On the 108th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic, we look back at a fascinating Emanuel connection to the ship.
Mr Charles Lightoller was the most senior surviving officer of the sinking of the Titanic, of which there is much written about online. Lightoller was also an Emanuel School parent some sixteen years after the disaster. His son Herbert Brian Lightoller (OE1928-29, pictured below) was one of the first casualties of the Second World War, losing his life on 4th September 1939 in an early aerial skirmish.
Brian was piloting a Blenheim Bomber, which was part of 107 Squadron Bomber Command. In the opening salvo of the Second World War, Bomber Command sent out planes to attack German warships and Brian’s crew left in the second wave of bombers, aiming for the German cruiser Emden which had been spotted during reconnaissance operations. It is believed his crew did not get a chance of firing upon the Emden and instead was shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
Nine months later Charles Lightoller, his other son Roger and their yacht Sundowner played their part in the evacuation of Dunkirk rescuing 130 men on a yacht built for a fraction of that number. Apparently Lightoller was the inspiration behind the character “Mr Dawson” in the smash hit Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk.
In a surviving letter, Charles Lightholler thanked his late son Brian for many of the survival techniques he used in evading the German attackers whilst sailing back to the safety of Ramsgate:
“My youngest son, Pilot Officer H. B. Lightoller (lost at the outbreak of war in the first raid on Wilhelmshaven) flew a Blenheim and had at different times given me a whole lot of useful information about attack, defence and evasive tactics (at which he was apparently particularly good) and I attribute, in a great measure, our success in getting across without a single casualty to his unwitting help.”
Tony Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)
