t h e r o s a t r o u p e
Wallace Hartley
When opera enthusiasts consider performances they usually identify conductors
and singers by name with chorus and orchestra collectively remembered but
individually anonymous. However, Wallace Hartley, born at Colne in Lancashire on
2 June 1878, is one orchestra member who is still remembered. He took to the
violin as a child and as a teenager played with the Colne Orchestral Society and
became a professional musician in 1901 playing in cafes, concert halls, pier
pavilions, and theatre orchestras. This included touring opera companies and he
had periods with the first violins of both the Moody Manners and the Carl Rosa
companies. Exact dates are uncertain but it would have been between 1901 and
1908 as in the following year he took to sea playing on the great ocean liners.
Three years later he sailed from Liverpool on 10 April 1912 as bandmaster on the
Titanic’s maiden voyage and the rest is history with the band playing as the
ship sank on 15 April. He was laid to rest in Colne Cemetery a month later after
thousands had witnessed the funeral procession.
He appears to be the only member of the Rosa company – other than Augustus
Harris – to be remembered with a public monument. The illustration shows his
memorial in Colne town centre.
The Carl Rosa Archive has no Wallace Hartley material. The Trust acknowledges a
debt to Titanic literature for the above details.
© 2019 John Ward
