Mr Samuel Strange was born in Drumbeg Parrish in Dunmurry, Belfast, Ireland on 20 March 1872.¹ Hailing from a Presbyterian family, he was the son of William Strange, a beetler (later a mariner), and Mary Stewart.

Samuel, like his late father, was described as a sailor on the 1901 census when he was shown living with his widowed mother and his sisters at 156 New Lodge Road, Belfast. Prior to that he is shown from the mid-1890s on working as a greaser on numerous ships operating out of Liverpool.

On 14 February 1907 in Belfast’s Trinity Church he married Isabella McWilliams (b. circa 1870). He was described as a sailor and again gave his address as 156 New Lodge Road, Belfast. They had no children and appeared on the 1911 census as residents of 3 Walbeck Street.

He joined Titanic at Belfast for the delivery trip to Southampton where he then disembarked.

Following the Titanic Samuel Strange remained at sea and remained living at Walbeck Street. During WWI he served as a stoker with the Royal Naval Reserve but was killed at sea on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland when the ship he was serving aboard, HMS Queen Mary, was attacked and sunk by enemy fire. The same ship as fellow delivery crew member Robert Fletcher.

Samuel Strange is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England (panel 23).