Is there any Frenchay link to the Titanic?
Although there is no direct link to Frenchay, a passenger can be linked to Oldbury Court, just across the bridge.
It's not generally known that the man conducting Abide With Me as the icy waters swept across the deck in 1912 was a Bristol preacher 'fiery evangelist Uncle Bob Bateman'. Bateman was the son of a Staple Hill stone mason - born October 1859 at Staple Hill.
In 1881 the family was then living at Oldbury Court, Bristol and Robert is included in the 1881 census.
Bateman subsequently became a Baptist Minister. He gained a formidable reputation as a hellfire and brimstone campaigner. But he was known simply as Uncle Bob to the hundreds of Bristol children with whom he worked. He later emigrated to America and even became mayor of Jacksonville, Florida.
But in 1912 he returned on a visit to Bristol to arrange a headstone for his mother's grave in Downend.
At the end of his visit he boarded the Titanic at Southampton and travelled second class, under ticket number 1166, costing £12 10s 6d. His reputation preceded him and Captain Edward Smith asked if he would conduct a Sunday service with the ship's band.
Bob was with the band when the Titanic hit an iceberg and, contrary to advance promises, began to go down. Dr. Bateman collected about fifty men on the stern of the ship and told them to prepare for death. He led them in saying the Lord's Prayer and as the band played his favourite hymn, 'Nearer my God to Thee', the ship slid underwater.
The hymn was taken up by passengers and crew who had been unable to find a place in one of the inadequate number of lifeboats. As the ship slipped under, the band changed to 'Abide With Me'. Bateman was still beating time when the waters closed over his head. Rev. Bateman was lost in the sinking aged 51. His frozen body was subsequently recovered by the cable-laying vessel Mackay-Bennett.
On 6th May 1912 his body was forwarded to Mrs R.J. Bateman of Jacksonville, Florida. He was interred in the Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville on 12 May 1912.
Although there is no direct link to Frenchay, a passenger can be linked to Oldbury Court, just across the bridge.
It's not generally known that the man conducting Abide With Me as the icy waters swept across the deck in 1912 was a Bristol preacher 'fiery evangelist Uncle Bob Bateman'. Bateman was the son of a Staple Hill stone mason - born October 1859 at Staple Hill.
In 1881 the family was then living at Oldbury Court, Bristol and Robert is included in the 1881 census.
Bateman subsequently became a Baptist Minister. He gained a formidable reputation as a hellfire and brimstone campaigner. But he was known simply as Uncle Bob to the hundreds of Bristol children with whom he worked. He later emigrated to America and even became mayor of Jacksonville, Florida.
But in 1912 he returned on a visit to Bristol to arrange a headstone for his mother's grave in Downend.
At the end of his visit he boarded the Titanic at Southampton and travelled second class, under ticket number 1166, costing £12 10s 6d. His reputation preceded him and Captain Edward Smith asked if he would conduct a Sunday service with the ship's band.
Bob was with the band when the Titanic hit an iceberg and, contrary to advance promises, began to go down. Dr. Bateman collected about fifty men on the stern of the ship and told them to prepare for death. He led them in saying the Lord's Prayer and as the band played his favourite hymn, 'Nearer my God to Thee', the ship slid underwater.
The hymn was taken up by passengers and crew who had been unable to find a place in one of the inadequate number of lifeboats. As the ship slipped under, the band changed to 'Abide With Me'. Bateman was still beating time when the waters closed over his head. Rev. Bateman was lost in the sinking aged 51. His frozen body was subsequently recovered by the cable-laying vessel Mackay-Bennett.
On 6th May 1912 his body was forwarded to Mrs R.J. Bateman of Jacksonville, Florida. He was interred in the Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville on 12 May 1912.
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