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TitanicEastleigh’s Hidden Histories

A Titanic Trail of the places and people across the Hamble Valley associated with RMS Titanic.

10 April 2012 is the centenary of the fateful sailing of the RMS Titanic. The disaster made headlines across the world and had a devastating effect on the people of Southampton and Hamble Valley. Most of the crew lived across the town and over 500 families were affected

TITANIC Eastleigh’s Hidden Histories

the people1 West End

Captain Rostron was in command of the Carpathia when

she picked up the new sos distress signal on the 14th April

1912. He ordered his ship to sail through threatening ice at

speeds up to 17 knots per hour, in a race against time to save

the passengers and crew of the Titanic as she foundered

on her maiden voyage. Although Captain Rostron and the

Carpathia rescued seven hundred and six men, women

and children from the icy conditions, nonetheless nearly

1,500 people lost their lives that night. Captain Rostron was

awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour by President

Taft and was knighted in 1926. His story is told in the West

End Museum sited in the old village fire station and his grave

is in West End cemetery.

A road, Rostron Close, has been named after him, and a plaque to his memory can be found at his house 84 Chalk Hill.

Captain Rostron and the crew of the Carpathia (by kind permission of the

National Archives)

the people

Fred Woolley moved to West End in 1912 to a house called Woodleigh at the foot of Chalk Hill where he lived before moving in 1922, to Quob Farm in West End, and which he renamed Burnmoor. After the fateful sinking of Titanic Woolley became secretary for the Titanic Relief Fund set up ‘for distressed dependants of the crew of the Titanic’ which went on to support 1400 dependants between 1912-1959. Woolley himself was twice Mayor of southampton, the first occasion being in 1932.

Fred Woolley (by kind permission

of Southampton City Archives)

John lovell Diaper did not have an auspicious start in the world being born in the Union Workhouse, south stoneham on 22 March 1875. The building still remains today, better known as Moorgreen Hospital.

His mother was Louise Phoebe Diaper, and his father Benjamin Lovell. His parents set up home together and she took the name of Mrs Lovell, and in 1878 a daughter Elizabeth was born. The family moved to Lancashire, and had two more sons but in 1883 Benjamin died aged just 29 of Brights disease. Louise moved her young family back to Itchen Ferry Village, and two years later remarried, to James sellar. Like many other Diapers before him, John found a career connected to the sea, he joined the White star line as a grill cook on the Olympic, the first of the three sister ships that the White star Line built in the early twentieth century. When Titanic was getting ready for her maiden voyage the cream of the crews from other White star liners such as Olympic and Oceanic were transferred to the new vessel. John Lovell Diaper joined Titanic as a grill cook at a monthly wage of £6 10s, signing on as John Lovell (there was another John

Diaper on the crew who worked as a

fireman). John Lovell died in the sinking, his body if recovered was never identified, and he was given the number C 497 by the Titanic Fund. He was unmarried

at the time of his death, but he did have dependants, his widowed sister

Elizabeth Veal and her son.

Union Workhouse

the placesElizabeth Veal [seated in deck chair/outside shop] and image of workhouse (by kind permission of the Diaper

Heritage Association)

she and her son were given a joint allowance of thirty-one shillings, which was continued into the 1920s. The board were asked to consider her delicate health and the fact that her only income was from an evening office cleaning job. she would be expected to receive relief till she reached the age of seventy, or until she remarried. she later was give seven shillings for a three month period, after she had suffered from an haemorrhage, later she was also given £3 3s towards the purchase of artificial teeth.

the places

West End Local History Museum & Heritage CentreIn 2012 a memorial was

commissioned, from local artists Ron and Pearl May, by the Diaper Heritage Association. It will be found at the West End Museum. Hedge End, West End & Botley supported the West End Museum’s centenary sculpture, commemorating all the West End Titanic connections

Henry James Jukes Henry James Jukes, known to his family as “our Jim”, lived at Camlens House, in Moorgreen Road, West End. His parents Joseph and Elizabeth ran a market garden/small holding and James (as he was known) was soon to be married. He signed on as a greaser on the Titanic, for its maiden voyage from southampton. When the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank with great loss of life, the ‘black crew’, that is the stokers, greasers, trimmers as well as the engineering department lost an exceptionally high number of crew, including James Jukes. Thirty-five year old James perished in the icy North Atlantic, his body was not identified as being amongst those picked from the sea by the Mackay-Bennett or the Minia nor any of the other search vessels sent out from Nova scotia. Until recently (1999) he had no grave as there was no body and no memorial until the West End Local History society commissioned the joint

memorial to Jukes and Captain Rostron in the West End Local History Museum & Heritage Centre. A road in West End has been named Jukes Walk as well.

2 BISHOPSTOKEHarvey Collyer together with his wife Charlotte and daughter Marjorie, were emigrating to Payette in Idaho, partly for his wife’s health (she had consumption) but also to buy a fruit farm there. on their departure they had been living at 25 Church street, Bishopstoke. They travelled as second class passengers and took all their savings with them in cash. His wife Charlotte recorded in the American Magazine of May1912;

The day before we were due to sail (our neighbours) made

James Jukes (by kind permission of West End Local History Museum & Heritage Centre)

much of us, it seemed as if there must have been hundreds who called to bid us goodbye and in the afternoon members of the church arranged a surprise for my husband. They led him to a seat under the old tree in the churchyard and then some of them went up into the belfry and, in his honour; they rang all the chimes that they knew. It took more than an hour and he was very pleased. Somehow it made me a little sad. They rang the solemn old chimes as well as the gay ones and to me it was too much of a farewell ceremony.

A letter from Harvey survives, sent on April 11th to his parents:

My dear Mum and Dad... It don’t seem possible we are out on the briny writing to you. Well dears so far we are having a delightful trip the weather is beautiful and the ship magnificent. We can’t describe the tables it’s like a floating town. I can tell you we do swank we shall miss it on the trains as we go third on them. You would not imagine you were on a ship. There is hardly any motion she is so large we have not felt sick yet we expect to get to Queenstown today so thought I would drop this with the mails. We had a fine send off from Southampton and Mrs S[edgwick] and the boys with others saw us off. We will post again at New York then when we get to Payette. Lots of love don’t worry about us. Ever your loving children Harvey and Lot and Madge.

Harvey was lost, but his wife Charlotte and daughter Marjorie were rescued after spending several hours in a freezing lifeboat. on reaching New York they were taken in by a rich New York doctor and Charlotte gave an eyewitness account of the tragedy to American Magazine in May 1912.

Charlotte wrote to her mother-in-law, Oh mother I haven’t a thing in the world that was his only his rings. Everything we had went down. Will you, dear mother, send on a last photo of us, get it copied I will pay you later on. Charlotte and Marjorie later returned home to Bishopstoke when Charlotte had a stand placed in st Mary’s Church in memory of Harvey. Mother and daughter were helped by the Titanic Fund and in 1914 Charlotte remarried and they moved to Grayshott, where Charlotte

Simmons Archive

died two years later. she was buried at Bishopstoke, where her grave as well as Harvey’s memorial, can both be seen. After her mother’s death Marjorie was made a ward of court and went to live with her gamekeeper uncle; Walter Collyer her father’s brother.

leonard knight aged twenty-one signed on as a Third Class steward and, like many others, transferred from the Oceanic. He lived with his elderly parents at 37 spring Lane Bishopstoke, and after his death they were able to claim from the Fund for themselves and youngest daughter.

3 NETLEYCharles lightoller was the second officer on RMS Titanic and highest ranking of the surviving officers. He lived at Nikko Lodge, Hound in Netley close to the railway station. He was one of the key witnesses in the inquiry into the sinking and when he wrote his memoirs, including the events of that fateful night, he included the comment...

‘I don’t like jazz music as a rule but I think it helped us all that night’.

Lightoller returned briefly to duties as first officer on the Oceanic but in August 1914 became Lieutenant Lightoller of the Royal Navy. He received the Distinguished service Cross (DsC) for attacking the Zeppelin L31 with a torpedo boat and later rammed and sank a submarine, gaining a bar to his DsC.

When he returned to Nikko Lodge on leave in 1913 he suffered a flashback to the night of the Titanic tragedy and collapsed with shock in his cold bath, after an energetic game of tennis. His wife found him staring into the air, caught once more in the icy nightmare of the sinking liner.

After the war he returned to the White star Line but they wanted to forget the Titanic and all those associated with her. None of the surviving officers ever got their own commands. so after twenty years service he resigned from the White star Line.

In 1939 Lightoller was again employed by the Royal Navy, this time to survey the German coastline with his wife, whilst posing

St Mary’s Church, Bishopstoke

Charles Lightoller (by kind permission of the National Archives)

as an elderly couple on holiday. In 1940, aged 66, he took his boat Sundowner over to Dunkirk and though the boat had never carried more than twenty-one people succeeded in carrying a total of one hundred and thirty men from the beaches. He died in 1952. His Australian wife, sylvia, was a member of the local southampton Titanic Fund Committee, helping the many local families affected by the tragedy.

4 BURSLEDONGeorge Frederick turner signed on Titanic as the ship’s stenographer, under the name of Taylor. This was his first ship although he was aged thirty-two and married. His wages were rated at £4.10 shillings per month and, as was usual, stopped immediately the ship sank. Like all those who were lost without their bodies being found or identified, he has no known grave. However, the grave of village school teacher Louisa selina Turner, records the name of her grandson George Frederick Turner, as well as her own and includes the link with the Titanic.

5 NORTH STONEHAMphilip E. Curry was the manager of the White star Line offices in southampton, based in Canute Chambers. He headed a large staff of under managers, secretaries, shipping clerks, messenger

boys, telephonists and cleaners; being, as his obituary states, ‘a man deserving of the highest respect, always out to help anyone and everybody within the limits of his powers. A more popular official Southampton will never see.’ on the day of his funeral all the ships in the Docks, regardless of their shipping company, flew their flags at half mast.

After the disaster it fell to Curry to oversee the release of information to the press and public as news of the disaster and its aftermath came through. This included compiling the lists of survivors’ names, that gave relief to some, but grief to many. He became an active member on the local committee of the Titanic Fund, leading its resistance to unnecessary Government intervention. Curry retired in 1931 and died suddenly in 1933, his extensive obituary in the Echo made no mention of the Titanic. His home at Bassett, was demolished long ago, but his grave can still be seen in the churchyard of st Nicolas’s church, North stoneham.

St Leonard’s Church, Bursledon

St Nicolas’s Church, North Stoneham

Philip Curry (courtesy of Southern Evening Echo)

Black and white images here are from the film A Night to Remember (1958)

6 EASTLEIGH norman leslie Bogie signed on as second Class steward. His age is given variously as twenty-nine or forty-four; in reality he appears to have been fifty-five years old. The family had recently moved from shirley to 130, The Crescent, Eastleigh and he signed on at the usual rate of £3..15s..0d per month. His wife, Jessie Bogie aged fifty-two, claimed from the Titanic Relief Fund for herself and teenage son, Robert. Next door at 132, The Crescent, was the Bogies’ married daughter Mrs Anne Witcher. Her family suffered a double loss as a relative of her husband

also died in the disaster.

Bogie’s body was supposedly recovered (No 274) by the Mackay- Bennett recovery vessel and buried at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax on 8 May 1912. The description of the body estimates the age about 25 years,

wearing a blue suit, over pyjamas and drawers which were marked with the initials L.B. His pockets contained the keys to a cabin, tobacco pouch, and a pocket knife. It seems unlikely that a crew man would put on a suit, it is more likely to be his uniform and it is also unlikely that a uniform was mistaken for a suit. The body description could also apply the Third Class passenger Lewis Braund, whose body was either not recovered, or not identified. Braund was described as 29 years old.

John Dickson longmuir aged nineteen was lodging with the Bogies when he signed on as pantry steward at £3.15 shillings a month and transferred from the Oceanic. His parents had died several years previously and due to a series of remarriages by his successive step parents, his younger siblings were cared for. He however, supported his widowed grandmother susan Wells, and she received payments from the Relief Fund.

The Crescent, Eastleigh

Joseph James Brown had brought his family from Newcastle, comprising wife, child and elderly parents to live at 237, Desborough Road in Eastleigh. Aged thirty, the prospects looked better for him, with potential work either in the Docks or on the railway. He had previously worked on the Oceanic and was taken on as a substitute fireman, when some of the Titanic firemen failed to report for duty on 10 April.

7 CHANDLERS FORDJohn abernethy-Coghill, aged 40, was living at Hildon Villas in southampton Road, Chandlers Ford. He was employed as a shipping clerk for the White star Line in southampton, so had probably signed on many of the crewmembers for the Titanic. After the disaster he would have been employed in the task of compiling the many lists that were needed: an alphabetical list of everybody on board (passengers and crew); lists of passengers only – sorted into First, second and Third Classes; lists of those believed drowned; crew lists showing those who survived and those who were lost; lists for the money owing to the crewmembers and/or their families for a ‘voyage not completed’ and even a list of all the amendments needed for the other lists. The task was enormous and everything had to be sorted and written out by hand. There was no technology available in 1912 to help with the work. Working in southampton, John Coghill would have been involved with all of this and would have known the majority of the men employed by White star. We can only guess at his feelings as he wrote their names with ‘supposed drowned’ alongside.

8 BOTLEY Eileen Schefer was eleven years old when she, together with her younger brother Denis, mother and aunt, travelled to Cherbourg on the Titanic. They had spent the previous night with Eileen’s godmother, Miss Burrell, who lived at Fairthorne Manor, Botley. Miss Burrell lent them her car to take them to the Docks. Eileen was so excited by the ship that her mother suggested she should write letters to her friends during the four-hour crossing. Eileen wrote to her old nursemaid;

Dear Luisa,

The Titanic is the bigest ship in the world there is a swimming bath a gymnation Turkish baths in it. The ship started about 12.15 then we had a long delay because this ship broke the ropes of another ship the Oceanic (sic the New York) as it went flotting about and knocked into this ship but they got it all right after a bit. This is the first long voyage the Titanic has ever made, it is quite calm ... nobody has been sick so far. We should arrive in Cherbourg at five but I do not think we will get there till six. [quoted in Titantic Voices from a private collection]

The family were in Paris when they heard about the loss of Titanic, not realising at first the full extent of the tragedy, even after seeing a poster announcing ‘Blesse au mort le Roi des vessaux’. But of course, it was the Titanic.

Fairthorne Manor

Experience all aspects of the Titanic story as you travel through the Hamble Valley. Here you will find anticipation; departure; the crewmembers; passengers; the rescue and the aftermath.

M3 To Southampton

Collyer shop

Philip Curry inscription

St Leonards church

Workhouse

THE TITANICCoNNECTIoNs

M27 To Portsmouth

White Star Liners Burgee

This map is for illustrative purposes only

Designed by Tina scahill @ The Marketing Collective Ltd. and printed by Indigo Press.

For more information and ideas for days out in the Hamble Valley

visit www.hamblevalley.com

Hamble Valley Heritage Guides

To learn more about the Hamble Valley why not join one of our guided walks? There is a weekly programme throughout the

summer and longer monthly walks in the winter. Alternatively you might belong to a group that would enjoy a talk about the

Titanic or a variety of other subjects.

A Titanic coach tour, with full commentary, around the Borough visiting all the sites. is available to group organisers

Visit the website or contact for more information email: hamblevalley@aol.com

please call 023 8068 8233 or 023 8061 7182 (out of hours only)

www.hamblevalleyheritage.co.uk

Hedge End, West End and Botley Local Area Committee

With thanks to...