Here we have the flag of the White Star Line, who operated the Titanic. And one of the heroes of that fateful night when it struck an iceberg and sank beneath the freezing waves was actually a heroine, a titled Lady called the Countess of Rothes, or Lucy Noel Martha Leslie.
She had married the Nineteenth Earl of Rothes in 1900, into one of the oldest titled families in Scotland, but one where women had the right of succession, not just men. This would have pleased her as she was very interested in the Suffragette movement. She also supported the Red Cross, beginning in 1911, and frequently said that nursing was every bit as strenous as other work, yet women coped with it admirably.
She was on the Titanic to join her husband, who was in California looking at land. On that fateful night she took control of a lifeboat, along with its inhabitants, and steered it out of the pull of the sinking ship, no mean feat, to the safety of the Carpathia, one of the rescue ships. During the night she also had to row for much of the way, and she kept up morale by singing hymns and other verses. When she was safely aboard the Carpathia she would not rest until she had checked on the people in her boat and the other people who had been saved, especially those from the steerage section.
In 1915 an RNLI lifeboat was bought by her father, and named after her.
A curious event occurred during the First World War; she served as a hospital nurse, and in 1916, she was suddenly called on to take care of a soldier, wounded in action, who had been brought back to England for treatment. This turned out to be her husband.
She liked nursing, because she was anonymous. She had become quite famous over the Titanic, which displeased her. She did not feel that she deserved praise for helping other people, and she also said the operator of the lifeboat had been the one that should get the credit. She also bought him a watch, along with one for another member of the crew, and had them engraved. In return he gave her the number from off the lifeboat, which she always treasured, so much so that after her death, the number plate was willed to remain within the family, and it is still there.
The most wonderful thing of all is that they wrote to each other right until she died in 1956, which pleases me so much. Not only that, but when her friend died, his watch was put up for auction by his family, and her family bought it, outbidding all others....
H.67 tells us that this set was also issued by other manufacturers - W.A. & A.C. Churchman (in February 1912), and W. T. Davies of Chester (in 1913, we do not know the month there). In our original Churchman Reference Book it states that the set was actually printed by Mardon Son and Hall. It does not say so in the Ogdens booklet, but most probably our card was as well, though six years had elapsed between the two issues.
There is a "spot the difference" with the Davies issue, which we will show you on Saturday morning in our newsletter. There is also an error noted on card 33 of the Churchman issue, but I do not know if it persists on the others, so please advise. The error is that the flag is on two masts, and that is something that only a seaman would know, so I have a sneaking suspicion that we can credit Aylmer Maurice Rundle for this discovery!