John Edward Hart

Mr John "Jack" Edward Hart, 31, was a third class steward on the Titanic.  He gave his age as 31 and his birthplace as London.  His origins remain obscure.¹  He stood 5ft. 8in. tall, with brown eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion.

His family moved to South Africa (possibly in 1893), and in 1899, giving his age as 23, John joined the South Africa Light Horse as a trooper (Rgt. No. 218).  His registration papers list his occupation as a plumber. His medal record indicates his involvement in actions at Cape Colony,  Orange Free State, Transvaal, Tugula Heights, the Relief of Ladysmith and the Battle of Laing's Nek.²

He was married in Aberdeen, South Africa, on 19 March 1902 to Emilie Ida (aka Emmie) Frühauf (born Germany c.1880).³ His occupation was given as "clerk in charge of detachment of army service corps". Aberdeen featured strongly in the Boer War, coming under attack several times by Boer forces.  Only three months after the marriage, Aberdeen was the scene of a dramatic rebellion in which 139 locals railed against colonial rule and joined the Boers. 

Soon after their marriage, John and Emilie moved to Germany, and two of their children were born there: a daughter, Chrystal (born 8 January 1903)⁴ and a son, Herbert Edward Henry (born in Gotha, Germany on 29 April 1904).

Moving back to England, the family settled in Southampton, where another son, George Charles, was born in January 1907.  A fourth child, Jack Max Hart, followed on 25 May 1911.

In 1907, John Edward Hart's occupation was given as "Interpreter".  Their address at the time was 38 Upper Bugle Street, Southampton.  

In 1908 (according to his Titanic inquiry testimony), he was serving aboard the St. Paul when it was in collision with HMS Gladiator; the naval vessel capsized and sank with the loss of 28 sailors.

In the 1911 census 'Emmie' Hart and the three children born up to that date were shown living on Foundry Lane, Southampton, but John Edward Hart was absent. The house was named "Aberdeen", perhaps as a memory of the town in which they married.

He indicated this same home address (recorded as 1 Foundry Lane) when he signed on to the Titanic on 4 April 1912. His previous ship was the SS New York.  As a third-class steward, he received monthly wages of £3, 15s.

On the evening of 14 April, Hart was sleeping in his bunk, located on F-Deck next to the third-class dining room, when he was awakened by the collision with the iceberg. Hart shared his quarters with 38 other third-class stewards. Although they knew there had been an accident, Hart claimed that none of his fellow stewards thought the situation was serious.

Eventually, Chief Third Class Steward Kieran came along and told everyone to look after the passengers in their charge. Hart was responsible for about 58 third-class passengers in Sections K and M, located aft on E-deck. He went around and roused the passengers and helped them put on their lifebelts. After gathering them into a group in the hallway, Hart awaited orders.

At 12:30, Hart received instructions to pass the women and children up to the Boat Deck. At first, he took a group of 20-30 women and children up to the boat deck. Although there were normally locked barriers and gates blocking the way, which were required by international immigration laws to 'prevent the spread of infectious diseases,' Hart testified in the British Inquiry that all the gates had been opened the time he took his passengers up to the Boat Deck.

In order to get to the boat deck, Hart had to lead the third-class passengers through an alleyway, upstairs to C-deck, up onto the open aft well deck, and then up to the boat deck. Hart saw his first group of passengers safely into lifeboat 8 and then returned below for the remaining passengers from his group. As he was heading back below, he saw fellow third-class stewards William Denton Cox and Albert Victor Pearcey leading another large group of third-class passengers to the boat deck.

Upon returning below, Hart told the remainder of the third-class passengers in his care to follow him and then lead them up to the boat deck and into lifeboat 15. Although Hart had, by his account, seen all 58 passengers in his charge to safety, he was prepared to head back below for more passengers when a group of men began rushing lifeboat 15. Hart helped hold the men back, and First Officer Murdoch ordered him into the boat to help row.

On arriving in New York on board the Carpathia, he stayed with friends in the city until his return passage to England on board the Celtic. He subsequently appeared as the 27th witness at the British Enquiry on 16 May 1912 and answered a total of 492 questions.

Following the hearing sometime in late May 1912 he signed on to another White Star vessel Oceanic. His discharge book said he signed off this ship in July 1912.

After leaving the merchant marine service, Edward moved to Southern Africa where he worked in Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe) as a chief storekeeper for the newly formed Rhodesian Railway.

On 6 October 1914, John's wife Emilie died after a short illness. At the time they were living at 5 Reitz Street, Bloemfontein, South Africa. She was buried at the New Cemetery, Bloemfontein.

In about 1923 the family was struck by further tragedy when John and Emmie's two younger sons George and Jack drowned after getting into difficulties while swimming at Kings Park Lake in Bloemfontein.  

A shocking, drowning, fatality, resulting in the death of two boys, George and Jack Hart, aged 16 and 12, respectively, occurred shortly before 6 o'clock last night at the Kings Park Lake.  Although help was close at hand, the tragedy occurred so quickly that all was over before adequate assistance could be summoned.  A search for the bodies followed, and after an anxious hour the body of the younger boy was brought to the surface by the superintendent of the swimming baths.  It was only a few minutes later, practically in the same spot the body of the elder boy was taken out of the water — Read more...

John appears to have remarried in Cape Town, date unknown, to a woman named Ellen Jane, who had been born in Devon, England.

Ellen Jane Hart died in hospital on 13 September 1930, aged 58.  They were living at 19 Railway Cottage, Umtali, Rhodesia.

After his second wife's death, John returned to England to the South West, where he met Florence May Cann (born 1900) of Newton Poppleford, Devon. Her father, John Edwin Cann, worked on the railway there, which may explain how he came to meet Florence, having had connections with the railway. They were married on 28 July 1932 at St. Sidwell's Wesleyan Church, Exeter⁵ and moved to the South Devon coastal town of Paignton.  They initially rented a flat on Old Torquay Road. It was here that their son, John Christopher Murdoch Hart, was born in 1934. Shortly afterwards, they moved close by to a house at 42 Old Torquay Road, which remained in family possession until the early 1970s.  

During the 1940s, Jack worked at the Bristol Aircraft factory at Filton and lodged with the Brindley family for a few months at 116 Radnor Road, Horfield.

My chief memory of him is that he just didn't talk much at all, either to me or, so far as I know, to my parents. 

He would come back from the Bristol Aeroplane Company each evening, have his meal, and just sit.  He had a bedroom of his own, of course, but apart from that he sat in the room in which the rest of us were - I doing my Grammar School homework and my parents just reading or, intermittently, listening to the wireless.  There was no possibility of having any heating in his bedroom ... I can never remember there being more than the one fire in the house.    I am pretty sure that the chief reason my parents agreed to take in a war-worker was because it would increase their income by a little.

All I remember him saying about the Titanic is that he was a steward and that he got away in a lifeboat and that his hair went white in that one night. 

I was just beginning to learn German at school and he mentioned that he had some knowledge of the language too.  He corrected my homework on a couple of occasions.

I remember talking to my mother about him and wondering with her about why he had so little to say — this was before he told us about the Titanic.  When he told us the little that he did say, we assumed that he was in some sense reliving the experience in a way that filled almost all his consciousness. — Stuart Brindley

John Edward "Jack" Hart passed away at his home on 15 January 1954 and was cremated four days later at the Efford Crematorium, Plymouth, Devon. A memorial plaque exists with the inscription 'In Loving Memory of John Edward Hart, died 15 January 1954, aged 69' [sic]. His ashes were scattered in the garden of rest there.

His wife Florence remained at the house until moving to a Paignton nursing home (Ardeen Court) in early 1970, where she passed away in October of 1972 aged 72. She was cremated at the Torquay Crematorium on 20 October.

His daughter Chrystal married Russian-born miller Meyer Mickel Belfort on 7 August 1928 in Johannesburg; they had two children, Heyman and Theresa. She died on 11 July 1973 and is buried with her husband at Stellawood Cemetery and Crematorium, Durban.

His eldest son Herbert married Johanna Jacoba Potgieter on 2 July 1938 and died in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1975.

John's youngest son, John Christopher Murdoch Hart, became a chartered surveyor in South West England; he died in 2022.