Titanic Relief Fund
Lieutenant Commander Henry Bowyer (Royal Naval Reserve) was Mayor of Southampton when the Titanic went down. Like his father and four of his brothers, he was a Trinity House Pilot, so had a strong maritime connection. Henry immediately instigated the Southampton Titanic Relief Fund, and initially was responsible almost single-handedly for distributing the money. He also became responsible for administering the Mansion House fund.
Although it was widely accepted that Henry and his wife had worked tirelessly on the relief fund; after some months the Southampton Times was suggesting that perhaps a more representative committee should be set up to administer the fund. Consequently a committee was set up, but it certainly was not representative of the people who were receiving the money. Despite trade unions asking to have a member on the committee, this was not allowed. The committee members were chosen by personal invitation from Henry and included his wife, Mr P. E. Curry (the manager of the White star Line in Southampton) and his wife; as well as sundry clerics, financial experts and judicial leaders.
A great deal of money was collected – at one stage the relief fund committee stated that they did not need any more money, but this was ignored by the public and even more money was given. In all £413,000 was raised.
When war broke out in 1914 Henry became extremely busy piloting troopships on their way to the continent. He died in July 1915 at the age of forty-eight and was buried in Southampton Old Cemetery.
Although it was widely accepted that Henry and his wife had worked tirelessly on the relief fund; after some months the Southampton Times was suggesting that perhaps a more representative committee should be set up to administer the fund. Consequently a committee was set up, but it certainly was not representative of the people who were receiving the money. Despite trade unions asking to have a member on the committee, this was not allowed. The committee members were chosen by personal invitation from Henry and included his wife, Mr P. E. Curry (the manager of the White star Line in Southampton) and his wife; as well as sundry clerics, financial experts and judicial leaders.
A great deal of money was collected – at one stage the relief fund committee stated that they did not need any more money, but this was ignored by the public and even more money was given. In all £413,000 was raised.
When war broke out in 1914 Henry became extremely busy piloting troopships on their way to the continent. He died in July 1915 at the age of forty-eight and was buried in Southampton Old Cemetery.
Once the Titanic Relief Fund Committee had been put in place, it was decided that they needed a ‘Lady Visitor’ to do the job that would be done by a social worker today. Originally their preferred choice was for a woman who was not resident in Southampton, presumably because she would bring more objectivity to the task, but the eventual appointment was Miss Ethel Maude Newman, very much a local resident. In fact she lived all her life at Hawthorn Cottage on the Common, the site now occupied by the Hawthorns Urban Wild life Centre.
“I can remember one or two little things, like a lady by the name of Miss Newman, who used to come from the Hawthorn Cottage in the centre of the Common. She used to ride her upright bicycle with her dalmatian dog always running beside her and she used to come regularly, once or twice a month.”
— John Bartlett May
“I can remember one or two little things, like a lady by the name of Miss Newman, who used to come from the Hawthorn Cottage in the centre of the Common. She used to ride her upright bicycle with her dalmatian dog always running beside her and she used to come regularly, once or twice a month.”
— John Bartlett May
The distribution of the Relief Fund was very much along Victorian class and gender lines. The widows were not considered competent to manage their own budgets and so money was doled out in small, frequent amounts which if anything compounded the grinding poverty in which they lived. They also had to be seen to be ‘deserving’ poor and any hint of moral looseness or drunkeness meant that income would cease immediately. Ethel seems to have managed to balance the fine line between befriending her charges while simultaneously ensuring that domestic situations were satisfactory. However, she certainly was not universally popular – borne out by the fact that on one occasion her bicycle ended up in the Itchen. Often Ethel was able to help families in very practical ways including setting up apprenticeships like the one to French and Sons Bootmakers – a firm that is still going strong in Bedford Place today.
Ethel continued to work for the fund until her death in 1940 and is buried in the recently restored family grave in Southampton Old Cemetery.
Ethel continued to work for the fund until her death in 1940 and is buried in the recently restored family grave in Southampton Old Cemetery.