• Home
  • Photos
  • What's On
  • Blogs
    • Gardeners World
    • Esmé's Page
    • Building our Community
    • Recipe of the Month
    • Frenchay Residents
    • Frenchay Place Names
    • Frenchay Mysteries
  • Local News
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Redrow Updates
    • FRA Reports 2021 >
      • FRA Reports 2020
    • Local Representatives >
      • From our Parish Councillors
      • From our South Gloucestershire Councillors
    • Frenchay Museum
    • Preservation Society
    • Frenchay CE Primary School
    • Frenchay Village Hall
    • Cricket Club
    • Dings Crusaders RFC
    • DRG Frenchay Football Club
  • Clubs & Societies
  • Information
    • Quick Links
    • Transport
    • Libraries
    • Nature Reserve
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
Frenchay Community, UK

Frenchay Mysteries No. 8

11/2/2013

0 Comments

 
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.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Frenchay Mysteries

    Archives

    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2014
    July 2014
    July 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Bridge
    Graveyard
    Industry
    Landmark
    National Trust
    People
    Post Office
    Pub
    River Frome
    School
    Street Names
    War

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.