Colne’s Titanic bandmaster Wallace Hartley has been the central figure in a weekend of remembrance for victims of the maritime tragedy 100 years ago.

Tributes in various forms were paid to the 33-year-old musician, whose quiet dignity aboard the stricken liner is legendary.

But those who attended a memorial service at Colne Railway Station, just yards from Hartley’s childhood home, were urged to recall each of the 1,514 victims – and their families.

Railway chaplain the Rev Richard Cook, said: “In Colne, 40,000 people came, not just to pay their respects to Wallace Hartley but to be there for Wallace’s family, to give them that shoulder to cry on.”

More than 100 people gathered for a service, accompanied by the Railway Quartet, which began with a rendition of Nearer My God To Thee, the hymn said to have been performed by Hartley’s band as the Titanic sank.

Earlier the Rev Cath Brooks had led prayers for Hartley, a former Colne choirboy from a chapel upbringing.

Later prayers also included Psalm 23 and a lament, based on Nearer My God To Thee, by piper Barry McQueen, before the Last Post was sounded by Wendy Redman.

Colne’s simple ceremony echoed commemorations across the western world, including the service on board the RMS Balmoral, on the site of the liner’s sinking. Around 1,300 passengers, including descendants of victims and survivors, took part in a voyage retracing the Titanic’s course.

Southampton has held a series of events, and there were similar events in Belfast, where the ship was constructed, in Liverpool and Canada, where many of those recovered from the sea are buried, in graveyards across Nova Scotia.

Back in East Lancashire, the first airing was also given to a new biopic of Hartley, also entitled Nearer My God To Thee and narrated by BBC presenter and former Lancashire Telegraph reporter Tony Livesey.

Produced by Pendle Hippodrome Theatre and Pendle Movie Makers, it featured contributions from Colne Orpheus Glee Union and Colne Orchestral Society, of which the violinist was a member in the mid-1890s.

Librarians and researchers Christine Bradley, Jack Greenwood, Stuart James, Fiona McIntyre, John Morgan, Jill Pengelley, Keith Walton and Darran Ward put together an insightful and well-received account of Hartley’s early life in Colne and beyond.

Ward, who wrote Playing To The End, a fresh biography of Hartley containing a number of rare photos, also led a funeral walk on Saturday from his old church, Bethel Chapel, to the Titanic in Lancashire Museum.

The biopic also featured the thoughts of Jonathan Evans Jones, the actor and violinist who played the bandmaster in the 1997 Titanic film.

Before taking to the stage last night, with Colne Orchestral Society, for a commemoriation concert at the town’s municipal hall, Jones also joined dignitaries in laying wreaths at Hartley’s bust, off Albert Road.

Speaking before the event he told how he wanted to ‘pay a musical tribute to one of Colne’s favourite sons’.

Later this year a memorial service will also be held at Hartley’s graveside, in Colne Cemetery, to coincide with the centenary of his funeral.

And on June 17 music composed by Peter Young, former organist at Holy Trinity Church in Colne, will be performed for the first time at the venue, in honour of the bandmaster.

Cruise offers taste of life in 1912

A MEMORIAL cruise along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal attempted to recreate some of the Edwardian glamour of fine dining aboard the Titanic.

So when the Marton Emperor departed Foulridge Wharf, guests were treated to fare based on the second-class dining room menu of April 15.

After a starter of consomme with tapioca, roast turkey with cranberry sauce was the main course, then plum pudding and cheese and biscuits for dessert.

Canalboat cooks were limited to just some of the choice cuts from the dining card, as their craft’s galley was much smaller than the kitchens of the White Star liner, which took 40 tons of potatos and 25 tons of meat aboard in 1912.

Other delicacies on offer a century ago included baked haddock, curried chicken and rice, spring lamb, wine jelly and coconut sandwiches.