ONE of the victims on the Titanic grew up in the Vye Valley, the Gazette can reveal.
The fascination in the luxury liner and her fate shows no sign of abating, with a new two-part Channel 4 series Titanic In Colour bringing the ship and the victims back to life with newly colourised images.
Even now, new details about the tragic ship and those on board emerge on an almost daily basis, while the Titanic Belfast centre – opened exactly a century after the 1912 disaster on the site of the ship's slipway – receives nearly a million visitors a year from around the world.
The blockbuster 1997 film Titanic gave new impetus to the legend, while items from the ship and personal possessions are still regularly recovered from the seabed – mute reminders that speak a thousand words.
Every community seems to have its own Titanic connection, whether someone on board, a family link or artefact.
And this area is no different, with Monmouth-raised fire stoker George Bailey among the approximately 1500 crew members and passengers who tragically perished.
According to Encyclopedia Titanica, he was one of nine siblings, born in Newport in 1866 before moving to the Wyeside town as a young child, where he appeared on the 1871 census as living at Clipper Court, St Mary, Monmouth, and on the 1881 census at 2, Red Lion Court, Monmouth.
He later joined the Royal Monmouthshire Militia as a private and married Eliza Martha Turnbull in Hampshire in 1886, the couple going on to have nine children, seven who survived infancy – George, Stephen Thomas, Eliza Alice, Ellen Mabel, Sarah Ann, Frank Alfred and Frederick Joseph (1906-1971).
On the 1891 census, they were was living at Mill Lane in Alverstoke near Portsmouth, and he joined the Royal Navy as a stoker on May 16, 1895, serving on HMS Victory II, Victory III, Porpoise, Australia, Revenge, Apollo, and Firequeen II in 10 years of service.
George and his family later lived in Gosport, and their address was 16 Brook Road, Bitterne in Southampton, when he fatefully signed on to the Titanic on April 6, 1912, for some £6 a week, having previously sailed on a ship called the Wellbury.
Nine days later, on April 15, the reputedly 'unsinkable' Titanic hit an iceberg around 11.40pm, some 420-miles off the coast of Newfoundland on its maiden Atlantic crossing.
Distress signals alerted other ships that rushed to the scene, but within three hours Titanic had plunged to the icy depths with terrible loss of life, coming to rest two and a half miles down.
The initial SoS was even picked up by Welsh radio ham Artie Moore 3,000 miles away in Blackwood, who was met with incredulity when he tried to raise the alarm at his local police station, but later went on to work as a personal assistant for Marconi.
On board, many of the 163 stokers had stayed at their post in the depths of the ship, furiously feeding the boilers to try and maintain electrical power.
But nothing could be done to prevent the Titanic finally slipping underwater around 2.20am.
Only 705 passengers and crew survived, and like many victims, no trace was found of the 45-year-old father-of-nine, who was probably trapped below deck.
His grieving widow finally remarried in 1919 and lived for another 14 years, while the Bailey's last known surviving child Sarah Ann died in Portsmouth in 1987 aged 91.
George's name is recorded on the Titanic Belfast Wall of Remembrance and various other memorials on both sides of the Atlantic.
But there are no known pictures – just a description of a man standing 5ft 6ins with light brown hair, brown eyes, a fresh complexion and several tattoos.
To watch Titanic In Colour go to www.channel4.com/programmes/titanic-in-colour