Mr Samuel John Webber was born at 44 Grey Street in Bootle, Lancashire, England on 29 June 1891 and baptised on 12 August that year in St Leonard’s Church. He was one of seven children born to Samuel Webber, a ship’s baker, and the former Elizabeth Melhuish, a chandlery shopkeeper, both natives of Devon. 

Webber’s father died when he was young and he went to sea as a teenager, appearing in crew lists as early as 1906 when he was a waiter aboard Carmania; he also served aboard Ivernia and Saxonia. His 1911 address was 182 Peel Road, Bootle, where he would remain for the rest of his life. 

In April 1912 Webber was a waiter aboard Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic disaster.

In the following years, Webber may have remained at sea, but with the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted with the 18th Battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment; he was killed in action on 20 October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and he is remembered on Thiepval Memorial.