Red roses for Titanic hero musician

Nov 4 2011 by Sara Bain, Dumfries Standard Friday

ALMOST a century has past since the great ocean liner, the RMS Titanic, collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

The worst maritime disaster at peacetime in living history claimed the lives of 1,517 people on April 15, 1912, including that of one of the ship’s musicians, a young man called John Law Hume.

Born and raised in Dumfries, before joining the ill-fated band of musicians on the White Star Ocean liner, the body of 21-year-old Jock was recovered from the waters of the Northern Atlantic by the MacKay Bennett shortly after the Titanic sank. His unidentified body was buried in May of that year at Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

And in September, he received a very special visit by one of his scions from over 4,000 miles away, his great grand-niece Yvonne Hume.

As the world prepares for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster next year, Yvonne, who lives in Kings Lynn in Norfolk, has found herself in great demand.

The story of her great-uncle has inspired her to write a book on his life entitled The First Violin and a cookbook presenting a selection of Titanic recipes called Dinner is Served. Since publishing the two books, Yvonne has attracted a lot of interest from far and wide.

She explained: “I decided to go to Nova Scotia, not only to give radio and newspaper interviews there, but to visit John’s grave for the first time.

“After writing the two books and getting so involved in his life, this seemed the natural thing to do.

“On the day of the Titanic cemetery visit I felt quite anxious; but when I got to John’s grave I felt a strong sense of belonging. I didn’t feel tearful, just deeply moved.

“I visited the grave every day of my five-day trip and it seemed quite strange to be able to just pop down the road to see his final resting place after all this time.”

What did surprise Yvonne was how many visitors were also there: “Coach loads, in fact. It was comforting to see that the tourists were respectful to the surroundings they were in.

“What did make me feel particularly proud was, when the tour guides were leading the tourists to the graves, they stopped at John’s grave and discussed how brave he was.

“On the final day of my trip I placed red roses at John’s grave and said goodbye; this was the time that I felt very moved at leaving him.

“ It was strange because on that emotional final day the tourists were nowhere to be seen: this allowed me a private moment with John.”

John’s body did not return to Dumfries. He was not identified until July 16.

“The identification of John’s body was from photographs that my great-grandfather, Andrew Hume, had sent to White Star offices which were matched with the photograph taken before he was buried,” Yvonne said.

“Also, identification was confirmed by his belongings. This then enabled his gravestone to be named, instead of just having the number of 193.

“It was sad to walk among the gravestones and see that a lot still just had a number; how awful for the grieving relatives not to have a place to pay their respects, especially the immediate family.”

Following her trip and the media coverage in Halifax, Yvonne’s publisher, Richard Stenlake, was approached by a Canadian publisher.

She said: “I am very happy to say that a co-publishing deal has now been agreed for the recently released paperback version, of the biography of John, to be sold in Halifax too.

“Nova Scotia means New Scotland, how very fitting.”

The First Violin and Dinner is Served are published by Stenlake and available to buy at most good bookshops.