ONE hundred and one years ago today, two Mole Valley residents were crossing the Atlantic on their way to America on board the RMS Titanic, which had been dubbed 'practically unsinkable'.
But Dorking resident George Henry Green and Henry George Hunt, from Ashtead, never arrived, instead becoming two of more than 1,500 people who died when the White Star Line passenger ship struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic on April 14, 1912.
Mr Hunt had been head gardener of Ashtead Park and had lived in The Gardens, in Ashtead.
At the time of the Titanic's maiden voyage, from Southampton to New York City, he had been working and living in Philadelphia, with his wife and two children - aged four years and three months.
He had arrived in England a few weeks before the Titanic sank on another White Star Liner, the RMS Oceanic, to visit family.
Although due to return to America on the same ship, it suffered propeller damage so the shipping company transferred his Second Class ticket, which cost £12 5s 6d, to the Titanic.
He is reported to have told Mr Johnson, the postmaster in Ashstead, that the doomed ship was "just as safe as crossing on dry land, so long as she doesn't strike an iceberg.''
Sadly, on this occasion that is exactly what happened, and George did not survive the trip.
His widow received help from a local charity in America, after his death, to rent and furnish a house, so she could let rooms to support herself and their children.
40 year old Dorking farrier George Henry Green paid £8 1s for his Third Class passage.
Those on-board would have been totally unaware that Third Class passengers had the lowest odds of survival. Only 25 per cent of the people in steerage made it to shore.
Previously living at 1 Lyons Terrace, with his wife Teresa, and their three children, he was on his way to start a new life in South Dakota.
By 1912, his marriage had broken down and she had taken the family back to her parents in Coventry. With nothing left for him in England George decided to emigrate to Lead City, a newly formed gold mining town.
While on board the Titanic, he sent his brother-in-law a postcard, similar to the one shown at the top of this page, with the simple message "Lovely sailing".
His body was never recovered.
Also lost that night was Harvey Collyer, who was the son of a Mr Collyer of Church Walk, Leatherhead.
Mr Collyer, his wife Charlotte and their daughter Marjorie, aged eight years, were on their way to Idaho, USA, where Mr Collyer had bought some land and intended starting farming.
Mr Collyer was well-known in Leatherhead at the time while Mrs Collyer was also a native of the town, being a daughter of Mrs Alan Tate of Elm Cottages, Leatherhead.
Charlotte and Marjorie were rescued in lifeboat 14 but Harvey died in the sinking. Their experience in the boat was recalled by Charlotte Collyer in The Semi-Monthly Magazine, May, 1912 (for which she was paid $300).
Mrs Collyer and little Marjorie were absolutely destitute when they reached New York, but Mrs Collyer decided to continue on to Payette to start a new life like her late husband had wanted to do.
Charlotte and Marjorie eventually returned to England. Charlotte remarried but died in 1914 from Tuberculosis.
There were other notable Surrey residents on board the ship:
LUCY AND MARGARET SNAPE
Lucy Violet Snape, aged 22, was one of the ship's stewardesses who died in the disaster.
Newspaper The Daily Sketch reported in April 1912 that her surviving colleagues said she wished her passengers goodbye as she fastened their lifebelts.
Lucy, who was born just outside Farnham, had already suffered a tragedy in her short life, when she was widowed, leaving her to bring up a baby daughter, Margaret.
She had returned to live with her parents at Witley and found a job on board the Titanic with the help of a local MP.
Her daughter, who was with her on the trip, did survive and lived until 1996.
'JACK' PHILLIPS
A Godalming resident who gained worldwide posthumous fame for his role in trying to save the stricken vessel and its passengers.
John George Phillips, who was nicknamed 'Jack' was born in 1887, in Farncombe.
He had worked in the local post office, as a telegraph operator before joining a series of ships, working his way up to Chief Wireless Operator on the Titanic.
His role on board, together with Junior Operator Harold Bride, was to relay messages between ship and shore, as well as to communicate warnings between other vessels in the area.
Aged 25, he'd only celebrated his birthday on the ship, two days before the disaster.
That night Phillips had been working to clear a backlog of messages, sending them via Cape Race in Newfoundland.
Earlier he had received and passed on numerous ice warnings from other ships in the area, including one from the nearest to the Titanic, the SS Californian.
When the iceberg struck at 11.40pm, Jack began sending out distress signals, on the instructions of the Captain.
By a cruel twist of fate, the Californian's wireless operator had gone to bed, after turning off the equipment, and therefore did not receive the SOS messages.
Phillips carried on transmitting the pleas for help until the ship lost power at 2.17am, at which point the Captain relieved them from duty.
Although both men reportedly made it to an upturned lifeboat, Jack died before being rescued and his body was never recovered.
His family memorial, in a cemetery in Godalming, bears an iceberg shaped headstone.
WALTER HAWKSFORD
George Hunt was not the only one to have decided on a life abroad, before the disaster.
45 year old Walter James Hawksford from Kingston on Thames, was on his way to New York to take up a position as the Schweppes drinks company's first Export Sales Manager.
However, unlike poor George, Walter survived, possibly because as a First Class passenger, the odds for survival were better.
After clambering into Lifeboat 3, he was picked up by the Carpathia and taken to New York.
He later wrote to his wife recalling the terrifying experience, telling her that immediately after the impact people were joking about the ship pushing an iceberg out of the way, before the seriousness of their situation dawned on them.
LEONARD MOORE
Another Kingston resident who was unlucky enough to be on-board, was 19 year old bricklayer Leonard Charles Moore.
He had emigrated to America with his brother, shortly before the disaster and was only back in England to visit his family.
And he died when the ship sunk.
GEORGE BAILEY
George Francis Bailey from Shepperton was employed as a Second Class Saloon Steward on-board ship.
Although, he had accompanied the Titanic on her journey from the shipyard to Southampton docks, he had only signed up for the steward position on 4 April - ten days before the disaster. And all for the paltry sum of £3 15s a week.
When the crew of rescue ship, the CS Mackay-Bennett, pulled his body from the icy water, he was noted to be wearing a raincoat over his uniform.
He was labelled as 'Body 161' and is buried along with several other Titanic stewards in a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia which was where the recovery ships landed their macabre cargo.
Out of 329 stewards aboard the ship on that voyage, only 48 survived.
SIR COSMO DUFF GORDON AND LUCILE
Surrey is the final resting place for two Titanic survivors who caused world-wide controversy after their rescue.
Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his famous fashion designer wife 'Lucile' had booked first class passage under the names Mr and Mrs Morgan.
The use of a pseudonym was possibly to escape press attention when they arrived in New York.
They escaped the sinking ship on the almost empty Lifeboat 1, an act which caused furore, due to suggestions they had bribed the crew not to overfill the boat.
They said they could not hear the cries for help from the water, but other survivors in the same lifeboat disagreed with the Duff Gordon's account.
It was later accepted by the official disaster inquiry that they were blameless and had not stopped the sailors from saving other passengers.
Sir Cosmo died in 1931, and she four years later, in 1935. They are now laid to rest, side by side, in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking.
