Thomas Alexander Macbeth

Lawrence Beesley

SURVIVOR OF THE TITANIC
31 Dec 1877-14 Feb 1967

Laawrence Beesley School Photo	Lawrence Beesley was born on 31st December 1877 in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. His parents were Henry Beesley of Heysham , Lancashire and Anne Marie James of Wirksworth. Henry Beesley had been living with his Uncle, Samuel Flint and wife Anne (nee Taylor) in Steeplegrange, near Wirksworth. He was a solicitors clerk at the age of 18 and later a bank clerk. By 1985 he was Bank Manager at Capital and Counties Bank at the Corporation Street branch in Manchester. His wife remained in Wirksworth with their children, including Lawrence. On the 17th June 1901 Lawrence married Gertrude Cecile Macbeth at St Margaret, Lancaster. The marriage service was performed by by William J. Canton, Rector. Lawrence was a 5' 11" 23 year old and still an under graduate at Cambridge. Gertrude was 28 and the daughter of Thomas Alexander Macbeth of and Ellern Rostern of Manchester. Thomas's parents were Andrew Macbeth and Isabella (nee Spencer) of Wirksworth. Lawrence was educated at Derby School where he took a scholarship, he then later attended Caius College, Cambridge, where he achieved the honors of being a scholar and prizeman. During his post graduate work he discovered a rare fountain algae which was named after him (Ulvella Beesleyi). Lawrence was a science school teacher at the Anthony Gell School from 1902 to 1904 before becoming a lecturer at Dulwich College. Incidentally detective mystery writer Raymond Chandler, studied at Dulwich until 1905. In 1905, Lawrence became interested in Christian Science and the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy.
Beesley (rear) in the gymnasium of the Titanic	Lawrence and Gertrude had one son, Alec, born in Cambridge on 17th November 1903. Gertrude died in August 1906 from a respiratory ailment called Phthisis (tuberculosis of the lungs; wasting disease). She had been suffering from the disease for 3 years. By 1909, Lawrence was instructing others in the Christian science from his rooms on Marylebone Road in London between 9 and 11 am. In 1909 he had an article published in the Christian Science Journal, "The Passing Away of Human Theories". In 1911 saw Lawrence was living in Regents Park where he wrote another article for the Journal entitled "Constancy". In the same year he resigned his position at Dulwich. See encyclopedia-titanica for articles by and about Beesley. Lawrence decided to visit his brother, Frank Meredith Beesley in Toronto, Canada and booked a 2nd class ticket costing £13 on the newly launched Titanic. Before the voyage he was photographed by the London Illustrated News while the ship was in Southampton in the gymnasium of the ship. According to Beesley, the instructor (McCawley) came in with two photographers to 'make a record' of him and he insisted that Beesley and his friend remain.
Beesley (rear) in the gymnasium of the Titanic	Beesley was reading in his cabin (D-56) when the collision occured. He said he only noticed a slight heave of the engines and the regular dancing movement on his mattress seemed to stop. He stopped a steward to ask what had happened but was advised that it was nothing. While the boats were being loaded he went up to A-Deck but decided to return to his cabin. He noticed a strange sensation as he descended the stairs. The stairs seemed to be level but his feet did not fall quite where they should. He put on his Norfolk jacket, put some books into his pockets and then headed back to the A-Deck. The listing of the ship was worse when he returned the deck. He found that men were now being allowed to board lifeboat 13 which had been lowered to the level of the windows of the enclosed screen. He boarded the boat which was lowered at 1.25am with 64 people aboard. As the boat descended it came close to an outfall which was discharging water at a tremendous rate. Only the shouts of the boat's occupants prevented them being flooded. Quick action was also needed when they eventually reached the water, they were unable to cut the falls and drifted under the path of boat 15 which had started to descend, again the occupants of boat 13 shouted to those on deck and the descent of boat 15 was halted. The falls of boat 13 were eventually cut and the boat drifted away from the ship. Beesley watched as the Titanic sank deeper, he observed the lights blink and then go out for good. After the ship was gone he tried to comfort a crying baby by tucking a blanket under its toes, he disovered that he and the lady holding the baby had mutual friends in Clonmel, Ireland. At 4.45am boat 13 tied up alongside the Carpathia and Beesley was soon aboard, relieved to feel a solid deck beneath his feet once again. Press Reports.
Book Cover	Following the disaster Lawrence wrote a book "The Loss of the SS Titanic" published by Houghton-Mifflin a mere six weeks after the ship sank. (Book Review). Parts of the book are available for download as MP3s at Thought Audio. Download the book. He returned home on the RMS Laconia I. Lawrence married again in 1919 to Muriel "Mollie" Greenwood (nee Brownjohn) and had children Laurien, Hugh and Waveney. In between his teaching stints, he enjoyed reading detective novels, working crossword puzzles and golf. He entered the British Open several years running. He stopped playing in 1934 (due to his getting a double hernia). His daughter, Waveney, won the Craig Cup at Stoke Poges golf course in 1933. It is thought that he may have revisited America in 1913. A Lawrence Beesley travelled on the S. S. Minnehaska to New York in 1913. According to the Ellis Island records this was 5' 11" tall, with blue eyes and born in Wirksworth AND had been to the USA in 1912, although his age is listed as 24! His destination was Dallas, Texas.
Lawrence Beesley visits the Night To Remember set	Lawrence was called on many times to speak about the Titanic and acted as an (uncredited) techincal advisor on the movie "A Night To Remember". According to daughter Laurien, Lawrence was persuaded by the director "to sit in a caravan with a tape recorder and try to reproduce the despairing cries which the survivors in the lifeboats heard as the Titanic went down. It is a curious and macabre thought that the cries my father recorded were then used as a basis for part of the film's soundtrack." In the 1979 TV Movie "SOS Titanic", Lawrence was portrayed by David Warner
Alec Beesley	Lawrence Beesley died on 14 February 1967 at the age of 89. Lawrence's son Alec Beesley married Dorothy 'Dodie' Gladys Smith after a long courtship on 21st February 1939 in Philadelphia USA. Alec and Dodie were both actors at The Athenian in Manchester owned by Dodie's uncle. Before the 2nd World War Alec and Dodie emigrated to America. Alec was a pacifist and wanted to avoid call up. Dodie had begun to make a name ffor herself as an author in America. Dodie Smith's Biography

Residences

1877-1901	Wirksworth
1903	12 Bakeman street, Cambridge
1906	23 Whitman Road, Beckenham
1909	8 Manor House, Marylebone Road, London, Telephone number 716.
1911	4 Titchfield Terrace, Regents Park, N. W, London, Telephone 5044, P O Hampstead.
1912-1915	Pembroke House, 133 Oxford Street, Res. 39 Abbey Road N. W., London, Telephone P O Hamp. 4644. These addresses were either his personal flat or the offices he used to see his Christian Science 'clients'.
1919	9 Old Cavendish Street, Marylebone
Early 1920's	Harrow -in-the-Hill, Middlesex - consulting rooms at 10 Nottingham Place, London.
1934	Bexhill
1967	75 Carew Road, Northwood, Middlesex.

Titanic Survivors : Lifeboat 13
Name  BEESLEY, Mr Lawrence
Age   34
Class/Dept 2nd Class
Ticket 248698
Fare £13
Group 
Ship Joined Southampton
Job Teacher
Boat 13
Body

Press Reports
Daily Mail Thursday 18 April 1912
Mr. Beesley Thought Missing
Mr. LAWRENCE BEESLEY. - Son of the late Mr. H. Beesley, bank manager, Wirkshire [sic], Derbyshire, late science master at Dulwich College.

Toronto Daily Star Friday 19 April 1912
TITANTIC (sic) STOOD ON END FOR MINUTES BEFORE SHE SUNK (sic) LIGHTS ALL BLAZED UNTIL SHE TOOK a VERTICAL POSITION and STOOD WITH 150 FEET OUT of WATER---SLOWLY DIVED DOWN.
"As we rowed away from the Titanic we looked back from time to time to watch her. In the distance she looked an enormous length, her great hulk outlined in black against the starry sky, and porthole and saloon ablaze with light. It was impossible to think anything could be wrong with such a leviathan were it not for that ominous tilt downwards in the bows, where the water was by now up to the lowest row of portholes. We were now about two miles from her and all the crew insisted
that such a tremendous wave would be formed by suction as she went down that we ought to get as far away as possible. The captain agreed, and all lay to their oars and widened the distance between us and the sinking vessel."

"Presently, about 2 am, as near as I can remember, we observed her settling very rapidly, with the bows and the bridge completely under water. She slowly tilted straight on end with the stern vertically upwards, and as she did so the lights in the cabins and saloons, which had not flickered for a moment since we left, died out, came on again for a single flash, and finally went altogether. At the same time the machinery roared down through the vessel with a rattle and a groaning that could be heard for miles. But this was not quite the end. To our amazement she remained in that upright position for a time, which I estimate as five minutes, others in the boat say less, but it was certainly some minutes while we watched at least 150 feet of the Titanic towering up above the level of the sea and looming black against the sky."

"Then, with a quiet, slanting dive, she disappeared beneath the waters and our eyes had looked for the last time on the gigantic vessel we had set out on from Southampton last Wednesday." --From the story of Lawrence Busley (sic), of London, a survivor of the disaster.

The Times Wednesday 22 January 1919
Beesley Claims War Compensation
At the Defence of the Realm Losses Commission yesterday, Mr L. Beesley, described as a practitioner of Christian Science, claimed compensation in respect of the requisitioning by the War Office of rooms at Pembroke House, Oxford Street, in May 1917, in consequence of which he had to move to other rooms in Cavendish Street.

Book Review
New York Times Sunday 28 July 1912
THE TITANIC
Lawrence Beesley's Admirable Description of the Disaster
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THE LOSS OF THE S. S. TITANIC. By Lawrence Beesley. Illustrated. Houghton Miffling [sic] Company. $1.20.
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No man can go dawn into the valley of the shadow of death and stand face to face with the final certainty, and not come back with an awed soul and a chastened spirit. If any one could there would be something in him shocking and repellent to normal human nature. And therefore, the unconscious undertone of solemnity which one feels all through Mr. Beesley's simple narrative gives it a peculiar fitness and impressiveness, and adds to its value as an exact chronicle a certain austere charm.

Mr. Beesley, it will be remembered, was one of the passengers on the Titanic, was saved in one of the last boats that left the sinking ship, and afterward published in THE NEW YORK TIMES a singularly calm and judicial account of the accident and of the rescue of the boats by the Carpathia. The same sort of spirit breathes all through this much longer story, with its complete narrative of the trip, from the sailing of the huge vessel from Southampton to the landing of the survivors in New York, with a preliminary chapter descriptive of the history and construction of the ship, and a final two of discussion of responsibility for the accident and of the fruits it should grow. The greater part of the volume is an intimately personal relation of the things the author himself saw, and was a part of. In those chapters which detail such phases of the tragedy, as did not pass under his own eyes, he has been very careful in his selection and sifting of testimony.

Altogether, the book is probably as authoritative and comprehensive an account of the greatest marine disaster of modern times as will ever be written, and as completely true and exact as it would be possible for any one to write. Its spirit throughout is most admirable, with its sad sincerity, simplicity, gentleness, and calm and clear sense of justice. Mr. Beesley depores [sic] the attempts to find a scapegoat for the tragedy. While he lays the immediate responsibility, though with a gentle hand, upon the shoulders of Capt. Smith, he calls attention to all the extenuating circumstances and influences which he thinks should greatly mitigate the blame meted out to that officer. And back of the Captain he points out, and this with some sternness, the many who are directly responsible and upon whose shoulders should justly rest a large share of the blame. Among these is the American Government, which, he says, perhaps forgets "that it has exactly the same right---and therefore the same responsibility---as the British Government to inspect and to legislate; the right that is easily enforced by refusal to allow entry.” On the question of the number of lifeboats he thinks the position of the American to be worse than that of the British Government. "Its regulations," he points out, "require more than double the boat accommodation which the British regulations do, and yet it has allowed hundreds of thousands of its subjects to enter its ports on boats that defied its own laws." But back of all this he finds the initial responsibility to rest upon the general public, because of the universal callousness to the value of human life. "It is folly," he declares, "for the public to rise up now and condemn steamship companies; their failing is the common falling of the immortality of indifference.” He thinks also that there should be a revision of a Captain's duties and that some of the things for which he is held responsible, such as the manning, loading, and lowering of boats, should be entirely handed over to some one else.

The author lays much stress upon the calm, orderly, self-controlled demeanor of the Titanic's passengers after the accident and of that of the survivors in the lifeboats, on board the Carpathia, and at the landing in New York, and he speaks with just resentment of the sensational and untrue accounts, evolved solely out of the imagination, that were published in some of the New York papers. He speaks earnestly of the "quiet demeanor and poise" and the "inborn dominion over circumstances" which characterized their actions at all times. But he thinks that this was no more than the normal behavior of any crowd of the Teutonic race under trying circumstances. "The reasons that made them art as they did,” he decides, "were impersonal, instinctive, hereditary," and were the consequence of "their inborn respect for law and order and for traditions bequeathed to them by generations of ancestors."