Hugh Hatch was a scullion on Titanic.
Early life[]
Hugh Hatch was born in East Wellow, Romsey, England in the summer of 1891.
His father, Charles Hatch, was a market gardener from Bramshaw, Hampshire and his mother, Emily Jane Hacker, was from Tisbury in Wiltshire. They had seven children. Hugh had one older brother, three older sisters (of which two were twins) and two younger sisters.
Hugh lost his father sadly, at a young age. Charles died in 1901.
In 1910 his mother remarried, to Francis Gannaway, a labourer from Southampton, and made a home in Blackhill, East Wellow. By this time Hugh had moved in with his eldest sister Mabel Rose and her family at 446 Portswood Road and was working as a colonial butcher.
What prompted him to go to sea isn’t clear but, by 1911, he was working aboard Oceanic, probably as a scullion.
Titanic[]
On April 9, 1912, he joined Titanic as a scullion. A scullion did not have an easy life, cleaning the kitchens, fetching and carrying and washing dishes on a large ship such as Titanic, with so many people onboard, must have been a relentless task. Hugh would have earned just £3 10s a month but, for an unmarried 23 year old, it was a decent living wage at the time.
On April 14, the ship hit an iceberg late in the night. On April 15, after midnight, it became clear that the ship was sinking, and the order for evacuation was given. The ship would last well over 2 and a half hours, but finally foundered at 2:20 A.M.
What happened to Hugh on that fateful night isn’t clear but he didn’t survive the disaster and his body was never identified.
After his death[]
What became of his sister Mabel and the rest of the family isn’t very clear, although it’s said that mother Emily remained in Southampton, where Mabel would live untill she passed away in 1966.
Source[]
Special thanks and credits to Marie Keates for allowing me to use a large part of this information on her blog:
https://iwalkalone.co.uk/the-final-titanic-tales-from-portswood-part-two/ The final Titanic tales from Portswood part two – I Walk Alone