Harold Bride photos

[Cornelius Thiessen]

Does anyone out there have any photos of Harold Bride? I know of only 3, and all taken around the time of the Titanic disaster. I understand he was a bit of a recluse when it came to Titanic's fate,so I might be barking up the tree.thanks to those that answer my post....

 

[Megan brule]

Cornelius,

I found this excellent web site on Harold Bride that contains photographs and a biography.
The web site can be found here:

Harold Bride--too darn cute for his own good

I hope this helps.

 

[Cornelius Thiessen]

Megan and Kyrila,thanks very much for posting that Harold Bride link, was great to see those photos and read a little more about Harold.

That article was the second or third reference I've heard to Jack Philips being found dead in the collapsible, other sources say it is'nt true. I guess thats one we'll never truly know......

 

[Alex McLean]

Also stated that Jack and Harold had met before they were appointed to Titanic.
Still any reference to this?
My best,

Alex

 

[Kritina Johnston]

Sorry, there's been absolutely no proof whatsoever that Jack and Harold ever met each other before the Titanic. That is certainly something I would have loved to have found out as true, but alas, there's nothing to substantiate it thus far. (Not even that oft misidentified "Adriatic" photo).

As for Jack being found in the collapsible, this originally comes from a comment Harold made in his NY Times interview. He had said that it was Phillips he saw, but considering his state of mind at the time, I would attribute that to more of wishful thinking than any intention to mislead.

And I had to look at that website again...oh, dear, that's not the best site for accurate information about Harold, I'm afraid. The young woman who put that site up caused rather a stir some years back by claiming a love triangle between Harold, his fiancee at the time, and the woman he eventually married. Which could almost sound plausible, except for the fact that his accquaintance with the two women occurred at two totally different times, not connected with each other.

Plus, there was the matter of a fabricated diary from Cyril Evans, but that's another matter entirely...

 

[Christine Geyer]

Thanks for sharing that link. The one picture that I hadn't seen before is the one in wheelchair from April 18 and I must admit I had never ever recognized him in that one!

Regards to all
Christine

 

[Megan brule]

Harold Bride confirmed that he and Jack Philips had never met before the Titanic.

 

[Inger Sheil]

It is worth noting that the author of this website (to which I inadvertantly contributed the title with a chance remark many years ago) claims to be the reincarnation of Lucy Bride, Harold Bride's wife.

She is the source for a lot of the innacurate information on Harold Bride and the Marconi operators that is circulating on the internet.

Christine, I'll have to see if I can dig up some other sources for you on that photo of Bride in the wheelchair.

 

[Pat Winship]

Lightoller also thought that Philips was on Collapsible B:

"We knew that ships were racing to our rescue, though the chances of our keeping up our efforts of balancing until one came along seemed very, very remote. Phillips, the senior wireless operator, standing near me, told me the different ships that had answered our call. Of these, according to their positions, undoubtedly the Carpathia was nearest and should be up with the position where the Titanic sank, by daylight."

He goes on to say, "Slowly–oh how slow it seemed–she worked her way towards us. Meantime the boat under us showed unmistakable signs of leaving us altogether. I think it must have been the final and terrible anxiety that tipped the beam with Phillips, for he suddenly slipped down, sitting in the water, and though we held his head up, he never recovered. I insisted on taking him into the lifeboat with us, hoping there still might be life, but it was too late. Altogether there were thirty of us boarded the lifeboat, and later on I counted seventy-five living, apart from those lying on the bottom boards. If a sea got up it was going to take all my knowledge of boat-craft to keep her afloat."

Lightoller Titanic and Other Ships

Pat Winship

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Lightoller might eventually have come to accept one or another of Bride's versions of events and believed that Phillips was on the upturned boat, but he certainly had no first-hand knowledge of this at the time. At the American Inquiry he said: "I think the senior Marconi operator was on the boat and died. The Marconi junior operator told me that the senior was on this boat and died".

If Bride was the source of that assessment, his own report to the Marconi traffic manager makes interesting reading: "I learned later from several sources that he (Philips) was on this boat and expired even before we were picked up by the Titanic's lifeboat No 12"

So who actually saw Phillips on collapsible B, if not Bride or Lightoller? Certainly not Gracie, whose accounts make it clear that Bride was the Marconi man who spoke to Lightoller, and that, with regard to the body transferred to boat 12: "Lightoller was uncertain also which one he was of two men he had in mind, but we were both certain that it was not the body of Phillips"

 

[Inger Sheil]

Gracie pretty much dealt with the Bride story in his book - fortunately, he delved into the matter very soon after the disaster, before the memories of the participants became hazy. Bride and Lightoller seem to have placed Phillips there on the basis of hearsay from others. From memory, Thomas Whitely was the only one who claimed he saw Phillips there, and Whitely was a bit of a clearing house for gossip. Bride's own reports to Marconi stated that the last time he saw his colleague he was heading aft.

 

[Dave Gittins]

Bride varied his story quite a bit. On 20 June 1913, in the civil court, he agreed with Henry Duke, who said, "You were washed off the deck and Phillips was drowned." In the context, Duke may have meant that both the operators were washed off. As he said, "I think it was a sheer accident that you did not share Phillips's fate."

This version is more in line with his letter to the Marconi company. I fear that Bride's TNYT article put him in an awkward position at the inquiries. The story may well have been embroidered for public consumption and we can't tell how much was added by Jim Speers from TNYT. We end up with various versions of the death of Phillips and the fight with the stoker. Bride later found himself at the inquiries with these tales already in circulation.

 

[Jemma Hyder]

The Bride biography is pretty much ready to go up on "On watch"

Dave,

I agree that the NYT article came back to get Bride. It does read as quite dramatic lol.

As for Bride being a recluse in his later years my sources say it simply isn't true, and that he was quite happy chatting to friends in Scotland where he lived about the disaster.

 

[Kritina Johnston]

In terms of that NYT interview, I've never viewed it as that completely dissonate in terms of how it fits with the other accounts Bride gave later on. When I read it, I see someone trying his best to give his version of events, but not being able to quite put them together in such a way that it makes sense to the average reader. I do have to wonder if the finished product wasn't a result of Mr. Speer's writerly skills. Maybe a large part of what Harold actually said to him wasn't in those words, but Speers had to put something together by the deadline, and so he took the comments he did get and made it the best little compelling tale he could. It's artistic license in a non-artistic medium, if you will.

Is there any indication at all that embroidering tales for dramatic effect was part of Harold Bride's character?

 

[Dave Gittins]

I've long wondered about Bride's account of the "You are a fool, shut up" exchange with Frankfurt. He gives two different times for it. Why did he give it at all? It reflected badly on Phillips, who Bride was so keen to make a hero of. Did Bride think somebody else might tell it and want to get in first? In the event, nobody else recorded it. It's a pity that we depend on Bride for so much of the story.