
Harold Bride in 1912.
Harold Sydney Bride (11 January 1890 – 29 April 1956) was a British merchant seaman and the junior wireless officer on the ocean liner RMS Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage.
Biography[]
Harold Bride was born in Nunhead, London, England, in 1890 to Arthur Bride and Mary Ann Lowe. The youngest of five children, Bride lived with his family in Bromley. After primary school Bride decided he wanted to become a wireless operator and he worked in his family's business to help pay for training. He completed training for the Marconi Company in July 1911. Working for Marconi, his first sea assignment as a wireless operator was on the SS Haverford; later he worked on the Beaverford, the LaFrance, the Lusitania, and the Anselm.
In 1912 Harold Bride joined the crew of the RMS Titanic as the junior wireless operator and assistant to Jack Phillips at Belfast, Ireland. Stories have appeared that Bride knew Phillips before the Titanic, but Bride insisted that they had never met before Belfast. The Titanic left on her maiden voyage to New York City from Southampton, England, on 10 April. During the voyage, Bride and Phillips worked from the wireless room on the Boat Deck, sending out passengers' personal messages and receiving iceberg warnings from other ships. On 11 April, a day after the ship set sail, Phillips and Bride had celebrated Phillips' 25th birthday, with pastries brought from the first class dining room.
After the Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm 14 April 1912, Bride and his senior colleague Jack Phillips were responsible for relaying CQD messages (later SOS at Captain Edward Smith's urging) to ships in the vicinity, which led to the survivors being picked up by the RMS Carpathia. The men remained at their posts until the ship's power was almost completely out. Bride was washed off the ship as the boat deck flooded, but managed to scramble onto the upturned lifeboat Collapsible 'B', and was rescued by the Carpathia later in the morning. Despite being injured, he helped Harold Cottam, the Carpathia's wireless operator and a personal friend of his, transmit survivor lists and personal messages from the ship.