Wallace
Hartley (2nd June 1878 to 15th April 1912)
Have you seen the scene in Titanic film where the small band play on as panic erupts across
every layer of the sinking ship? The band leader was Wallace Henry Hartley and
I’m here at his final resting place. On a cold Saturday afternoon I drove to
Colne and parked outside a chip shop (window open, lovely smell.) I crossed the
road and found, behind the chapel, a cemetery on a hill. Thankfully it wasn’t
too sprawling and I soon found the proud stone off the main path.
Wallace was
born in this town in Lancashire and music was in the family blood. His dad was
the choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent at the local chapel where the
family worshipped. He studied at Colne's Methodist day school, sang in Bethel's
choir and learned violin from a fellow congregation member (note the violin
carving on the headstone.) Leaving school he worked at a local bank. The family
moved to Huddersfield and Wallace joined the Huddersfield Philharmonic
Orchestra. Music really did swish in the blood as at 25 he left home to the
join the municipal orchestra in Bridlington (on the east coast.) At 31 he
joined the Cunard Line as a musician, serving on some huge liners RMS Lucania,
RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania.
Whilst
serving on RMS Mauretania musicians were transferred from Cunard to the White
Star Line which owned the Titanic. In
April 1912 Wallace was 34 and had proposed to his girlfriend so he was
reluctant to leave her when he became bandmaster on RMS Titanic. However he
decided to go as work on this prestigious liner would probably lead to more
work. When the Titanic hit an iceberg panic sprinted across the decks. It was
obvious the liner was going to sink so lifeboats were put into the water.
Wallace and his fellow band members started playing music to help calm the
passengers. Many of the survivors said that he and the band continued to play
until the very end. Not one of the band members lived to confirm this.
Who knows if
they did play on to the bitter end? A survivor who was on 'Collapsible A'
lifeboat said Wallace and his band were stood near the entrance to the grand
staircase. Three were washed off and the other five held on to a railing. How
close this witness was is unknown but he said Wallace exclaimed,
"Gentlemen, I bid you farewell!" as the bow pulled them under.
It was two
weeks before he was recovered. He was fully dressed and wearing a cork and life
jacket. Strapped to his body was a leather music case containing his violin. He
was returned to Liverpool where is father was waiting to bring him back to
Colne. 30,000 - 40,000 lined the route
of his funeral procession and 1,000 attended his funeral on 18th May 1912. Nobody
knows what the last tune the band played at the liner sank. If it was Nearer,
My God, to Thee it was probably the "Propior
Deo" version he had learn at church in Colne.
This version was played at his funeral.
In October
2013 the violin in the case strapped to Wallace’s chest was sold for £900,000
in 10 minutes at auction in Wiltshire. It had only two strings, was cracked and
water-stained. It had been returned to his fiance
(who never married) who kept it as a shrine to the man she never saw alive again.
After her death it was given to her local Salvation Army citadel then later
passed on to a woman in the 1940s. He son found it in her attic. More than
315,000 people viewed it during a three-month exhibition in the United States.
As I looked at
the 3m high stone a man passed by with a small terrier. Three lads sat on a
bench nearby with their bikes on the grass. I was going to draw their attention
to the man who lay here. When you watch the Titanic film you don’t quickly
associate it with a man from a stone town in Lancashire.
A shot of Colne
Cemetery from the rear...
The funeral…
