Lawrence Beesley (31 December 1877 – 14 February 1967) was an English science teacher, journalist and author who was a survivor of the sinking of .

Education

Beesley was educated at

Derby School Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational a ...

, where he was a scholar, and afterwards at

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

, again as a scholar. He took a First Class degree in the Natural Science tripos in 1903.

Career

Beginning as a schoolmaster at

Wirksworth Wirksworth is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population was 4,902 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census.Area E04002820 (Wirksworth parish) in Table PP002 - Sex, from Wirkswor ...

Grammar School in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, he moved to

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

in south London, where he was a science master. In 1957 he was still teaching as Principal of the Northwood School of Coaching, Northwood, Middlesex.

RMS ''Titanic''

A second class passenger, Beesley is one of the survivors of the sinking of in April 1912, He wrote a successful book about his experience, ''The Loss of the SS Titanic'' (June 1912), published just nine weeks after the disaster. Lifeboat No.13 was being launched on the Boat Deck, no women or children were in immediate sight, but it seemed there was room for more. As a result, Beesley was instructed to jump into the lifeboat just before it launched. He managed to survive a subsequent incident where Lifeboat No.15 nearly landed on top of No.13. The leading stoker of boiler room No.6, Fred Barrett, managed to cut the ropes connecting the boat to the falls at the last minute, and those in both boats emerged unharmed. Beesley and the rest of the survivors were picked up by in the early morning of 15 April.

Later life and legacy

During the filming of '' A Night to Remember'' in 1958, Beesley famously gatecrashed the set during the sinking scene, hoping to 'go down with the ship'. However, he was spotted by the director,

Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker (born Roy Horace Baker; 19 December 1916 – 5 October 2010) was an English film director. He was known professionally as Roy Baker until 1967, when he adopted Roy Ward Baker as his screen credit. Early life Baker was born i ...

, who vetoed this unscheduled appearance due to actors' union rules. These events are parodied in

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and ''Arthu ...

' novel ''A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters'', where Beesley makes a brief appearance as a fictional character. Beesley was portrayed by actor David Warner (who later played fictional character Spicer Lovejoy in

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

's 1997 ''Titanic'' film) in the 1979 dramatisation of the voyage and sinking, '' S.O.S. Titanic''. Beesley was also portrayed by Lawrence Bennett in 1999 musical stage adaptation ''Titanic''. His son Alec married the author

Dodie Smith Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright. She is best known for writing '' I Capture the Castle'' (1948) and the children's novel '' The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1956). Other work ...

, and he is the grandfather of ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' science editor

Nicholas Wade Nicholas Michael Landon Wade (born 17 May 1942) is a British author and journalist. He is the author of numerous books, and has served as staff writer and editor for ''Nature'', ''Science'', and the science section of ''The New York Times''. ...

Publication

* ''The Loss of The SS Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons, by One of the Survivors'' (June 1912) * ''The Loss of The SS Titanic'' (new edition, Mariner Books, 2000)

References

Lawrence Beesley at encyclopaedia-titanica.org

Luck for Some - Titanic's Lifeboat 13 and its Passengers, pp 40-48, Lawrence Beesley.

External links

* * *
''The Loss of the S.S. Titanic''

''The Loss of the S.S. Titanic'' in mobipocket format with images – bottom of page

Lawrence Beesley Death Certificate on Titanic-Titanic.com

''Lawrence Beesley: Celebrated Titanic Survivor by Peter Seddon''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beesley, Lawrence 1877 births 1967 deaths Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge People educated at Derby School People from Wirksworth RMS Titanic survivors Science teachers 19th-century English educators 20th-century English educators