Late tribute for Titanic hero
Wednesday 1st August 2012, 6:05PM BST.
Jerseyman Alfred Olliver was a quartermaster on RMS Titanic
A HERO from the Titanic who is buried in an unmarked grave in St Saviour’s churchyard was finally given the recognition he deserved on Tuesday when a headstone was placed on his grave.
Eighty-four years after the death of Jerseyman Alfred Olliver, the role he played as the ship went down has finally been acknowledged.
On the headstone is the logo of the White Star Line, the company whose ship Titanic was branded as their shining star and which four days into its maiden voyage plunged to the sea bed in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
Mr Olliver played a part in saving the lives of 45 people on board a lifeboat which he helped to man, but the terrible sights and sounds he experienced on the night of the tragedy in April 1912 stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Unable to work regularly again, he and his family remained poor, and on his death in 1928 at the age of 50, they could not afford a headstone for him.
Full story in Wednesday’s JEP
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I am confused. Why is Alfred Olliver a hero? As I understand it, he was a crewman on an under-loaded lifeboat that was launched quickly. He remembered to put the bung in. And then didn’t go back to rescue more survivors.
I readily accept it was a very unpleasant experience, that I would not have wished to share. But what was “heroic”?
It would be helpful if journalists checked a dictionary before applying the “Hero” tag to everything and anything. It is demeaning the true meaning of the word.
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Totally agree with you cancer,all this guy did was put a bung in, I understand that the women in the boat did not want the crew to go and pick up some of the passengers screaming in the water for help,they just let them drown.Their lifeboat was just over half full,if anything the crew should have been charged with manslaughter,they should definitely not be classed as heroes.
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Sadly, Cancer, you are quite right. He survived a disaster. And…?
It is irritating to see someone who wins a running race described as a “hero”, or as one broadcaster said, “Everyone who ran with an Olympic torch was a hero!” Didn’t look that dangerous to me…
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You can get a nasty burn from a hot torch, you know. And a twisted ankle by jogging a few hundred yards.
Sadly, journalists are paid to sell newspapers or TV coverage. Accuracy and common sense are not the criteria.
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Wonderful armchair heroic comments. Now how do you think you’d react in the middle of a freezing ocean in pitch dark in the middle of a panic?
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Personally I would be very, very, scared. However, having not wilfully placed myself in that dangerous situation, it would not make me in the slightest bit heroic.
Unlucky, cold and afraid … yes.
Heroic … no.
That is the distinction being drawn here.
“Hero: a person, typically a man, who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”
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Definitely not like this socalled hero, I would have gone back to pick up as many of the passengers as the lifeboat would hold.
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But the Ladies (?) from First Class wouldn’t let him, as I read it.
Given the social construct of the times, it would indeed have been heroic if he had disobeyed them, or even deservedly whacked one round the head with an oar. I have little doubt that his ‘inability’ to go back for more survivors was a contributor to his PTSD … the shame of being non-heroic, if you will.
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If you were in charge of the lifeboat would you listen to a bunch of stuck up women,I certainly wouldn’t.Was he a man or a mouse,I think a mouse.
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You have to remember that ‘Ladies’ in those days were trained from birth to wipe the floor with the working classes. He would probably have been promised a horsewhipping or worse for disobedience.
I imagine that the concept of chivalry was the brainchild of similar females.
Soon after 1912 they were all busy making sure that men went to war.
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Apart from the overall social norms at the time, which would lean towards yes you would do what your ‘Betters’ told you, especially if you survived and had to make a living. Which leads on to another point, from the moment he stepped onto the lifeboat, his pay stopped and he was no longer a White Star employess. This happaned in another boat where another First class genteleman was acused of bribing the crew by ofering them £5 to replace their kit.Like many ordianry men in extrodinary situations he survived, and others will seek to find fault with that.
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I.m not finding fault that he survived just that is being called a HERO.
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.. which I think is where we started, rather than a debate about a Class War. Just saying
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