Mr Joseph Groves Boxhall was born on March 23,1884 at Hull, Yorkshire to a family with a strong seafaring tradition; his grandfather had been a mariner, his uncle was a Trinity House buoymaster and Board of Trade official, and his father, Captain Joseph Boxhall, was a a master with the Wilson Line of Hull. He started his seafaring apprenticeship in 1899, obtained his Second Mate’s Certificate in 1903 and joined the Wilson Line of Hull. In 1905 he obtained his First Mate’s certificate, followed by his Master’s and Extra-Master’s certifice in 1907, and he then joined the White Star Line. In 1908, whilst serving aboard Oceanic as Sixth Officer, he met Charles Lightoller, the only Titanic officer he knew prior to joining the the ship in 1912. He spent time on the Australian run and then transferred to the North Atlantic run in 1911 aboard Arabic before joining Titanic. After the collision he was put in charge of Lifeboat 2 which, after over 3 hours in the water was picked up by Carpathia.At both of the subsequent inquiries, Boxhall would be called on to testify to the details of navigation and the evacuation of passengers and crew into the boats. It was he who first mentioned the presence of another vessel in close proximity that did not respond to the distress signals sent up by the Titanic.
Following his return to England, he joined the Adriatic as her Fourth Officer. In the pre-war years he joined the Royal Naval Reserve as a Sub-Lieutenant and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1915. He served on cruisers, a torpedo boat and a shore base. In the post-war years he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and in 1919 he returned to the merchant service. Throughout the early 1920s he served with White Star and other International Mercantile Marine ships and following the White Star Line-Cunard merger he was First and later Chief Officer of ships such as the Berengaria, Aquitania, Ausonia, Scythia, Antonia and Franconia but he never received his own command. He retired in 1940.
In 1958 he was asked to act as a technical advisor to the film A Night to Remember. He was also involved in the promotion of the film and attended the premiere at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square. In 1962 he gave a BBC Interview on the Titanic and the film. He died 25 April 1967, age 83 - the last of the Titanic’s surviving deck officers to pass away. His remains were cremated and his ashes, according to his wishes, were scattered over the position he had calculated that the Titanic had gone down.