ABSTRACT

It was, an admirer observed, a ‘good death’. On 15 April 1912 the well-known journalist, Nonconformist social reformer, ex-convict, spiritualist and peace campaigner W.T. Stead perished in the sinking of the Titanic. There were several highly dubious ‘last sightings’ of him by survivors; some recalled him either reading quietly, or helping others into the lifeboats or standing at the rails of the sinking ship, ‘in silence and what seemed … a prayerful attitude, or one of profound meditation’. 1 One survivor was certain that it was Stead who had the ship’s eight-man orchestra play ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ although there is no evidence that the orchestra actually played this piece. In truth, there are no reliable accounts of his last hours, and his body was never found. His death did attract widespread public attention. Once described as ‘the best abused man in England’, 2 his foibles and follies were now largely forgotten. The prominent journalist A.G. Gardiner recalled that as news of the disaster was received there was only one question on London’s Oxford Street: ‘Was W.T. Stead among the lost or the saved?’ Stead memorial bronze reliefs were erected in 1921 both on the Embankment in London and in New York’s Central Park.