Titanic Memorials: John Phillips, Godalming

Titanic's chief wireless officer John (Jack) George Phillips, pictured here on the right, was remembered in his home town of Godalming, Surrey, by the construction of the biggest memorial to a single Titanic victim, the Phillips Memorial Cloister, pictured here on the left.

S.O.S.
THIS CLOISTER IS BUILT
IN MEMORY OF
JOHN GEORGE PHILLIPS
A NATIVE OF THIS TOWN.
CHIEF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHIST OF THE ILL-FATED S.S. TITANIC HE DIED AT HIS POST WHEN THE VESSEL FOUNDERED
IN MID-ATLANTIC ON THE 15TH DAY OF
APRIL 1912.

Upon leaving school, Phillips worked at the Post Office in Godalming, where he developed his radio skills and became a telegraphist.

Titanic Memorials - John Phillips Amongst the many contributors to the memorial fund was Titanic's junior radio operator, Harold Bride, who donated the sum of £1 5d.

The memorial and surrounding gardens underwent a major restoration project in 1993.

There is also a memorial headstone in the style of an iceberg in the town's Old Cemetery dedicated to Phillips, even though his body was never recovered.