This morning, Sara and I attended a memorial service at St Trillo’s church, Rhos on Sea, for the victims of the Titanic disaster a century ago. The service also honoured the memory of Commander Harold Lowe, a native of Barmouth who was fifth officer on the ship and who was commended for his coolness in organising the lifeboats to pick up survivors after it sank. Commander Lowe is buried in St Trillo’s churchyard and I was pleased that his grandson, John, was also present.
St Trillo’s is an ancient church with long seafaring connections. It was for many years painted white (a practice recently revived), enabling it to serve as a navigation mark for ships on Liverpool Bay. Its tower is topped with a construction known as the Rector’s Chair, which once held a brazier that was lit when enemy ships were sighted.
John Lowe told me how deeply touched he had been by the fact that his grandfather’s memory was still so honoured a hundred years after the Titanic sank. It is, however, unsurprising that it is, given that his conduct that night was so outstandingly brave.
The Titanic disaster will, I am sure, live on in our national consciousness for many years to come. The impact of the disaster upon Britain was, in many ways, similar to that of the destruction of the World Trade Center on the United States.
The Titanic was vaunted by its constructors to be of such an advanced design as to be unsinkable. Similarly, I remember visiting one of the Twin Towers in February, 2001, and being told be a guide that the skyscraper had been designed to withstand the impact of an aircraft.
Both the Titanic and the World Trade Center were visible symbols of national prestige. Both were destroyed by dreadful and unforeseen forces; in the case of one, the power of nature, and, of the other, human evil.
In each disaster, the conduct of individual people illuminated the dreadfulness and gave cause for faith in the essential decency of humankind.
That is why it is right that we should revere the memories of people such as Harold Lowe, just as we should remember those victims and rescuers who lost their lives in New York City on 11 September, 2001.
Llanarmon is an ancient parish with historical links to the abbey of Valle Crucis, near Llangollen. The service, which was packed, was illuminated by a huge candelabrum which reputedly was taken from the abbey at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.
