Clear his name (From Dorset Echo)

Clear his name

11:30am Thursday 7th June 2007 in News By Harry Walton

AFTER nearly a century, a Weymouth family are still battling to clear the name of a seaman who survived the sinking of the Titanic.

George Symons was a lookout on board the ill-fated White Star vessel in April 1912 and had just gone off duty when the ship struck the iceberg.

The Titanic was badly damaged and as she slowly slipped beneath the waves, George was put in charge of a lifeboat which had Scottish landowner Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, his wife and his secretary on board but room for many more.

There were claims made at the time that Sir Cosmo, who represented Great Britain at the 1908 Olympics as a fencer, then bribed the lifeboat's crew by paying them £5 each to row away from the Titanic for fear they might be swamped by survivors.

A British Board of Trade inquiry into the incident later exonerated Sir Cosmo, but George gained no such public support and his family have been trying to clear his name ever since.

A letter by Sir Cosmo's wife's secretary, Mabel Francatelli, was published recently confirming he was more hero than villain and George's niece, Dawn Gould, of Newstead Road, is now hoping that the Government can clear him as well.

She said: "The letter suggests that Mabel and Sir Cosmo's wife clung to him and refused to get into a lifeboat without him which suggests that he was forced to get on board to save their lives.

"He was then accused of paying George and other crew £5 each but Miss Francatelli said he only paid the money to the men as an act of charity because they had lost all their kit.

"Uncle George always told us that he had only been given the £5 by Sir Cosmo as a gesture because he had lost everything he owned. He swore that was what happened and he always said he was innocent. He said he and another sailor in the lifeboat had wanted to go back but that Sir Cosmo told them not to for fear they would be sunk by big waves or survivors.

"The family always believed him but was always ashamed of the rumours about the alleged bribery and we have only just heard about this letter which backs up what he said about the money.

"I have also only just found out that the Board of Trade exonerated Sir Cosmo after an inquiry into the disaster, so he has now been exonerated twice.

"So does that mean my uncle has been exonerated as well? I would like to know and so would all his surviving relatives. His daughter died two years ago but others are alive somewhere abroad, although they don't keep in touch with me.

"I would like to know for my own peace of mind. It is a very famous incident but one with a very different memory for our family and we would like to lay that memory to rest."

The Board of Trade ceased to exist in 1970 when part of it became what is now the Department of Trade and Industry.

The Echo approached the DTI, which agreed to check its records to try and help clear George's name.

A spokesman said: "I can't see how the crew could not have been cleared if Duff-Gordon was cleared."

Dawn said: "I am very pleased. I had always hoped that if Sir Cosmo was cleared then the crew would have been as well and now I know."