Last Wednesday Sarum U3A members were kept enthralled at their monthly meeting by Geoffrey Carr's talk on the myths and mysteries of the Titanic.

His talk connected what happened when the Titanic sank with the Goodwin family from Melksham (father, mother and five of their six children aged 19 months to 14 years) who were emigrating to the USA to join their eldest son already working there.

They had been transferred to the Titanic from another ship which could not sail.

In a very informative part of the talk about the actual sinking he stressed some of the circumstances which led to the great loss of life: insufficient lifeboats, difficulty seeing an iceberg in flat, calm conditions and pitch darkness, and inability to communicate with the nearest ship whose radio room was not manned at night.

Unfortunately, the Goodwin family were not among the survivors.

Although, unlike many of the third-class passengers, they were seen on deck, an observer said that with the principle of “women and children first.”

Mrs Goodwin refused to leave her husband and the children refused to leave their mother. Later, when ships went to collect bodies, the preserved body of a baby boy was found, taken to Nova Scotia and buried in a coffin paid for by the ship's crew.

With scientific progress the body was exhumed and DNA tests showed that it was the youngest of the Goodwin children. A plaque to the family is now in St Michael's Church, Melksham.

A tragic tale with local relevance.