Talk:Lawrence Beesley

Beesley?

Do we know the provenance of this photo? It is unlikely that the man pictured is Beesley as he was a 2nd class passenger and the gymnasium was part of the 1st class accommodations. I checked the source page and am concerned about its reliability. Several of the other images shown are definitely not from the Titanic but rather are of her sister ship RMS Olympic. There are very few interior photos of the Titanic and it is not at all uncommon for images of the Olympic to be passed off as Titanic. Probably the most common being images of the grand staircase. There are no known photographs of Titanic's 1st class staircase. Olympic's however, was more or less identical and so is often substituted and mislabeled, often in ignorance. -Ad Orientem (talk) 03:00, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Go down with the ship?

"During the filming of A Night to Remember in 1958, Beesley famously gatecrashed the set during the sinking scene, hoping to 'go down with the ship'. However, he was spotted by the director, Roy Ward Baker, who vetoed this unscheduled appearance due to actors' union rules. These events are parodied in Julian Barnes' novel A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters, where Beesley makes a brief appearance as a fictional character."

I would have just added a citation needed template, but I came to this article from a reddit TIL that was on the front page for me, so I presume it's getting some attention. I'm looking for a source now and if I find one, I'll restore this quickly. Want to help?--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:18, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

This Amazon listing for his book makes the claim (in the same words "famously gatecrashed") but the book itself was apparently published in 1912 and therefore would not itself confirm or refute the claim.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:21, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

His obituary makes no mention of this story. Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:31, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

A pretty thorough search of the Newspapers.com archive (which is not comprehensive but is pretty good) both in the UK and US doesn't turn up this story at all. If it did happen, the term "famously" here strikes me as unlikely at best. But I am coming around to the view that this is not true at all.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:41, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Key update: I found it! This section is from The Independent, Saturday, June 17, 1989. Looks persuasive right, except that this is not a factual story, it is an excerpt from the novel by Julian Barnes.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:46, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Ok, I have satisfied myself for the moment that this story is not true and I am now considering whether to include the fact that this incident happens in a novel. It seems useful to do this in order to prevent the story from being told and retold as fact when there appears to be no source. As there is no source saying that it is a myth, and as I am not completely certain how to prove it, I can't go quite as far as that. I'll take a stab at this now, and hopefully others can improve what I've written.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 16:57, 11 February 2026 (UTC)

Amazon listings often copy from Wikipedia pages. The text was originally added in this edit in 2007, which cited this user-generated site. Graham87 (talk) 03:57, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

According to this Encyclopedia Titanica forum post (that Google AI coughed up), the incident is mentioned in a memoir by the film's producer William MacQuitty. Graham87 (talk) 05:05, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

I've tried to get further with this but can't because Google Books doesn't work well with my screen reader. Hopefully the above will help though. Graham87 (talk) 05:43, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

How interesting, @Graham87! I checked Google Books but the specific page in the memoir which references Lawrence Beesley isn't available. So, I have ordered the book which will arrive in about a week's time. It's going to be fun if the anecdote does turn out to be confirmed - and equally interesting if it is not, although that forum post persuades me that it is likely to be in the memoir.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 11:46, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

I have returned from my trip to the AI Summit in India, and the book has arrived. Page 326 is the page which mentions Lawrence Beesley. There is absolutely no mention on that page of the anecdote, and this persuades me that, barring anyone producing further evidence, the most likely situation is that the story is apocryphal and originated in the fictional account given in the Julian Barnes novel. "Everything possible was done to recreate the scene accurately. Joseph Boxhall, fourth officer of the Titanic, was my technical adviser throughout, and many survivors came to watch the filming and helped with first-hand knowledge. The two I saw most of were Edith Russell and Lawrence Beesley. Edith became a great friend of the family and spent her Christmases with us until she died aged ninety-six in 1976...." (More about her on the page, nothing further about Mr Beesley.)--Jimbo Wales (talk) 18:28, 21 February 2026 (UTC)