Life and career

Wallace Henry Hartley was born on 2 June 1878 and raised in Colne, Lancashire, England. Hartley’s father, Albion Hartley, was the choirmaster and Sunday school superintendent at Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel, on Burnley Road where the family attended worship services.^[1] Albion himself introduced the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” to the congregation. Wallace studied at Colne’s Methodist day school, sang in Bethel’s choir and learned to play the violin from a fellow congregation member.^[2][3]

After leaving school, Hartley started work with the Craven & Union Bank in Colne. When his family moved to Huddersfield, Hartley joined the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1903, he left home to join the municipal orchestra in Bridlington, where he stayed for six years. He later moved to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire and in 1909, he joined the Cunard Line as a musician, serving on the ocean liners RMS Lucania, RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania.^[3]

Whilst serving on the Mauretania, the employment of Cunard musicians was transferred to the music agency C.W. & F.N. Black, which supplied musicians for Cunard and the White Star Line. This transfer changed Hartley’s onboard status, as he was no longer counted as a member of the crew, but rather as a passenger, albeit one accommodated in second-class accommodation at the agency’s expense. It later transpired that neither the shipping company nor the music agency had insured the musicians, with each claiming it was the other’s responsibility.^[3]

In April 1912, Hartley was assigned to be the bandmaster for the White Star Line ship RMS Titanic.^[3] He was at first hesitant to again leave his fiancée, Maria Robinson, to whom he had recently proposed, but Hartley decided that working on the maiden voyage of the Titanic would give him possible contacts for future work.