Titanic’s unsung hero
THE last letter sent by an unsung hero of the Titanic is up for sale more than a century later.
Widower John Harper put his young daughter and niece in a lifeboat as the ship sank but did not join them – allowing his six-year-old Nina to be orphaned so that another child or woman could survive.
The Baptist minister even gave up his lifejacket to another man, telling him: “You need this more than I do.”
And having saved all the lives he could, he switched to saving souls instead.
As the liner began to sink he ran along the flooded decks, preaching the gospel to anyone who would listen – reportedly including those fighting for their lives in the freezing water below.
Just three days earlier the pastor from Houston, Renfrewshire, had written a letter telling of the “glorious time” that he, daughter Nina and niece Jessie were having on the liner’s doomed maiden voyage.
The never-before-seen letter to his great-grandfather, Charles Livingstone of Glasgow, was written on White Star Line headed notepaper while the Titanic was en route from Cherbourg to Ireland in 1912.
It was posted at the port of Cobh, Cork, then known as Queenstown, which was the liner’s last port of call.
Mr Harper, 39, was known to be an engaging and impressive pastor and was on his way to America to serve at the Moody Church in Chicago.
He had boarded the Titanic at Southampton on April 10, hoping to sail to New York.
His niece Jessie Leitch went to be the longestliving Scottish survivor of the Titanic tragedy and died in 1986.
A famous photograph showing a little girl holding her father’s hand as they walked on the second-class promenade during the voyage is believed to be Mr Harper and Nina.
His letter remained in the family and has now been put up for sale for the first time. It has an estimated value of £50,000 as it goes under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wilts.
You need this lifejacket more than I do
JOHN HARPER GAVE UP HIS CHANCE OF SURVIVAL