Titanic hero in plaque honour
By Mark Blunden, South London Press

A PLAQUE to honour a Titanic survivor could soon be mounted in a South London library.

The move comes after the South London Press teamed up with a former Nunhead man who discovered the roots of one of the ship's radio operators, Harold Bride.

Brian Payne, 68, left Nunhead in 1968 and now lives in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

And he has wanted a plaque to commemorate Mr Bride mounted in Nunhead library since making the discovery.

Brian called on the South London Press to boost his campaign in January last year and now a commemorative wooden plaque to honour the radio operator has been offered by the Radio Officers' Association in Southampton.

Southwark council said they would be happy to consider the proposal.

Mr Payne, an ex-Merchant Navy man, said: "It strikes me that the people of Nunhead should know about Harold Bride and be proud of him.

"Back then every third person either went to sea or worked on the river."

Bride was born in Nunhead in 1890 and while employed by wireless company Marconi, he signed up for service on the Titanic on April 9, 1912.

The supposedly unsinkable ship went down six days later.

Although sustaining badly crushed and frozen feet, the South Londoner was rescued by the ship Carpathia and taken to New York.

He died in Scotland in 1956. Chairman of the Radio Officers' Association Professor Brian Cotton said: "Bride is a hero for us because he stood by his post until the captain said he could go.

"The impact of what Bride did and the change in technical procedures as a result of his actions are very important.

"The Titanic disaster is very dramatic and has captured the imagination of the public."

A council spokeswoman said: "We haven't as yet been approached regarding the plaque.

"However, if the group would like to contact us on this issue we'd be really happy to consider it."

From: http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0300southwark/tm_objectid=14334704&method=full&siteid=50100&headline=titanic-hero-in-plaque-honour-name_page.html

Titanic, That is an interesting article and the plaque is way overdo. There were so many heros the time of the sinking of Titanic. But, hometowns especially should honor their own. The plaque sounds great.