John Henry Chapman - Titanic Second Class Passenger
Mr John Henry Chapman was a second class passenger returning to America with his wife Sara Elizabeth Chapman, whom he had recently married in Britain. They had boarded Titanic at Southampton on 10th April 1912.
John Henry Chapman was born in to a farming family in around 1875 in St Neot, Cornwall, United Kingdom. In around 1906 he moved to Canada, and in around 1910, he had moved to Spokane, Washington, United States, where he found work at Fairmount Cemetery.
During the latter part of 1911 he returned home to Cornwall, where he married Sara Elizabeth Lawry, whom he had known before leaving home and had kept in touch with, on 26th December 1911. The couple decided to move to America, returning home aboard the maiden voyage of Titanic.
As Titanic was sinking his wife is said to have refused to leave him behind. Both John Henry Chapman and his wife were lost in the sinking of Titanic. His body, listed as body number 17, was recurved.
A 1912 document concerning the recovery of his body held at the Nova Scotia Archives notes the following: He was found to be wearing a grey overcoat and brown suit – and had upon him a handkerchief marked "J. Chapman", chain and locket, gold watch, chain and badge, £63 10s in gold, 13s 7d in silver and copper, $2 in paper and silver, etc. Letters, baggage receipt, keys, tie clip, pipe and nail cleaner, baggage insurance, marriage certificate, and a lady's handbag and gold watch.
He was buried at Fairview Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both John Henry Chapman and his wife are listed on the memorial at the grave of his wife’s aunt, Emma Elizabeth Lawry; the memorial says that they “lost their lives through the sinking of the Titanic in 1912".
Related pages - Titanic's Second Class Passengers, All Titanic Pages