By Martin Brisland.
On Saturday 26th September 2026, there was a ceremony at Hollybrook Cemetery. This marked the unveiling of a new memorial headstone for John Foley, commonly known as Jack Foley.
This was part of the Unmarked Graves Project by the British Titanic Society (BTS).
Amongst those attending the ceremony were relatives from Youghal, County Cork, Ireland where Jack Foley was born. Priest Kevin Melley led a service.
Of the 908 crew who perished, 542 people who signed on in April 1912 gave a Southampton address. In Malmesbury Road, Shirley alone eight men died.
In addition to Jack Foley, Hollybrook Cemetery has over thirty Titanic related graves of survivors who died in later years. The most well-known memorial at Hollybrook Cemetery is to Fred Fleet, who died in Norman Road, Freemantle in 1965.
Also, at the Southampton Old Cemetery on the Common there are around sixty Titanic memorial headstones or family graves commemorating individuals lost in the disaster or survivors who died later. They have distinctive blue markers.
John Foley was born in County Cork, in 1865. John and his wife Minnie had seven children and moved to Southampton around 1907. The family appear on the 1911 census as living at 2 Queens Road, Shirley, Southampton.
When he signed on to the Titanic in Southampton on 6 April 1912, he was a storekeeper. His previous ship was the Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, and his wages were £5 per month.
He helping to prepare several of the portside boats before getting lifeboat 4 lowered flush with A-deck.
Lifeboat 4, the last one to launch, contained wealthy Mrs. John Jacob Astor. They found an overturned life boat. Mrs. Astor cried out to Jack Foley, who was facing her rowing: “Take them in. They have as much right to life as we have. We can make room for them. Please, sir, take them in.”
Eight half-frozen men were taken into their already crowded boat.
Jack Foley continued to live in Southampton with his family. He worked at sea, later serving aboard Majestic. His wife passed away in 1922 aged fifty-two.
John himself later lived at 2 Oriental Terrace in Southampton and passed away on 18 September 1934. His estate, worth £180, 14s, 5d (£17,000 today) was left to his unmarried daughter Mary.
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