Walter Thomas Brice
Walter Thomas Brice was a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 14, 1912. He was an Able Seaman onboard the ship.
Early Life[]
Walter Thomas Brice was a native of Lenham, Kent, England where he was born on December 20, 1869. He was baptized on January 15 1913.
He was the son of Thomas Brice, an agricultural laborer, and Annie Maria Payne, natives of Lenham who had married in late-1869. He had one known sibling, Katie Annie.
In 1871 Walter and the Brice family had their home in Forstal Cottage, Lenham. The following year, however, his father abandoned the family and resettled in the USA. He was remarried twice over and had more children, firstly to Lavinia Cane with whom he had two daughters. Following Lavinia's death in 1900 he remarried a widow, Hannah Hecox. He later worked in the hotel business in Richfield, Ostego, New York up until his death on December 20, 1929.
In 1880, Annie Marie found a new husband and was married to Richard James Beck, which meant that Walter later had several half-siblings: Frederick, Mabel, Maud, Florence, Herbert, Alfred and Alice. In 1881, the family was living at 12 North Lane in Faversham, Kent.
Walter had jobs at sea from a very young age: he joined the Royal Navy on January 14, 1890. His first vessel was the SS Pembroke. After 4 years of service, he was discharged on April 6, 1894 and next, he served aboard the SS Victory II. He was 5' 6" tall, with light hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion and described as well behaving. He later worked on sail ships as well steamships and joined the White Star Line, where he would be on RMS Majestic and RMS Oceanic.
Walter was married in Southampton on May 21, 1907, to Sarah McKenna of Scottish origin. She was a native of Renfrewshire.The couple reamined childless. In 1911 Sarah Brice was still living with her widowed mother, also called Sarah, at 36 Edward Street, Hebburn on Tyne, South Shields, Durham. Walter was absent and likely at sea.
Titanic[]
When he signed on to the Titanic, on April 6, 1912, Walter lived at 11 Lower Canal Walk in Southampton. As a seaman he would earn £5 a month. Before Titanic, he was a crew member of the SS Thames.
On the night of the April 14, Brice had been on watch since 8:00 P.M. and was outside the Seaman's Mess in the bow part of C-Deck at the time of the collision. He heard the impact which he described as a rumbling and felt the ship vibrate but not violently, this lasted for around ten seconds. He immediately went out to the Forward Well Deck and saw ice laying everywhere.
On April 15, the ship's captain ordered for evacuation when it was apparant that Titanic was sinking. Brice assisted in preparing the lifeboats. He lowered boats 9 and 11 to A-Deck to be further filled from there. When he was done assisting in launching lifeboat 9, he boarded his own boat, number 11. This boat left the ship around 1:35 A.M.
Lifeboat 11, under the command of seaman Humphreys, was overloaded with an estimated 70 persons aboard and had difficulty releasing itself from the falls once it hit the water. There was also the threat of it being swamped from the pump discharge and the large number of people made it difficult to row and those at the oars found it almost impossible to pull a stroke.
Brice watched the ship sinking from about a quarter of a mile away, stating she was almost perpendicular in the final plunge but was unable to tell whether she had broken apart. Before Titanic finally foundered, Brice reported hearing two loud rumblings spaced 8 to 10 minutes apart.
With no lantern in the boat, Brice fashioned torches out of rope and those rowing tested on the oars for a couple of hours before being rescued by the ship RMS Carpathia.
Brice survived the disaster and was a witness at the US Senate Inquiry.
Later life[]
Brice returned to working at sea where he also was during World War 1. What became of his wife Sarah is not clear but he was remarried in Thanet, Kent in July 1919 to Caroline Rose Hannah Garwood, the childless widower of Alfred Garwood, a fisherman. The couple remained in Ramsgate. Walter lost his wife in 1926.
Walter spent his final days living at 17 Denmark Road in Ramsgate, Kent and passed away there on December 2, 1928, aged 58. He was buried in Ramsgate Cemetery, Kent (section L B, plot 556) possibly in an unmarked grave.