People of Headington: John Wesley Woodward
John Wesley Woodward was among the musicians who continued playing as the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912. When he wasn't on board ship, he lived with his widowed mother in Windmill Road, Headington.
There is a brass plaque commemorating him in All Saints’ Church, Headington (left), but as his middle name implies, he was brought up as a Methodist, so he may in fact have attended the Methodist Chapel in New High Street (now the hall of Lime Walk Methodist Church).
John (right) was born in West Bromwich on 11 September 1879, the youngest of the nine children of Joseph and Martha Woodward. His father was the manager of an iron foundry that made holloware. The 1881 census shows the family living in West Bromwich at 24 Hawkes Lane, with all the children still at home: Mary (18), Joseph (15), Martha (14), Thomas (12), Frederick (10), Herbert (8), Samuel (6), Roland (4), and John (1).
John’s father died at the age of 49 in 1884, and initially the family remained in West Bromwich. At the time of the 1891 census his widowed mother Martha (52) was at Hawkes Lane with eight of her children including John (11), who was still at school.
In 1891 John’s brother Thomas William Woodward had been working as a moulder, but later in the 1890s he led the way down to Oxford when he became a professional singer and lay clerk at Magdalen College. From 1899 he was listed as the householder at 265 Cowley Road, and his mother and two of his brothers, including John, soon came down to live with him in that house. In the 1901 census Mrs Woodward is described as the head of the household, and three of her sons were at home with her on census night: Thomas (32), who is described as "Professional Singer & Lay Clerk", Herbert (28), and John (21), who was now himself a professional musician.
John Wesley Woodward became well known in Oxford as a ’cello player, and following a period working at Eastbourne, joined the White Star Line as a musician in about 1909. On 10 April 1912 he joined the Titanic at Southampton on her maiden voyage, taking his best 'cello with him for the first time. On his return he was due to perform at Magdalen College’s May dinner; but when the Titanic hit the iceberg five days later on 15 April 1912, the musicians famously continued to play as she went down, and they all drowned. He was 32 when he died, and his home was then in Windmill Road, Headington, at No. 2 The Firs in Windmill Road (which appears to be No. 15, in All Saints’ parish). His estate was valued at £1,195 3s. 5d.
His photograph (along with two other Oxford passengers* on the Titanic, and shown above) was published in the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 24 April 1912 with the following obituary:
Among those who lost their lives on the ill-fated vessel, is Mr. John Wesley Woodward, of Oxford. Mr. Woodward was the youngest son of Mrs. Woodward, of Headington, and a brother of Mr. T. W. Woodward, the well-known tenor singer of Magdalen College choir, living in Oakthorpe-road, Oxford. Mr. Wesley Woodward left Oxford about a fortnight ago to join the Titanic as a member of the ship’s orchestra. He had previously made several journeys across the Atlantic, and three across the Mediterranean, so that he was quite a seasoned sailor. He was on board the Olympic, sister boat to the Titanic, when she collided with H.M.S. Hawke, and had a narrow escape of losing his life, for he was in the cabin with three colleagues just where the Hawke struck, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that a rescue was accomplished. He was well-known as a ’cello player, having appeared in several solos and string quartettes, notably with the Misses Price and Mr. H. M. Dowson. A few years ago he left Oxford to take up a position in the Duke of Devonshire’s band at Eastbourne. When that enterprise fell through some three years ago Mr. Woodward became attached to the White Star Company’s liners, and has been with them ever since. He was recognised as one of their most able musicians, and is exceedingly popular with everyone with whom he came into contact. He was 32 years of age, unmarried, and devoted to his mother, who lives at The Firs, Windmill-road, Headington.
A brass plaque on the wall of All Saints Church, Headington, reads as follows:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF |
In 1914 Arthur Beckett, a newspaper publisher and Chairman of the Woodward Memorial Committee, had a granite memorial put up to John Wesley Woodward in the Eastbourne bandstand. This memorial (which is now Grade II listed) has three panels: one shows the Titanic sinking, the second shows a portrait of Woodward, and the third has the following inscription:
THIS TABLET IS ERECTED AS ON APRIL 15TH 1912. “FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH” |
John’s family after the sinking of the Titanic
- John’s mother, Mrs Martha Woodward
In 1911 Mrs Woodward was staying in Walsall with her son Samuel and his family, probably on holiday, as she was back in Windmill Road the next year. She died in the Headington registration district (which included Summertown and east Oxford) in the third quarter of 1926, aged 87. - John’s brother Thomas William Woodward
Early in 1904 Thomas married Elizabeth Constance Mansfield in the Wolverhampton district and brought her down to Oxford, where his first daughter Eleanor Mansfield Woodward was born in 1904/5, and his second daughter Phyllis Barnett Woodward in 1908. His wife was at their home at 44 Oakthorpe Road, Summertown at the time of the 1911 census with their two young daughters, but Thomas was staying in Wolverhampton with his father-in-law, William Mansfield, with his occupation given as “lay clerk” (indicating that he was still with the Magdalen College choir). He is described in the commercial section of Kelly's Directory as a teacher of singing at 44 Oakthorpe Road (with Mrs Woodward, described as a teacher of music). From 1925 to 1943 he is described as a teacher of singing at 14 Norham Road, Oxford. Eleanor M. Woodward married William C. Lester-Smith in the Headington registration district (which then included north Oxford) in the first quarter of 1931. - John’s brother Herbert Edward Woodward
At the time of the 1911 census he was alone in the family home at 15 Windmill Road and was working as a gardener. From 1914 to 1945 he is listed as the head of the household at Lynwood, 24 Windmill Road.
* The other two Oxford passengers on the Titanic featured in the article are:
- James Arthur Paintin (29), whose parents lived at 52 Marlborough Road (drowned)
- Miss Annie Zillah Elsie Stanley (24), the daughter of the man who ran the Wolvercote General Stores (rescued).
