Walter Thomas Boothby

Walter Thomas Bootby was born in Docking, Norfolk on 13 August 1874, the eldest son of Norfolk natives John Aubin and Charlotte Boothby. The pair had eleven children, and Walter had two older sisters, Alice Marian and Leah Norah, as well as 3 younger sisters, Maud, Ada Maria and Mabel, and 4 younger brothers: Percy Charles, Edward Henry, Joseph Henry and Alfred William.

Walter’s early life was quite unsettled as his father changed careers with monotonous regularity and each job brought a change of address. When Walter was born, John was a crew member on a lifeboat in Hunstanton. After that he became a grocer’s Assistant in Docking, a gamekeeper in Alconbury, Huntingdonshire and a domestic gardener for Mr Fenwick of Luffenham Hall, Rutlandshire.

This disjointed childhood may have influenced Walter’s later choices. His first job was as a butler and valet to a Captain Shipley but, by 1897, he’d gone to sea, working for the Orient Line, presumably as a steward, and was based in Australia. He then moved to the Union Castle Line and with them visited South Africa at the height of the Boer War. By 1904 he married to Caroline Annie Tunnicliffe, a lady’s maid from Rutland, for eight years but the couple had no children.

His seafaring career was beset with disasters. He was on the *Dunottar Castle* when a navigational error saw the ship being lost for quite some time. In April 1908, while he was working for the Hamburg-America Line aboard the *St Paul*, she collided with the *Gladiator* during a snowstorm off the Isle of Wight. *St Paul* struck *Gladiator* a glancing blow just aft of her engine room ripping open both ships. *Gladiator* sank but *St Paul* remained afloat and launched lifeboats to rescue those in the water. Twenty-seven sailors were lost. Walter was also aboard *Olympic* in September 1911 when HMS *Hawke* collided with her in the Solent. Hawke’s bow rammed *Olympic*’s starboard side near the stern and tore two large holes in her hull. Two of her watertight compartments flooded but she managed to limp back to Southampton with no loss of life and still remained watertight. Although Walter didn’t know it at the time, his brother, Alfred, was aboard *Hawke*.

Had all these disasters put Walter off going to sea, his story might have been very different but, in 1912, he signed on to *Titanic* as a Second Class Bedroom Steward. When he joined *Titanic* he was lodging with a Mr and Mrs William Philpott at 50 Ivy Road but it isn’t clear if Caroline was also living there or if she had remained in Rutland where the couple married. Walter Thomas Bootbhy was 36 years old when he worked on the famous ship.

Walter’s in-law, John Puzey, of Manor Road, Itchen, was also a steward on *Titanic*. On April 14, at late night, Walter had been asleep when the ship hit the iceberg. The collision must have felt like a very familiar story, but, having survived so many disasters, he probably didn’t believe the ship would sink.

Both men were lost and only Walter’s body was recovered by the *Mackay-Bennett* on 24 April. His body, numbered 107, was described as having fair hair and prominent teeth. He was wearing a uniform jacket and vest, a White Star belt and pyjamas. In his pocket he had a pouch, pipe, knife, key, 2s 3 1/2d and 1 French franc. He was buried at sea.

A memorial was posted in the Portsmouth Evening News on 14 April 1913.

Caroline never remarried and settled in Edmonton, London. She worked as a school nurse and health visitor. She died in 1953.

## Sources

Special thanks and credits to Marie Keates for allowing me to use a large part of this information of her blog:

https://iwalkalone.co.uk/titanic-tales-from-st-denys: Titanic tales from St Denys – I Walk Alone