HEROIC PRIEST GAVE UP LIFE TO QUIET CROWDS 
Monday 22nd April 1912
Went Down on Titanic With Men and Women Grouped About Him.

Rev.Fr Thomas Roussel Davids Byles [1] was born in Yorkshire, England on 26 February 1870, to Louisa Davids and Alfred Holden Byles; he was the eldest of seven children.( Thomas was a name Roussel took when he became a catholic priest, it was not a given name. He was named after a Huegenot ancestor Francois Roussel who arrived in England in 1684. Davids (with an 's') was Roussel's mother's maiden name, her father being the Reverend Thomas William Davids.)
Byles' father, the Reverend Dr. Alfred Holden Byles was a congregational Minister and a successful businessman. He was the first pastor of Headingley Hill Congregational Church, Leeds. Records show the family's home address as York Road Council Schools, Leeds, Yorkshire. In the 1890s he was the Minister of Shelton-Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent and also lived for a time in Omaha, NE, USA with his wife and two of their children (a daughter and Winter, their son). Whilst in America he supplied the First Congregational Church in Omaha with a pulpit. The family later returned to England. Rev Byles senior died on 8 December 1911 [2].
Byles' uncle, Mr F. Byles, lived in Bradford, and another uncle—who was born in Bradford—was Sir William Pollard Byles (1839–1917), radical, social reformer and member of Parliament for Salford North (elected 1906). One of Roussel's sisters became a missionary in China.
Byles was educated at Leamington College and Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire (1885–89) where he was a 'scholar' and school monitor for Crescent House.
In 1889 Byles went to Balliol College, Oxford [3] where he studied mathematics, modern history and theology. He was also Vice-President of the Arnold Society (a select undergraduate debating society at Balliol). He graduated as a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1894. While studying at Oxford he converted to Catholicism and the following year went to work as a Master at St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire, a boys' school and Roman Catholic seminary. In 1897 he wrote 'A School Commentary on 2nd Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians', his only published work. 
Sept 14, 1897 Byles worked at St Edmund's until 1899 when he travelled to Rome to study for the priesthood. He received a B. D. (Bachelor of Divinity) from Gregorian University in 1901 and was ordained on 15 June 1902; he finished his studies in Rome in 1903. From 1905 to 1912 he was the Roman Catholic Rector of Ongar, Essex.
Byles' younger brother William also converted to Catholicism but moved to America to run a rubber business and fell in love with Katherine Russell of Brooklyn. When they planned to marry William asked his brother to officiate at the ceremony (planned for the Sunday after his arrival). He and his brother Winter (living in America) made arrangements to travel to New York. Fr Byles was initially scheduled to travel on another White Star liner but switched at the last minute to the Titanic. His second class ticket was number 244310 and cost £13. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton on 10 April 1912.
While the Titanic lay at anchor at Cherbourg he wrote to his housekeeper, Miss Field back at his parish in Chipping Ongar, Essex
In the letter, which left the ship at Queenstown the following day, he gives a description of the ship and the journey from Southampton to Cherbourg. He found the vibration of the ship unpleasant but said that although the sea appeared rough there was no reflection of this on the ship itself. He also mentioned meeting two other priests in second class one a Benedictine from Bavaria, and one is a secular from Lithuania.

On the morning of Sunday 14 April Father Byles held the Catholic mass with second class passengers in their lounge and afterwards with the third class passengers for whom Fr Byles delivered a sermon in English and French, Fr Peruschitz followed with a sermon in German and Hungarian. According to an article in The Evening World the two priests preached on the need to have a "lifeboat in the shape of religious consolation at hand in case of spiritual shipwreck".

After the collision — by many accounts — Father Byles was a hero till the end, helping the third class passengers up the stairs, into the boats, hearing confessions and praying with those that had been unable to escape. Some newspapers reported that he was offered a seat but had refused. 
'Continuing the prayers, he led us to where the boats were being lowered. Helping the women and children in he whispered to them words of comfort and encouragement.' 
The Evening World, April 22 1912 Miss Bertha Moran Father Byles died in the sinking. His body, if recovered, was never identified.
Katherine and William did not reschedule their wedding. They had another priest perform the ceremony. In a Brooklyn newspaper it reported the bride and groom went home from the wedding and changed into mourning clothes and returned to the church for a memorial mass. The couple then left for a short honeymoon in New Jersey. 

Later that year Katherine and William travelled to Europe. They visited London and the Houses of Parliament to meet 'Uncle Willie' (Sir William Pollard Byles). Katherine had to wait outside in a parlour — women could not enter. According to family legend, a young man came to her and said "Hello Mrs Byles, I am here to give you a tour, my name is Winston Churchill". From London they travelled on to Rome where they had a private audience with the Pope, who declared Father Byles a martyr for the Church.

A door installed by his brothers at the Roman Catholic Church in Chipping Ongar, Essex, stands as a memorial to Father Byles. A memorial photograph of him also hangs there.

Monday 22nd April 1912

Two priests of the Roman Catholic Church went down on the Titanic with men and women grouped about them responding to prayers. Not only Catholics, but Protestants and Jews, realizing that their last hour was at hand, took part in the final religious service on the sloping deck of the Titanic as she was heading downward for the depths.
One of the clergymen was Rev. Thomas R. Byles of Westminster Parish, London, who was on his way to this city to officiate at the marriage of his brother in Brooklyn. The other was a German priest who spoke the Hungarian language in addition to his own. Father Byles was in the first cabin. The German priest was in the third cabin. The name of the German priest has not been ascertained.
Both priests celebrated mass for the steerage passengers Sunday morning. Father Byles delivered a sermon in English and French, the other in German and Hungarian. Strangely enough each of the priests spoke of the necessity of man having a lifeboat in the shape of religious consolation at hand in case of spiritual shipwreck.
After the Titanic struck Father Byles made his way to the steerage. He was active in getting the steerage passengers up to the boat deck and assisting women and children to the lifeboats. Of the two clergymen he was the leader not only in rendering material aid to the frightened emigrants, but in keeping the religious aspect of the terrible occasion to the fore.

THREE GIRLS TELL HOW PRIEST
QUIETED CROWD

Three of the survivors who vividly remember the last hours of the heroic English priest are Miss Ellen Mocklare, a pretty dark-haired young girl from Galway, now at her sister's home No. 412 Seventeenrth street; Miss Bertha Moran, who has gone to Troy, N. Y., and Miss McCoy, who is in St. Vincent's Hospital.These told their story in concert at the hospital today.
When the crash came we were thrown from our berths." said Miss Mocklare. "Slightly dressed, we prepared to find out what had happened. We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles. We knew him because he had visited us several times on board and celebrated mass for us that very morning.
"'Be calm, my good people,' he said and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings."
"Meanwhile the stewards ordered us back to bed," spoke up Miss McCoy, "but we would not go."
"A few around us became very excited," Miss Mocklare continued, "and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more. The passengers were immediately impressed by the absolute self-control of the priest. He began the recitation of the rosary. The prayers of all, regardless of creed, were mingled and the responses, "Holy Mary," were loud and strong. 
"Continuing the prayers," said Miss Bertha Moran, "he led us to where the boats were being lowered. Helping the women and children in he whispered to them words of comfort and encouragement."

SAILOR BEGGED PRIEST IN VAIN
TO GET IN BOAT 

"One sailor," said Miss Mocklare, "warned the priest of his danger and begged him to board a boat. Father Byles refused. The same seaman spoke to him again and he seemed anxious to help him, but he refused again. Father Byles could have been saved, but he would not leave while one was left and the sailor's entreaties were not heeded. "After I got in the boat, which was the last one to leave, and we were slowly going further away from the ship, I could hear distinctly the voice of the priest and the responses to his prayers. Then they became fainter and fainter, until I could only hear the strains of 'Nearer My God, to Thee' and the screams of the people left behind. We were told by the man who rowed our boat that we were mistaken as to the screams and that it was the people singing, but we knew otherwise." "Did all the steerage get a chance to get on deck?" She was asked. 
"I don't think so, because a great many were there when our boat went out, but there were no more boats, and I saw Father Byles among them. 
"A young man who was in the steerage with us helped me into the boat. It was cold and I had no wrap. Taking off the shirt he was wearing, he put it around my shoulders, used the suspenders to keep it from blowing undone and then stepped back in the crowd."
Wedding bells, quickly followed by a funeral march, changed on Saturday, what was to have been the happiest day in the lives of Miss Isabel Katherine Russell and W. E. Byles. More than two thousand people were expected to be present. 
The ceremony was to have been performed in St Augustine's Church and the Rev. Thomas R.D. Byles of ongar, Essex County, England, brother of the groom, was asked to officiate. 
Miss Russell and Mr. Byles did not give up hope that Father Byles had been saved until every passenger had arrived from the Carpathia. They returned to the Russell residence, No. 119 Pacific street, and, by telephone and telegram, recalled the numerous invitations. 
Believing in the superstition, however, that it is bad luck to postpone a wedding, the ceremony was performed Saturday by a life-long friend of the bride, in St. Paul's Church. The bride wore her white satin gown which had been imported from Paris, and was attended by her sister.  Only relatives and a few  friends were present. 
Instead of the usual reception the party hastened home, and, donning garments of mourning, returned to the church, where the rev. Father Flannery, rector, performed a requiem mass for the late father.

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