Harold Sydney Bride was born on 11th January 1890 in Nunhead, South London. After leaving school he trained as a Marconi operator and went to sea soon after completing his training in July 1911. His first ship was the Haverford and he later served on the Lusitania, La France and Anselm, before joining the Titanic. He shared the wireless equipment with John Phillips and on the night of the sinking he relayed messages to and from Captain Smith on the bridge regarding the progress of the Carpathia and other ships in the vicinity, whilst Phillips worked the key. Both operators stayed at their post after their release, but were forced out onto the deck by the water surging into the wireless room. In his own account of what followed Bride said
“From aft came the tunes of the band. It was a ragtime tune, I don’t know what..Phillips ran aft and that was the last I ever saw of him alive. I went to the place I had seen the collapsible boat on the boat deck, and to my surprise I saw the boat and the men still trying to push it off. I guess there wasn’t a sailor in the crowd. They couldn’t do it. I went up to them and was just lending a hand when a large wave came awash of the deck. The big wave carried the boat off. I had hold of an oarlock and I went off with it. The next I knew I was in the boat. But that was not all. I was in the boat and the boat was upside down and I was under it. And I remember I realised I was wet through, and that whatever happened I must not breathe, for I was underwater. I knew I had to fight for it and I did. How I got out from under the boat I do not know, but I felt a breath of air at last... I felt I simply had to get away from the ship. She was a beautiful sight then. Smoke and sparks were rushing out of her funnel. There must have been an explosion, but we heard none. We only saw the big stream of sparks. The ship was gradually turning on her nose, just like a duck does that goes down for a dive. I could hear the band playing right up to the end, not ‘Nearer My God To Thee!’but ‘Autumn’. There was little suction when the ship went down and I was finally able to climb aboard the upturned hull of Collapsible B.”
He survived but suffered from badly frozen and crushed feet, due to the effects of the cold and the position in which he was sitting on the collapsible’s hull. On the voyage to New York aboard Carpathia he and an exhausted Harold Cottam worked together to send countless personal messages and names of the saved to land. After a spell in hospital he returned to England and finally returned to work as a wireless operator. During the First World War, he served on the steamer Mona’s Isle as a telegraphist.He disliked discussing the Titanic, being deeply disturbed by the whole experience, particularly by the loss of his colleague and friend Jack Phillips, whose bravery and steadfastness never left him; he disliked the celebrity that went along with being a Titanic survivor and thus decided to flee the attention and moved with his family to Scotland where he worked as a travelling salesman. He died on 29th April 1956, aged 66.