A PRIEST who led prayers on deck as the Titanic sank could soon be honoured with a blue plaque at his former home in Ongar.
Father Thomas Byles, priest of St Helen’s Church, was en route to New York to officiate at his brother’s wedding when the liner struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912.
The brave cleric stayed on board as the vessel went down, taking confessions, offering absolution and helping other passengers into lifeboats. His body was never found.
Now members of Ongar’s Millennium History Society are bidding to commemorate Fr Byles’ courage at the High Street Presbytery where he lived from 1905 to 1912.
They have applied to Epping Forest District Council for permission to affix an English Heritage blue plaque to the building.
Society treasurer John Winslow said: "Apparently he was greatly liked, so we wanted to do something to mark the building where he lived."
Fr Byles’ is already immortalised in a stained glass window in St Helen’s and commemorated by a blue plaque at Ongar railway station, from where he left Ongar for Southampton – and the doomed liner - on April 10, 1912.
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