Wallace Hartley
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Wallace Henry Hartley (June 2, 1878 - April 15, 1912) was a violinist who led the Wallace Hartley band, on the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage. He became famous for leading the eight member band as the ship sank on April 15, 1912.
[edit] Life and career
Wallace Hartley was born in Colne, Lancashire, England on June 2, 1878. In school he learned to play the violin and in 1909 began working on Cunard Line ocean liners, primarily on the RMS Mauretania. In 1912 Hartley worked for the music agency C.W. & F.N. Black which supplied musicians for Cunard and the White Star Line.
In April of that year Hartley was assigned to be the bandmaster for the White Star Line ship RMS Titanic. He was at first reluctant to go, not wanting 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.
[edit] Sinking of the Titanic
After the Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink, Wallace Hartley and his fellow band members started playing music to help keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats. Many of the survivors claimed that he and the band continued to play till the very end. None of the band members survived the sinking and the story of them playing to the end became a popular legend. 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."
There has been a great deal of speculation of what the last song the band played was. Some survivors remember hearing the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee". This song became the most popular belief with former band mates saying 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 Lord's book A Night to Remember popularized wireless officer Harold Bride's account of hearing the song "Autumn". It is believed Bride meant the hymn called "Autumn" or "Songe d'Automne," a popular song at the time.
His body was recovered by the Mackay–Bennet as body number 224. 1,000 people attended his funeral, while 40,000 lined the route of his funeral procession. He is buried in Colne where a 10–foot bust was erected in his honour. A blue plaque marks the house in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire where he lived at the time of his death.
Hartley was portrayed by Jonathan Evans-Jones in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic.
