Mr William Taggart was born in Belfast in 1889 and began work with the Harland & Wolff yard as an apprentice. He was one of the workers who helped to build Titanic from day one. He had also been a crewmember of the Olympic. When the Titanic was delivered to Southampton Mr Taggart was part of her delivery crew, he was a trimmer in the engine room. He was married (his wife’s name is unknown) and his children included William Taggart Junior, Andrew Taggart, John Taggart, and Anne Taggart. After disembarking at Southampton he returned to Belfast to work on other ships building at the Harland and Wolff yard.

He received the news concerning the loss of Titanic and was so devastated (according to family oral history) that he never worked again. He was seriously wounded in the trenches of World War One in 1917 whilst helping wounded comrades back into the trenches under heavy German machine-gun fire. Although he was not killed in action this was the cause of his untimely death. After reaching hospital, tests were done to see if an operation could remove a bullet, which had lodged itself in his spine. It was deemed impossible to do so without leaving Taggart crippled. Sometime between 1919 and 1921 the bullet dislodged itself from his spine and floated up to his heart and killed him.

Of his children, Andrew Taggart, after being a Boxer, eventually became a Minister of a church in Cornwall, Anne Taggart married an American G.I. in the 1940’s and moved to Chicago. William Taggart served in the Royal Artillery between 1938-1947, and in the Salvation Army from the 1950’s. He died peacefully in 1972 at his home in Leeds, Yorkshire. John Taggart joined the Royal Navy in the 1930’s and ironically, served on the ill-fated aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as a Stoker. He was killed in 1940 when German Battleships sank HMS Glorious off the Norwegian Coast.

William Taggart Snr was proud to have served on board this magnificent piece of human endeavour. God bless all who served or were passengers on her no matter for how short or how long they may have been on board.

David Morrison Taggart, UK