Titanic ties

I Was interested in Terry Waite’s china model of the original HMV dog, Nipper, which his mother said she had known as a farm dog in her youth (Weekend).

My late mum’s uncle, Henry Price Hodges, born in Herefordshire in 1862, was a musical instrument dealer in southampton and owned the original phonograph that Nipper is listening to for ‘His Master’s Voice’ in the famous motif.

H. P. Hodges was one of those who perished aboard the Titanic, and in numerous publications his words while on board — sent to a former mayor of southampton on a postcard posted in Queenstown, the liner’s last port of call — are quoted.

He wrote: ‘We’ve had a fine time up to now. You don’t notice anything of the movement of the ship. OK, on top deck there are 20 boys marching round and singing. Others are playing cards and dominoes; some are reading and some writing.’

His body (‘number 149’) was recovered from the surface by the C.s. (Cable ship) MackayBennett and he is buried in Halifax, Nova scotia, Canada.

He lived in a house in southampton, which is now Highfield House Hotel, and there’s a commemorative brass plaque about him in the foyer.’

PETE MITCHELL, Churchdown, Gloucs.