Mr Walter Edward Bull was born in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, Hampshire, England on 28 October 1875.
He was the son of Walter William Bull (b. 1855), a painter, and Rosa Linington (b. 1856), both natives of Hampshire who were married in 1874. His known siblings were: Roland Charles (b. 1874), George Francis (b. 1877), Arthur William (b. 1878), Christian Albert (b. 1880), Grace Rosa (b. 1881), Evelyn Osborne (b. 1882), Cicely Kathleen (b. 1883), Margaret (b. 1885), Donald Frank (b. 1887) and Harry (b. 1889). In his early childhood, he had spent several years living in Hackney, London, where three of his siblings were born.
Bull appears on the 1881 census living at 1 Newport Road, Newchurch, Isle of Wight. No further census records can be found for Walter. By 1891 his mother was working as a domestic cook at 98 Monkton Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight and claimed to be married. Although not certain, it is likely she was actually widowed by this point and working to provide for her brood, who cannot be traced on the 1891 census. By 1901 the family were reunited (save for Walter, who is absent and whose whereabouts are unknown, likely working at sea) and living at 46 Prince Street, Ryde, his mother then working as a sick nurse. She would be remarried in 1903 to a man over two decades her junior, Bertram Gibbs (b. 1879), a grocer, and she lived with her new husband at 26 Joseph Street, Gosport.
Walter was married in 1901 on the Isle of Wight to Edith Jane Carter (b. 27 September 1879), who hailed from Newport, and their only child, a son named Walter William, was born in Ryde in 1904.
Walter does not appear on the 1911 census; his wife was working as a domestic cook at Hardwicke Cottage East Cowes, Isle of Wight, whilst his son is listed in the care of his grandmother Rosa Gibbs at 26 Joseph Street, Gosport.
When he signed on to the Titanic on 4 April 1912, Bull gave his address as 27 Chandos Street, Southampton and his age as 30. His previous ship had been the Olympic, and as a scullion, he received monthly wages of £3 10s.
Walter Bull died in the sinking, and his body, if recovered, was never identified.
His widow and son benefitted from the Titanic Relief Fund; Edith Bull never remarried and later resettled on the Isle of Wight, where she died in 1970 aged 91. What became of her son Walter is not clear, although it is possible he was married at a young age and raised a family on the Isle of Wight. His final whereabouts are unknown.
Comment and discuss
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That is all the information I can find concerning this person. Does anybody have any other information? Thank you in advance
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When he signed on for the Titanic, Walter Bull gave his age as 30, his birthplace as Hampshire and his address as 27, Chandos Street, Southampton. I suspect he was in truth a few years older than he admitted. He had one son (also called Walter), who after his death was granted a weekly allowance from the Titanic Relief Fund, but I've not seen any reference to support for a widow, so perhaps Walter was himself a widower or separated from the boy's mother. Like many others among the crew, Walter had previously served on the Olympic. He worked as a scullion (basically a dishwasher) in the galley which served the 1st and 2nd Class passengers, and would have earned í‚£3 10s had the voyage been completed. On board he shared a dormitory cabin on E deck with 9 other scullions and 10 men who washed and polished the silverware. We don't know exactly what happened to him during the sinking - only that he died and his body was never recovered (or if so, it wasn't identified). .
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Thank you very much for that information Bob!! It's much appreciated!! May I ask were you found the information? thanks!
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There's nothing much in what I posted above that can't be found already on this website, in the biography section and in online documents like the crew signing-on sheets and the lists of recovered bodies. The accounts and minute books of the relief organisations can be very useful, but you won't find them online and they are not very easy to use as they were not designed to be helpful to researchers a century in the future! If you want to go further with family details of any passenger or crew member, there are online sources for Census infomation and for civil registrations of births, deaths and marriages, but that kind of research can be very time-consuming and expensive, especially if you need to obtain copies of documents like birth and marriage certificates and you're not sure which are the right ones. There are books available which provide details of some passengers and crew, like The Irish aboard Titanic by Senan Molony, but nothing (yet) in print which covers...
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Thank you for that CD-ROM title... it's for things like that, that I regret living in Belgium!! It is extremely hard to find even one decent book here, let alone this cd rom! Most of my books I bought at exhibitions, in England or when I was living in Saudi Arabia! Go figure even THEY have more Titanic books than we do!!! Although it was impossible to find the Rubaiyat there (forbidden lecture according to the Islam) but I got my hands on it anyway. Unfortunally most books I have only include simple passenger and crew lists. It seems I'm more familiar with the Titanic itself rather than the people on board... Thanks for the help once again!
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You can order Craig's CD online and have it delivered by airmail: You can also download some sample biographies (as pdf files) from the same link. And don't be put off by that drawing of Titanic! As for books, I buy most of mine from online dealers like Amazon.co.uk, who have several hundred Titanic-related titles and will take orders from any country. A cheap way of getting the content of Molony's book, by the way, is to buy him three pints of Guinness and start him talking. If he slows down, just provide more Guinness. :) .
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LOL!! Thanks for that link. Ooh I know the stock of books amazon has... but that's waaaay to dangerous for my visa card!!! I went to that London Exhibit twice and I spent like over $500 worth on books alone, and the one in Paris was about $250... So letting me loose on Amazon is a bad idea!!
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Just found this site. My Grandfather was Charles William Warton (Wright). Walter Bull has my grandfather's address listed as his last known address. My grandfather was supposed to sail on the Titanic, but due to illness the morning the Titanic sailed, (through too much drinking the night before, I believe) never showed up.
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