailed from Cornwall whilst her mother was born in Tresco on the Isles of Scilly and they were married in 1880. She was one of 5 surviving children from a total of 7 and her extant siblings were: William James (born 1881), Sidney (born 1884), Richard George (born 1889), and Ellen (born 1891). She also had a half-sister, Dorothy (born 1899), from her mother's second marriage. She first appears on the 1891 census living at Adelaide Street, Penzance. Her father is believed to have settled in South when he died and her mother remarried, becoming Mrs. William Guy. The family appears on the 1901 census at Mount Street, Penzance.

Emily was married in 1908 to James Sibley Richards (October 9th, 1887), a general labourer from Newlyn, Cornwall. The couple appeared on the 1911 census living at St Mary's Place, Penzance, a boarding house ran by her mother. The couple would have 2 sons whilst in England: William Rowe (born 1909) and Sibley George (born 1911) and later lived at "The Meadow", Newlyn.

Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912:
Sibley and George subsequently immigrated to Akron, Ohio and she planned to join him there. She boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger on April 10th, 1912 with William Rowe and Sibley George having been transferred from the RMS Oceanic. Travelling with her was Eliza, Ellen, George, who had returned from Akron to accompany them, and her aunt Ellen Wilkes. Emily and Addie Wells had strolled the deck of the Titanic on the night of April 14th, 1912, noticing how cold it was. She had just put her children to bed and was asleep (another account says she was about to go to bed herself) when the Titanic collided with the iceberg.

After the collision, her mother rushed into her room and shook her saying "There is surely danger, something has gone wrong." Emily and her family members put on their slippers and outside coats and dressed the children and then went up on deck in their nightgowns. As they went up the stairs, a crew-member called out "Everyone put on life preservers." Emily returned to her cabin, as family members reassured themselves that nothing was the matter. They returned to deck and were told to pass through the dining room to a rope ladder against the side of the cabin that led to an upper deck. Emily, her children, her mother, and her sister were pushed through a window into a lifeboat. They were told to sit in the bottom of the boat, they were so low they could not see over the gunwale. Some of the women tried to stand after the boat pushed away, however, the crewmen pushed them with their feet back in a sitting position. The boat was only a short distance away from the Titanic when it went down the people in the boat pulled several men out of the water. Emily said "Some of these men were already mad with exposure and kept trying to get up and turn the boat over. The other men had to sit on them to to hold them down. Two of the men were so overcome with the cold and exposure that they died before we reached the Carpathia and their bodies were taken aboard."

The boat had a foot of water in it before they were rescued by the Carpathia. Aboard the ship they watched as one woman, who had been separated from her 2 children, reunited with them and "she was wild with joy and lay down with the children on the floor trying to cover them with her body like a wild beast protecting its young."

After The Sinking/Later Life/Death:
The Richards and The Hockings had hoped that George had been rescued by another ship, but he was lost. After leaving the Carpathia, The Richards stayed at Blake's Star Hotel in New York City and Emily was reunited with her husband who had travelled from Akron. The family settled in Akron but the loss of her mother in April of 1914 possibly compelled them to return to England which they did so before the close of the year. Back in England, Emily gave birth to a daughter, Emily Needs, on September 29th, 1914. Her husband, later a fish worker, died on July 3rd, 1939 at the age of 51. Emily continued to live in Paul, near Penzance, Cornwall until her death on November 10th, 1972. She is interred in the Paul Cemetery, Cornwall.

Both of her sons married and raised families. Emily Needs was married in 1948 to Joseph Clarence Trethowan Rowe (1900 - 1862) and following his death was remarried in 1964 to William Alfred Lippitt (1910 - 1991). She died in 2003 in Penzance.

Sources:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

Rest In Peace Emily Richards.