1887 - 1912
Better known as Jack, John George Phillips was educated at St Johns
School, Farncombe and then the Grammar School, which is now the
public bar of the Red Lion Inn. On leaving school Jack worked at
the Godalming Post Office, now the HSBC Bank, where he became a
telegraphist. At 18 Jack joined the Marconi Wireless School in Liverpool,
then served on many ocean-going liners. Jack was Chief Wireless
Telegraphist on the ill-fated RMS Titanic and became a local hero
by staying at his post sending out SOS messages and thereby saving
705 lives; this last message being just 3 minutes before the Titanic
disappeared.
The Phillips Memorial Cloister on the Phillips Memorial Recreation
Ground, designed by Hugh Thackeray Turner and Gertrude Jekyll, commemorates
his bravery. The memorial, being 80 feet square, is one of the largest
Titanic memorials in the World.
There is a brass memorial wall tablet to his memory in Farncombe
Church where he sang in the choir.
Jack’s family grave in the Old Cemetery has a memorial stone
in the form of an iceberg. The memorial being refurbished by the
Godalming Joint Burial Committee for the 90th Anniversary of the
sinking of the Titanic on the 15 April 2002.
Godalming also has a pub, a row of houses and a road bearing Jack
Phillips’ name.
|
