I met photographer Joanna Dudderidge this afternoon in Archer Street, Soho, as we had arranged to visit the offices of Launch PR. This enabled us to see and photograph the ‘Titanic fireplace’, which was installed upstairs in their principal meeting room following the infamous loss of the ‘unsinkable’ ship.
This had been created as a direct result of funds raised at a concert by over 470 musicians at the Royal Albert Hall, in May 1912, a gathering which was hailed as the ‘greatest professional orchestra ever assembled’, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Henry Wood and Sir Edward Elgar.
The families of the eight musicians who gallantly lost their lives, all members of the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union, had been hired by the Liverpool music agency, C.W. and F.N. Black, which supplied musicians for Cunard and the White Star Line.
The musicians were:
Wallace Hartley, 33, Colne violinist and bandmaster
Theodore Brailey, 24, London pianist
Roger Bricoux, 20, French cellist
John Clarke, 30, Liverpool bassist
John Hume, 21, Dumfries violinist
George Krins, 23, Belgian violinist
Percy Taylor, 32, London cellist
John Woodward, 32, Oxford cellist
May they rest in peace.
