Wallace Hartley
Wallace Henry Hartley ( born June 2, 1878 in Colne, † April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic ) was an English violinist and leader of the eight-piece band on the Titanic, which sank on 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Life
Wallace Hartley comes from Colne in Lancashire and lived in Dewsbury in West Yorkshire later. At school he learned to play the violin game. In 1909 he hired as a musician on ships of the Cunard Line, especially on the Mauretania. 1912 Hartley was at the Music Agency C. W. & F.N. Black hired mediated the musicians for the Cunard Line and the White Star Line. In the same year he was engaged as conductor of the band of the Titanic.
Sinking of the Titanic
After the Titanic had collided on April 14, 1912 at 23.40 clock with the iceberg and began to sink, Hartley and his band played to calm the passengers during the loading of the lifeboats. Many survivors later reported that the musicians endured until shortly before the downfall. None of them survived.
To the last-played piece of the chapel is shrouded in speculation. While some survivors have suggested to the chorale Nearer My God to remind you, others mentioned the hymn Autumn, a then popular song.
Wallace Hartley's body ( number 224) was recovered by the Mackay - Bennett about two weeks after the sinking of the Titanic. On board the Arabic, the body was transferred to England. One thousand people attended Hartley's funeral, while 40,000 lined the route of the funeral procession. Wallace Hartley is buried in his hometown of Colne. There a about three meters tall monument to him was erected in honor, in its base, a violin is carved. At his home in Dewsbury a blue plaque was placed in memory. In 2012, a seawater- damaged violin was found that, after a seven-month investigation known as the Hartley's, which he played on the night of the sinking. It is alleged that Hartley had the instrument tied in a suitcase in front of the belly and it could be so secure with his body out of the Atlantic. In the identification card that was created after the recovery of the body, clothes and items are found, which bore the dead man to be a violin and a suitcase, however, were not among them. On October 18, 2013, the auction house Henry Aldridge & Son auctioned for 1.05003 million British pounds, the violin, which played Wallace in the sinking of the Titanic.
In the Titanic film version of 1997 Hartley was played by Jonathan Evans -Jones.
Swell
- Wallace Hartley in the Encyclopedia Titanica
- Stephen Spignesi: Titanic - the ship that never sank. Chronicle of a century legend. Goldmann Verlag, ISBN 3- 442-15068 -X.