Wallace Henry Hartley (2 June 1878 15 April 1912) was an
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
ist and bandleader on the
RMS TitanicThe RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, United Kingdom...
on its maiden voyage. He became famous for leading the eight member band as the ship sank on 15 April 1912.
Life and career
Wallace Hartley was born in
ColneColne is the second largest town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England, with a population of around 20,000. It lies at the end of the M65, 6 miles north-east of Burnley, with Nelson immediately adjacent, in the Aire Gap with two main roads leading into the Yorkshire towns...
,
LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. However, Lancaster is still considered to be the county town...
, and later moved to
DewsburyDewsbury is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, and lies by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation....
,
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
. In school he learned to play the
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
and in 1909 began working on
Cunard LineCunard Line is a British-American-owned British-operated shipping company that has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
ocean liners, primarily on the
RMS MauretaniaRMS Mauretania was an ocean liner built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Mauretania became a favourite among her passengers...
. In 1912 Hartley worked for the music agency C.W. & F.N. Black, which supplied musicians for Cunard and the
White Star LineThe Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated luxury flagship, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of her sister ship, Britannic...
.
In April of that year Hartley was assigned to be the bandmaster for the White Star Line ship RMS
Titanic. He was at first hesitant to again leave his fiancée, Maria Robinson, to whom he had recently proposed, but Hartley decided that working on the maiden voyage of the
Titanic would give him possible contacts for future work.
Sinking of the Titanic
After the
Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink, Hartley and his fellow band members started playing music to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the
lifeboatA lifeboat is a small watercraft carried on a ship to provide a means of emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard the ship. Lifeboats may be rigid or inflatable vessels; the inflatable type are sometimes referred to as liferafts. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a...
s. Many of the survivors said that he and the band continued to play until the very end. None of the band members survived the sinking and the story of them playing to the end became a popular legend (but sometimes mocked in popular culture). One survivor who clambered aboard Collapsible A claimed to have seen Hartley and his band standing just behind the first funnel, by the Grand Staircase. He went on to say that he saw three of them washed off while the other two held on to the railing on top the Grand Staircase's deckhouse, only to be dragged down with the bow, just before Hartley exclaimed, "Gentlemen, I bid you farewell!" A newspaper at the time reported "the part played by the orchestra on board the Titanic in her last dreadful moments will rank among the noblest in the annals of heroism at sea."
While the final song played by the band is unknown, "
Nearer, My God, to Thee"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, based loosely on Genesis 28:11-19, the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11-12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the...
" has gained popular acceptance. Former bandmates claimed that Hartley said he would either play "Nearer, My God, to Thee" or "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" if he was ever on a sinking ship, but
Walter LordWalter Lord was an American author, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.- Early Life :...
's book A Night to Remember
popularized wireless officer Harold BrideHarold Sydney Bride was born in London, England, and later became the Junior Wireless officer on board the maiden voyage of the ocean liner RMS Titanic. The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm 14 April 1912 and sank two hours and forty minutes later...
's account of hearing the song "Autumn". It is believed Bride meant either the hymn called "Autumn" or "Songe d'Automne," a popular song at the time.
Hartley's body was recovered by the Mackay–Bennet
as body number 224 almost two weeks after the sinking. He was transferred to the Arabic and sent to England. One thousand people attended his funeral, while 40,000 lined the route of his funeral procession. He is buried in Colne where a 10-foot monument, containing a carved violin at its base, was erected in his honour. Hartley's large
VictorianThe term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria after whom it is...
terraced house in West Park Street,
DewsburyDewsbury is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is to the west of Wakefield, and lies by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation....
,
West YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, bears a
blue plaqueA blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker...
to remind passers-by that this was the bandleader's home. As of 2001, Hartley's name was still being used when naming new streets and housing in the town of Colne.
Hartley was portrayed by Jonathan Evans-Jones in the 1997 blockbuster
TitanicTitanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the...
.
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