Titanic Connections

Memorial to John Wesley Woodward

 

Titanic

RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage on 10th April 1912 from Southampton, UK to New York City.

Designed by some of the most experienced engineers with some of the most advanced technologies available at the time, the sinking of the Titanic on 15th April 1912 with a loss of 1,517 lives was a shock to the world.

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John Wesley Woodward

Eastbourne’s Duke of Devonshire Band had recruited a cello player by the name of John Wesley Woodward from West Bromwich, born on 11th September 1879.

Woodward played at Eastbourne Winter Gardens and Grand Hotel with the Duke of Devonshire Band, a Municipal orchestra, before joining the voyage company White Star Line in 1909. Taking his best cello onto the Titanic's maiden voyage, he died alongside all the other musicians on the ill fated ship

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Description

A rectangular granite memorial affixed to the wall in the main arena facing the Bandstand. In the centre of the memorial is a bronze portrait medallion of John Wesley Woodward, with bronze relief cello underneath. To the left is a rectangular bronze inscribed plaque and to the right of the medallion, a relief plaque in bronze depicting the sinking of the ship and lifeboats.

The Sculptor - Charles Godfrey Garrard.

Commissioned by - Woodward Memorial Committee, Chairman - Arthur Beckett, newspaper publisher.

Unveiling - 24th October 1914 by Opera Singer, Clara Butt.