Jack Phillips: Boy from Godalming became Titanic hero

For a young man from a Surrey village, being promoted to chief wireless telegraphist on the new luxury liner Titanic was a source of great pride.

The son of a draper, Jack Phillips operated the most modern and powerful wireless equipment of any merchant ship of the time.

But before the doomed vessel sailed, he told a friend he would have preferred to be aboard a smaller ship - for Jack had a dread of icebergs.

Nonetheless the 25 year old's actions in the early hours of 15 April 1912, as Titanic sank in the Atlantic, ensured that he was remembered as a hero of the disaster.

(Images and footage courtesy of Godalming Museum, Southampton City Council Archives and John Young)

  • Surrey