Museum

Jack Phillips and the , KS 2+ loan box

Suggestions for how to use the material in this box

1. Working and travelling on the Titanic (p 3 – 9)

• Find out about five local people associated with the Titanic • Explore some of the ways in which life in 1912 was different from life today • Use the Titanic as a starting point to explore reasons for and the experience of, immigration 2. How do we know what happened in the past? Can we always rely on the evidence? (p 10 – 12)

• Consider the nature and reliability of different types of evidence about the past • Research, and present the evidence for and against, statements often made about the Titanic • Debate ethical issues raised by the story of the Titanic 3. Creative Writing (p 13)

• Write letters, postcards, telegrams, poems or play scripts inspired by the Titanic 4. SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) (p14)

• Find out about the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Convention and how the lessons learned from the loss of the Titanic save lives today. • Find out about icebergs and about the International Ice Patrol • Design an effective life jacket

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1. Working and travelling on the Titanic 1.1 Jack Phillips The Chief Wireless Operator on the Titanic, Jack Phillips, came from and learned at Godalming Post Office. He stayed at his post as the ship sank, sending the SOS messages which brought the Carpathia to rescue the survivors of the tragedy. Jack’s last radio message was sent 3 minutes before the Titanic sank and he was lost with the ship. He was just 25 having had his birthday on board the Titanic. Jack Phillips is remembered in the beautiful Arts and Crafts Phillips Memorial in Godalming, on a plaque in Farncombe Church and in a specially commissioned portrait and framed photograph on display in the Museum. The Phillips family plot in Nightingale Cemetery in Farncombe features a memorial stone in the shape of an iceberg.

Related items in the box: • Father Browne’s Titanic Album Includes the only known photograph of the Titanic’s radio shack and a photograph of Jack Phillips • Pack of 16 replica telegrams relating to the Titanic • Newspaper article “Thrilling Story by Titanic’s Surviving Wireless Man” from , April 19th 1912 Report of an interview with Jack’s assistant, . The original article was illustrated by photographs of Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, and a dramatic drawing of the moment when a stoker tried to steal Phillip’s life belt. You can see a copy of this illustration on the back of the copy of the article. The stoker is drawn already wearing a life belt, although the article itself makes it clear that this was not in fact the case, and also that Bride was not certain that the man was a stoker. He was “somebody from below decks.” Like Jack Phillips, many of the stokers on the Titanic died bravely, sticking to their post. Down in the bottom of the ship with little hope of escape, they stoked the boilers to keep the lights on and power the radio. Their heroism was noted at the time (see items 2 & 7). • Titanic in Memoriam issue of the Daily Graphic, Saturday 20th (replica no.14 in the file of replicas) Features a photograph of Jack, “the sender of the “S.O.S.” signal for help”, a photograph of “a wireless cabin on an Atlantic Liner” and columns headed “The Titanic’s Operators” and “Doomed Ship’s Farewell – Last Messages from the Titanic before she Sank” • Lost Voices from the Titanic, the Definitive Oral History, by Nick Barratt Includes Harold Bride’s written testimony to Marconi dated 27th April 1912 p. 139 – 144 (also look for Phillips in the index). Harold’s story changes over time and in different contexts. • Phillips Memorial Park, an Arts and Crafts Movement Tribute to a Hero of the Titanic, edited by Sarah Sullivan Describes the creation of the memorial, including fascinating detail about the formidable committee of women who created it, also discusses its context within the Arts and Crafts Movement and its development since 1914

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• DVD – Phillips Memorial Cloister and Grounds, opening, April 1914 A copy of an original film in the museum’s collection. The ceremony was attended by Jack’s family, by his assistant Wireless Operator, Harold Bride, and by Architect Hugh Thackeray Turner and Garden Designer Gertrude Jekyll who had designed the cloister and memorial grounds. In the museum you can see a table napkin from the tea which followed the service. This short film was made by Mr Fudger to show in the Empire Cinema in Station Road in Godalming. • A Farncombe Lad by Mandy Le Boutillier Specially produced for the museum, to mark the centenary of the loss of the Titanic, this booklet was written by the acknowledged expert on Jack Phillips. Additional copies can be bought in the museum shop

In the zip bag: 1. Titanic Radio Distress Traffic Compiled by Glen Dunstan www.hf.ro 2. Article from the Washington Post, Saturday 20th April 1912, “Titanic Wireless Chief Died on a Life raft” 3. Copy of Harold Bride’s testimony to the British Inquiry into the loss of the Titanic in May 1912 4. The fateful ice warnings that could have saved Titanic…?” Article by John Booth, originally published in the Winter 1997 edition of the “Titanic Signals News” 5. Photograph of the portrait of Jack Phillips by Ellis Martin Painted after Jack’s death, this was based on a photograph taken a few years earlier by Farncombe photographer Jennie Stedman. The original portrait is now in Godalming Museum. A plaque on the frame reads “Jack Phillips, Wireless Operator on “The Titanic” 1912. From past and present scholars of the Godalming Grammar School.” After Jack’s death Jennie sent the photograph she had taken to Marconi, who sold copies to raise money to help the widows and orphans of those lost on the Titanic. 6. Photograph of the framed photograph of Jack Phillips, created by Charles Elworthy Mr Elworthy had been Jack’s headmaster at the Godalming Grammar School (not the one which became the VI form college, but an earlier, private school). He created this beautiful copper frame for one of Jennie Stedman’s photographs. It is a fascinating object. The symbols Mr Elworthy chose for the frame tell us much about Jack’s life and about how people felt at the time about the way he died. Mr Elworthy made this tribute to Jack for Godalming Post Office, where it hung for many years. It was then given to Marconi and later came back to Godalming to hang in the Godalming Youth Centre (the Wilfrid Noyce Centre). In danger of being thrown out during some building work, it was rescued by someone who worked at the Centre and years later donated to the Godalming Museum, where you can see it hanging today. 7. Two poems by Edwin Drew “John Phillips” and “Down Below the Deck” taken from “The Chief Incidents of the “Titanic” Wreck treated in verse, together with the lessons of the disaster (with portraits)” published in May 1912. 8. Article from the Wireless World, 1914, “Commemorating a Deed of Courage” Report on the unveiling of Jack Phillips’ Memorial which includes the speech given by Mr J St Leo Strachey, High Sherriff of

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1.2 Lucy and Margaret Snape

Lucy Snape was a stewardess on the Titanic. She was born in Crooksbury in 1890 and married a ship’s captain, Edward Snape, in 1909. Her husband died young leaving her with a baby, Margaret. Lucy and Margaret then lived with Lucy’s parents in Well Lane in Sandhills, . Faced with the need to earn her own living, Lucy enlisted the help of the local MP who used his influence to get her a posting as a stewardess on the Titanic. Although it was a challenging job, there was always a lot of competition for stewardess posts. Lucy was paid £3 a month, with additional tips from the passengers she looked after, if she was lucky. Her young daughter was able to travel with her. She must have felt very fortunate to have the job. Margaret survived the sinking but Lucy died. There were 23 female crew members on board the Titanic (20 stewardesses, one stewardess-matron and 2 cashiers). All but three of them survived. Only 60 of the 322 male stewards survived. Two of the surviving stewardesses, remembered “Another one who refused to move was a second-cabin stewardess, Mrs Snape, a widow, 21 years of age with a little girl. As she fastened the lifebelts on her passengers she wished them good-bye. Later she told some of the stewardesses that she did not expect to see them again.”

Related items in the box:

• Titanic Survivor, the Memoirs of , Stewardess Violet Jessop, one of the other stewardesses on the Titanic describes her career at sea. In chapter 15 she writes about working for the and in chapter 17 about the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic. Chapters 20 - 22 are Violet’s eyewitness account of sailing on the Titanic, escaping the sinking on a life boat and being rescued by the Carpathia. Violet survived a second shipwreck during the First World War when she served as a Red Cross nurse on the Britannic. In the zip bag:

9. Two Witley Victims Copy of an article in the Surrey Advertiser and County Times, Sat 20th April 1912 10. Stewardess on an – What our daughters can do for employment An extract from “A Handbook of Women’s Employments” by Mrs H Coleman Davidson, 1894 With a copy of a letter from a surviving Titanic Stewardess, Mary Sloan on the back 11. Stewardess’ apron information sheet

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1.3 William Lindsey

Born in 1886 into an old Godalming family, William Lindsey attended the British School (the original school building is now Major Minors, the school itself Godalming Junior). Leaving school at 12, he joined the Godalming Post Office as a Telegraph Boy, and was there at the same time as Jack Phillips. William became a postman, but left to join the Navy and then, after a couple of years, the White Star Line. William began working for White Star as a 3rd class steward, working up to 1st class. In 1912, William was working on the Olympic. He was due to be transferred to the Titanic, but because the coal strike delayed sailing, his transfer was cancelled at the last moment and he sailed on the Olympic again instead.

Most of the crew of the Olympic and Titanic came from and many of the Olympic’s crew had relatives aboard the Titanic. William himself had many friends aboard the Titanic, including Jack, and he had served under Captain Smith on the Adriatic for five years. On the night of the sinking, the Olympic rushed to the Titanic’s rescue but was too far away and arrived too late. Meanwhile William Lindsey’s family believed he had been lost with the Titanic and Godalming Borough Council passed a vote of condolence with Mr and Mrs Lindsey at the same time as the vote passed expressing condolence with Mr and Mrs Phillips.

Soon after the loss of the Titanic, William Lindsey left White Star. He later wrote “I did about two more trips on the Olympic, but somehow it wasn’t the same and I wanted to be out of Southampton, so I went to and joined the Union Castle to South and East Africa,”

Related items in the bag:

12. A Ship of Gloom and A Narrow Escape Copies of two articles from the Surrey Times dating from 1912 13. A Farncombe Man Looks Back A series of articles by William Lindsey, published in the Farncombe Parish Magazine in 1960 – 61, describing his childhood in Godalming and Farncombe, his life at sea and his experiences aboard the Olympic.

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1.4 Lord Pirrie

Anyone familiar with Brook will know the Pirrie Hall, the village hall and cricket pavilion which sits next to the cricket ground in the heart of the village. Inside the hall hangs a portrait of William James Pirrie, Viscount Pirrie, owner of Witley Park, who built the hall “for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the hamlets of Brook, Sandhills and the adjoining district”. Lord Pirrie owned Witley Park from 1909 until his death in 1924. On lanes and footpaths around Brook, you will come across field and park gates featuring the star emblem of the White Star Line, for Pirrie was the Chairman of , the ship builders which built the Olympic, Titanic and Britanic. He was also a member of the International Mercantile Marine (IMM) syndicate which owned the White Star Line which commissioned the ships.

Pirrie and his wife divided their time between Witley, London and Belfast. When Pirrie died of pneumonia on board the liner Ebro in the Caribbean, his body was brought back to Southampton on the Olympic. From Southampton it was brought by hearse to Witley Park, where it was received by the Park tenants, then on to London, where a public funeral service was held. Pirrie’s final resting place was Belfast cemetery, overlooking the Harland and Wolff ship yard.

In April 1912, Pirrie was due to sail on the Titanic, but he was recovering from a prostate operation and in the end was unable to travel. Harland and Wolff was instead represented on the ship’s maiden voyage, by Pirrie’s nephew . Although he was the owner’s nephew, Thomas had entered the ship yard as an apprentice at the age of 16 (as Pirrie had done himself). As a “premium apprentice”, Thomas Andrews worked 12- hour days while also taking evening classes in Machine and Freehand Drawing and Naval Architecture. He completed his apprenticeship in 1894 and began a highly successful career at Harland and Wolff which culminated in his appointment as Managing Director in 1907.

On board the Titanic, Captain Smith called Thomas Andrews to inspect the damage shortly after the collision. Andrews realised immediately that the ship could not be saved and began to make arrangements to save the passengers.

The following description of his actions comes from the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum’s Titanic Education pack

“One stewardess reported seeing Thomas “bareheaded and insufficiently clad against the icy cold” going quietly about the ship organising the crew to rouse the passengers and ensure they were dressed in warm clothing. He ordered spare rooms to be opened and their blankets and lifebelts distributed to those in need. He seemed to be everywhere, quietly organising passengers and crew and many survivors later credited him with averting panic by the calm and controlled way he dealt with people. He assisted in the launching of the lifeboats, persuading some reluctant passengers that being put off in boats was safer than remaining on board.

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Shortly before the Titanic sank, one crewman reported meeting him, carrying a lifebelt, on his way to the bridge, it was later presumed to bid his old friend Captain Smith goodbye. An assistant steward saw him standing in the Smoking Room, his arms folded and his lifebelt lying on the table. When he spoke to him he received no answer

At 2.20 am on Monday 15th April Titanic’s stern rose high in the air and the great ship sank. Thomas Andrews was not among the survivors

Four days later a Mr James Moore in Belfast received a telegram from James Montogomery in New York

“Interview Titanic’s officers. All unanimous Andrews heroic unto death, thinking only safety others”

Related items in the box:

• DVD, the Olympic (Titanic’s sister ship)

• Lost Voices from the Titanic, the Definitive Oral History, by Nick Barratt Look for Pirrie in the index

• Titanic, Magic Tree House Research Guide Page 15 – 19, 29 Thomas Andrews

In the zip bag:

14. 6 photographs of Witley Park Viscount Pirrie’s extraordinary country house at Witley had been created by financier , who had bought Lea Park House in 1894 and then spent thousands (millions in today’s money) rebuilding it as Witley Park and laying out the grounds. He even built an underwater room in the lake (there is a photograph of this in the pack). Whitaker Wright committed suicide when he was found guilty of fraud in 1904. The black granite tomb which marks his grave in Witley Churchyard is inscribed “He loved the poor” - he had kept many local people in employment. Witley Park was put up for sale in 1905 but did not find a buyer until Viscount Pirrie bought it in 1909. The sepia photographs were taken in the 1920s, after Viscount Pirrie had died and the house had been sold to Sir John Leigh. The black and white photograph was taken in the 1990s and the colour photograph in 2012.

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1.5 Immigrants

Many of those travelling third class, or steerage, on the Titanic were immigrants, hoping for a new life in America. Although there was a lot of publicity surrounding the glamourous first class accommodation on the Titanic and her sister ships, Olympic and Britanic, it was the large numbers of people wanting to emigrate to America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century who really made it worthwhile for the shipping lines to build and run ocean liners. The White Star Line prided themselves on the high standard of the third class accommodation on the Titanic and her sister ships, which was better quality than second class accommodation on other ships.

Why did so many people want to emigrate to America? Titanic, Magic Tree House Research Guide, pages 33 & 39 offer a short introduction to immigrants on the Titanic William Lindsey wrote in “A Farncombe Man Looks Back Again” that “That was the time when America was taking all the immigrants she could get hold of” – why was America encouraging immigration at this time? Related items in the box: • White Star Line Poster (no. 6 in the replica pack) Who is this aimed at? • The Arrival by Shaun Tan This beautiful book explores the experience of leaving your family and travelling to a new land to make a life for them there Related items in the zip bag: 15. Photograph of the Borough Hall in Godalming This photograph was taken some time between 1861 (when the hall was built) and 1904 (when some alterations were made). Use a magnifying glass to read the posters – can you read what it says at the top of the notice board fixed between the windows? 16. Suitcase activity What would you take if you were emigrating?

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2 How do we know what happened in the past? Can we always rely on the evidence?

What is primary and what is secondary evidence?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type of evidence?

Consider how and why eye witness accounts vary:-

• Who hit the stoker who tried to take Jack Phillips’ life jacket? • What was the band playing as the Titanic sank? • How did Captain Smith die? • Did Jack Phillips make it to a lifeboat? Put the News Reports (pack of 16 postcards of newspaper front pages) into date order (you may need a magnifying glass to do this!) and note how the headlines change. Why is this? How do fictional accounts – like ’s film – affect our view of what happened? Nick Barratt considers this and some of the other issues with the nature and reliability of the evidence for what happened in the preface to Lost Voices from the Titanic Research, and present the evidence for and against, statements often made about the Titanic Use the material in the box and information from other sources. The book Titanic, Magic Tree House Research Guide in the box has some useful research guidelines on pages 124 – 129. Why did the Titanic sink? Here are some of the suggestions which have been made over the years: • The ship yard used poor quality rivets • The ship was badly designed (particularly the bulkheads) • The ship was going too fast • Ice warnings were ignored by the radio operators • Ice warnings were ignored by the officers on the Bridge • The iceberg was hard to see • The lookout was not equipped with binoculars • The ship turned to avoid the iceberg • A fire in the coal hold weakened the bulkheads

What evidence can you find in the material in the loan box and from other sources about these suggestions (and others)? Which evidence do you think is most reliable and why?

Why did so many people die?

• How many places were there on the lifeboats? Why? • Why had no lifeboat drill been held? • Why weren’t all the places in the lifeboats filled?

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• What happened to the people in the water? • Could a rescue ship have got there sooner? • Why was it so hard to persuade other ships that the Titanic really was sinking?

You might also consider how so many people survived… How did the Carpathia find out what had happened and know where to come to rescue the passengers and crew in the open lifeboats?

Who was saved - was it really “?”

Looking through the material in the box and in other sources you will find examples of great heroism among the passengers and as well as stories of desperate acts. After the sinking, male passengers who took places in the lifeboats, particularly Bruce Ismay, were widely criticised. But was this fair?

Is “Women and Children First” fair in any case?

Look at the tables which illustrate who survived and who died (item 17). Which one do you find most helpful? Why are the numbers different on the two tables? Could you make your own table, graph or graphic to convey this information?

Look in the folder of replicas to see a resolution of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers Union, received by the Board of Trade on 19th April 1912 (replica no.2).

• Why did the Union only send condolences to the families of the third class passengers and crew? • Do the figures in the tables bear out what they say in their resolution? • Do you think their recommendations are sensible? How do they compare with the international convention for “Safety of Life at Sea” (SOLAS) first agreed in 1914 (see laminated sheet)?

After the sinking there were stories of gates being locked to stop third class passengers from reaching the lifeboats and even of third class passengers being threatened with pistols to prevent them getting onto lifeboats. A popular song about the disaster included the line “they kept them down below, where they were the first to go.” Can you find any evidence for whether these stories were true?

There was certainly prejudice against third class passengers (also called steerage passengers). Look at William Lindsey’s memories to see how he talks about his first sight of immigrants on board the Adriatic.

Daisy and Frederick Speddon, Americans travelling first class on the Titanic, survived the sinking. On board the Carpathia, they worked hard to help fellow survivors of all classes. Daisy wrote in her diary for 15th April that she went to

11 bed “worn out both mentally and physically” after “working all day looking after the people, our special protégées, besides some steerage passengers.” She wrote to a friend that “we spend our time sitting on people who are cruel enough to say that no steerage should have been saved, as if they weren’t human beings!”

Should artefacts be brought up from the wreck site?

The raising of artefacts from the is controversial (see the article in the copy of the National Geographic in the loan box for mention of this). What do you think? Should the Titanic and the passengers and crew who died rest in peace, or do the artefacts which have been brought up help to keep their memory alive? What should be done with the artefacts?

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3 Creative writing

Suggestions:-

Edith Rosenbaum’s story – use ’s account of the disaster (item 18), or other survivor’s accounts, to write a play script (or use the one provided in the bag – item 19).

Letters, postcards and telegrams

Jack Phillips’ job as a Wireless Operator took him all over the world, working on many different ships, before he sailed on the Titanic. He sent many postcards home to his twin sisters, Ethel and Elsie. You can see two of Jack’s postcards in Godalming Museum, along with the album in which Elsie collected his postcards. In the loan box there are examples of letters, postcards and telegrams sent from the Titanic before she left Ireland, and by survivors after the sinking.

What would you have written about the voyage, either before or after the sinking?

Use the Morse code key, the ideas in Kirkleatham Museum’s Morse code activity pack (item 20 in the bag) & photocopies of the blank telegram form (item 21) to send each other messages in Morse code. Connect the wires to the battery to make the Morse code key work. Please disconnect the wires when you pack the key away. The blank telegram form can be photocopied so that students can compose and send their own messages The full name of the Titanic was RMS Titanic. Royal Mail Ship Titanic (the S can also stand for Steamship or Steamer, although the acronym RMS has been used since 1840, when most ships were sailing ships). In Father Browne’s album you can see a photograph of mail bags being loaded onto the ship. As the lower decks of the Titanic filled with water, crew members tried to move the mail bags to higher decks to keep them safe.

What do you think was in the letters lost in the Titanic? If we could read them today, what would they tell us about life in 1912?

Write a poem or compose a song inspired by the Titanic.

There were many songs and poems written about the loss of the Titanic at the time (some of which seem odd and dated today).

Edwin Drew produced a book “The Chief Incidents of the “Titanic” Wreck treated in verse, together with the lessons of the disaster (with portraits)” in May 1912. It included a poem about Jack Phillips and another about the stokers, firemen and trimmers (the men who kept the boilers supplied with coal). There are copies of these poems in the Jack Phillips bag (item 7) and

13 you can see a copy of Edwin Drew’s book in Godalming Museum’s local studies library.

Father Browne’s poem “In Memoriam” is on p118 of Father Browne’s Titanic Album in the loan box.

The tragic tale of the Titanic continues to inspire musicians and writers today, a CD of “Look Out! Southampton’s Titanic Story in Song”, produced for the centenary of the loss of the Titanic, is included in the loan box.

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4 SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea)

Find out about the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Convention and how the Titanic saves lives today.

22. Information sheet Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) – how the loss of the Titanic saved lives One safety measure established as a result of the loss of the Titanic is the International Ice Patrol. This can be a good starting point for a study of icebergs and climate change.

Design an effective life jacket

23. Replica Lifejacket, information sheet (item 23) and block of cork This replica lifejacket is based on the few Titanic lifejackets which survive. 24. Information sheet comparing the Titanic lifejacket with a modern lifejacket Or someone may have a modern lifejacket they can bring in to compare with the replica Stewardess Lucy Snape fastened her passenger’s lifejackets for them. First Class passenger Edith Rosenbaum described how “a young man threw a life belt over my shoulders, untied, just hanging loosely. I had searched my room for one but was too unnerved to find it. If I would have had to put the life belt to practical use, it would have been to no avail, as the thing was just flung on, not even tied”. The replica life jacket and information sheets can help you explore materials and their properties, with students carrying out research and tests and designing, and even making, their own lifejackets.

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Your Ideas Here …

Please share ways in which you have used the material in this loan box – thank you!

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