George Henry Chitty

Mr George Henry Chitty was born in Reigate, Surrey, England in early 1862 and he was baptised on 16 February that year in St Mary's Church.

He was the son of Thomas Chitty (b. 1833), a gardener, and Ellen Butler (b. 1828), both natives of Surrey who had married in Chertsey on 13 December 1852. He had seven known siblings: Jane Olive (b. 1853), Ellen Hambleton (b. 1855), James William (b. 1857), Alice (b. 1860), Edward John (b. 1863) and Elizabeth (b. 1869).

He first appears on the 1871 census living at St Margaret Grove (?) in Twickenham, Middlesex and the family would later move to Isleworth.

George was married in Hound Parish Church, Southampton on 8 April  1880 to Julia Walden (b. 1857 in Southampton), his profession at the time being listed as in the Army Service Corps. The couple would have three children: Jessie Selina (b. 1882 in Netley), Archibald George (b. 1883 in Aldershot) and Eliza May (b. 1890 in Southampton). The family appeared on the 1891 census living at 17 Mount Lane, All Saints, Southampton and George was by now described as a baker. By the time of the 1901 census only George and his wife are present at their address, 66 Earls Road, Southampton, their son Archibald presumably at sea and their daughter Jessie working elsewhere as a domestic. They had lost their youngest child Eliza aged just 9 in 1899.

Julia Chitty died in early 1909. Around the same time George's daughter Jessie Selina was married to George Ernest Carpenter (b. 1879 in Lymington), also a ship's baker employed by the American Mail Steam Ship Company. The couple would remain childless and it appears George and his son Archibald lived with them at Clovelly, Newton Road in Bitterne Park, Southampton, appearing their on the 1911 census although George was absent and likely at sea.

When he signed-on to the Titanic, on 4 April 1912, George gave his address as 69 Bevois Valley Road, Southampton. His last ship had been the Oceanic and as an assistant baker he received monthly wages of £4, 10s. Also serving aboard as a third class steward was his son Archibald.

George and Archibald Chitty both died in the sinking. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified. They are remembered on a family grave in the Old Common Cemetery, Southampton.

George's daughter Jessie Selina and her husband continued to live on Newton Road in Southampton.  Widowed in 1946, Jessie herself died in Southampton in 1948.