Lightoller's marriage

[Hanna Turunen]

Where they (Lightoller and Sylvia) got married? I mean, in what church? Did they went honeymoon after weddings? If they went, where?

Has Sylvia got siblings? If she had got, what are their names? What were Sylvia's parents name?

I'm sorry when I ask so much, but I am so interested in Titanic. I go tomorrow to Pori, what is a city in Finland. There is a museum about sea and officers and other like that. And the owner of museum is captain or something like that. Do you know are there in England some kind of sea museums? I would like to know, 'cause when I come to England, I want to visit there

.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Hallo, Hanna. The Lightollers were married in the Church of St James in Sylvia's home town of Sydney, Australia. They returned to Liverpool, England on the liner Suevic, and that trip served as their honeymoon. Sylvia had two brothers, and her parents' names were John and Charlotte Hawley-Wilson. Her father had been killed in a mining accident when Sylvia was a child.

There are many places in the UK where you can see old ships and collections of objects and documents relating to ships and the sea. The biggest of these is the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. Here is a link to their website:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/

And a complete list of all maritime and naval museums and exhibits in the UK and Ireland:
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~mhe1000/regions.htm

 

[Inger Sheil]

Absolutely concur with Bob on the National Maritime Museum - a wonderful place to visit, Hanna. There are also a good many maritime and naval museums that can be found through the link he provides - I'm particularly fond of the Hull Maritime Museum, the Southampton Maritime Museum and the Naval Museum in Portsmouth...if you can get down there, you'll love HMS Victory, the Warrior, the Mary Rose and all the wonderful Nelsoniana (yesterday was Trafalgar Day!).

The church the Lightollers were married in is near, but not in Sydney itself - I'll check the marriage certificate and give you the details (unless Pat has her copy to hand and can post them more swiftly).

 

[Pat Winship]

Hanna, if you're interested in Lightoller, don't miss the East Kent Maritime Trust museum in Ramsgate, which has Sundowner, the boat he took to Dunkirk. You need to make an appointment if you want to go on board, so contact them beforehand. Here's her picture on their website. http://www.ekmt.fsnet.co.uk/ships.html

I am currently at work, and don't have my copy of the Lightollers' marriage certificate. I don't recall any more than Inger has already said, however. There's a very charming picture of Sylvia on her wedding day in Patrick Stenson's Titanic Voyager that you may want to get.

Pat W.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Hallo Hanna - I've dug it up. I was quite wrong, I might add - St James' church is in Sydney, as Bob stated (I was thinking of her birthplace, Trunkey Creek - an old mining village near the Abercrombie Caves). I imagine as there are no further details given it was St James' Church in King Street - it's a great church, not far from Hyde Park. One of the oldest Anglican churches in Oz.

 

[Hanna Turunen]

Okay. Thanks to you! I have to wish Stenson's book to Xmas present

.

 

[Inger Sheil]

I think you'll enjoy Stenson's book, Hanna. Pat is also putting together some great material on Lightoller for the ET bio. Have you read Lightoller's book, Titanic and Other Ships?

As an aside, readers of the on-line edition of TAOS in Australia might be a bit concerned about potential changes to our copyright laws as a result of the Free Trade Agreement with the USA. Copyright might be extended from the current 50 years to bring it in line with the USA...you may want to read TAOS while it's still free from copyright restrictions in Oz!

 

[Hanna Turunen]

I hope he can put them soon

. I'm reading it but it is quite hard for me

, but the best thing about that is I learn read difficult english and I learn new words too

.

I have got printed version of Lightoller's book, I loaded it from internet, so I have to ask, are there pictures in it?

 

[monica e. hall]

Yes, I can see the English would be hard for you, Hanna. He writes as though he is talking to you, which is good in many ways, but of course he is using the colloquial language of over 90 years ago, not to mention some very arcane nautical terms. I was a bit puzzled by some parts of it myself. But it's well worth persevering with, as it is very lively. I don't know how accurate his memories or observations are - he wrote it many years after those events. He gives the impression, for example, that he spoke to Phillips on the upturned lifeboat, which most researchers think is not true. I do not know so very much about that, but Inger probably does.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Your English is very good, Hanna! I can understand that it would be difficult reading these sources in a foreign language, however - and as Monica says, it is written in the colloquial style of many decades ago. No pictures in Lightoller's book, but you'll be very pleased when you get your edition of Stenson's biography - it's very richly illustrated with photographs.

There are a lot of innacuracies and deviations from his earlier testimony, Monica. For example, he has the Titanic nearly colliding with the St Paul rather than the New York on departure from Southampton. He states that it was Phillips on Collapsible B who gave him the information on what ships had been contacted and were on their way - when questioned specifically by Gracie in 1912 as to whether he had spoken to Phillips, he had said no (it was Bride who gave him the information). He also flatly contradicted his 1912 statement that he had seen none of the engineers make it up top - in TAOS, he describes their arrival.

Given the interval between the events and when he wrote them down, it's understandable that his memory on many points had become somewhat hazy! I don't think he would ever have imagined people examining and weighing every word on the subject the way we do today - had he anticipated that, he might have gone over his earlier testimony and researched some points more thoroughly.

 

[Hanna Turunen]

Yes, Monica, it's

.

Thanks to you, Inger! I don't think it's good, but thanks anyway! Okay, so Stenson's book is my number one on my Xmas list

.