When death gave way to glory: Philip Gibbs, RMS Titanic and the Western Front

Abstract

The English journalist and author Philip Gibbs established many of the mythological conventions of the Titanic sinking – the luxury of a ship believed to be unsinkable; insufficient lifeboats; women and children first; the band playing ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’; the failure of a nearby ship to respond to distress signals; and the heroism of the doomed passengers. Gibbs’ language choices in reporting on the Titanic reflected late-Victorian and Edwardian attitudes to chivalry, heroism, masculinity and nationality. Later, as one of the most influential war correspondents working on the Western Front, he consistently drew on this same anachronistic rhetoric to describe mass industrialized warfare. In 1912, and across almost four years of war, Gibbs celebrated glory's triumph over tragedy. In this confrontation with danger, stoic endurance and acceptance of martyrdom were proof that a person was both a man and a Briton.