{"title":"Books by James W Bancroft","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399048958","title":"The Titanic Disaster","description":"It was on Wednesday, 10 April 1912, that the imposing bulk of the RMS Titanic slipped her berth, and, to great fanfare, headed out into the Solent at the start of her maiden voyage.   By all accounts, the liner was at the time the largest man-made object ever to move on water. The space her decks created allowed her designers to introduce previously unseen levels of luxury. In first class, for example, there were many new features such as squash courts, a Turkish bath, a gymnasium, a barber shop and even the first swimming pool built on board a ship. There was also the bold claim by its builders that Titanic was  practically unsinkable'. Sadly, just four days later, this assertion was found wanting. At 23.40 hours on the evening of 14 April, Titanic struck an iceberg. In less than three hours she had slipped beneath the waves.   While the liner's loss has been the subject of numerous films, documentaries and publications in the years that followed, in this book the author James W. Bancroft asks if the RMS Titanic had been doomed to a watery grave even before it sailed? Certainly, many people experienced feelings of foreboding about the ship, and there were many strange omens and unexplained events surrounding its construction and maiden voyage.   A novel written many years before Titanic was built mirrored almost exactly the details of the disaster, and the well-known spiritualist, W.T. Stead, wrote a story of a similar nature. As a passenger on the ship, he seemed to have accepted his fate and did not try to save himself. Even animals seem to have sensed danger, such as the dog which tried to stop its owner from travelling to board the vessel, and Titanic's cat had kittens and was seen taking them all off the liner before it sailed. The voyage was fatefully delayed for three weeks, and at least fifty travellers had forebodings about the  Ghost Ship', some of whom missed the sailing or refused to board.   Following years of research, James has uncovered some 100 fascinating stories concerning omens and premonitions of people who sailed - or in fact decided not to - on the ill-fated liner. This is the first time that all of these incidents have been brought together. Together they provide an unusual insight into the Titanic disaster.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":43128746999986,"sku":"9781399048958","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682578932085,"sku":"9781399048965","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399048958.jpg?v=1792511511"},{"product_id":"9781036123598","title":"Titanic's Lifeboats","description":"\u003cp\u003eFoot by foot Titanic’s lifeboat No.11 slowly jerked its way down the sides of the great ocean liner as it slipped beneath the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the fifty or so men, women and children crammed into the lifeboat, survival was all that mattered. Even then, though, the American fashion designer Edith Rosenbaum Russell ferociously clung to her pig-shaped music box until she was rescued, its tunes helping to quell the fears of the frightened children onboard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnlike so many of those onboard Titanic that fateful night in April 1912, everyone in lifeboat No.11 would be rescued.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBridget McDermott had brought a new hat before she set off for America. Bridget climbed into one of the lifeboats, believed to be No.13, before realising she had left her precious purchase behind. She climbed out of the lifeboat, retrieved her hat from her cabin, ran back to the open deck and jumped fifteen feet from a rope ladder onto the lifeboat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther garments played an important part in the survival of one of the lifeboats which sprung a leak, with the people onboard using clothes to plug the hole.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharles Joughin, the head baker aboard Titanic, floated in the near-freezing ocean for around two hours before being pulled out of the water onto one of the lifeboats. He had not succumbed to the cold due to the amount of alcohol he had drunk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMasabumi Hosono, a civil servant from Tokyo, was the only Japanese passenger onboard Titanic and, being a man, he accepted that the women and children first policy had sealed his fate. However, when a crew member shouted that there were two spaces left in a lifeboat, No.10, Hosono jumped in. As Japanese honour considered it far better for a man to suffer an honourable death than to survive in a shameful manner, when he reached his homeland he was ostracized by his family and lost his job.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen it sailed, Titanic carried twenty lifeboats that, between them, could accommodate 1,178 people, a little over half of the 2,209 on board the night the liner sank. Eighteen of these life-saving craft were used that night, but tragically only 706 people found a space in them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the dramatic and moving story of the men, women and children who made it into the lifeboats that fateful night in April 1912.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54926110458229,"sku":"9781036123598","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781036123598_41d798c0-2a7c-463b-a101-19185a1b0439.jpg?v=1786017065"},{"product_id":"9781036124670","title":"Titanic","description":"This is the only book ever published which concentrates on Titanic people from one particular region – Greater Manchester. The RMS Titanic disaster, which occurred on the night of 14\/15 April 1912, is one of history’s most catastrophic human tragedies, which resulted in a terrible sacrifice of life. The people on board were proud to be part of the ship’s maiden voyage, but what they didn’t know was that it was destined to be its only voyage.          The county of Greater Manchester in the north-west of England is made up of the Metropolitan boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. More than 30 people from the region had connections with RMS Titanic - they being a mixture of passengers and crew, and the majority of them lost their lives. This is the story of who they were, what happened to them during the disaster, and what the future held for those who survived. Some of them left detailed accounts of the horrific incident.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55206421070197,"sku":"9781036124670","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781036124670.jpg?v=1786017075"},{"product_id":"9781036102517","title":"Titanic's Unlucky Seven","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe disaster which befell RMS \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e has become one of the most investigated and analysed maritime tragedies of all time. Yet there is much still to be untangled from the web of mystery which still surrounds this confused, catastrophic event. The people on board were proud to be part of the ship’s highly-publicised first voyage, but as the first batch of officers reported for duty in Belfast to prepare her for her trial trip to Southampton and beyond, they could not have imagined the fate which awaited them. \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e was, after all, ‘unsinkable’.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is exclusively through the eyes of seven unlucky men – the small group of officers onboard for that doomed voyage – that the author reveals the tragedy as it unfolded that night in April 1912\\. From their assignment to the White Star liner through to their eventual fates. Each one of these seven men behaved with great courage and discipline in a situation beyond anything they had previously experienced and some of the officers left accounts of the horrors they witnessed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf this small group, four were members of the Royal Naval Reserve; this included Charles Lightoller, who was the Second Officer and in charge of loading passengers into lifeboats on the port side. He was noted for strictly enforcing the ‘women and children only’ principle, allowing only those men needed for manning the boats to join them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFour of the seven officers survived the ordeal. As the author reveals, one of them had only been formally appointed to the crew the day before \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e sailed on its climatic maiden voyage. This was Henry Tingle Wilde, who was scheduled to sail with \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e’s sister ship, \u003ci\u003eOlympic\u003c\/i\u003e, but who was switched to \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e as the Chief Officer. He reported for duty on the very day the ship departed Southampton. This move meant a reshuffle of the officers and, as only seven officers were deemed necessary, Second Officer David Blair was removed from the crew list and sent ashore. He was certainly the luckiest of all. The unfortunate Wilde went down to the bottom with his ship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf the many questions asked about that night is that of the fate of Captain Edward Smith. His body was never recovered and it had naturally been assumed that he too had been lost. In \u003ci\u003eTitanic’s Unlucky Seven\u003c\/i\u003e, James Bancroft questions if this might not actually be the case. There is evidence that Smith may have survived the sinking, and was seen and spoken to months after the event by a man who had sailed with him, and who had known him personally for most of his life. Certainly, Smith had good reason to disappear into obscurity. For the first time, a clear picture of the incidents, actions and events leading up to and during the sinking of \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e can be seen through the stories of the seven men in charge that night.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296186806645,"sku":"9781036102517","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781036102517_a61a1cd8-fc57-4cba-aa5e-a5001021585e.jpg?v=1786016858"},{"product_id":"9781399009911","title":"Alamo Defenders","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt a critical stage of the Texas Revolution a large Mexican army surrounded a makeshift fortification known locally as the Alamo. It was there that a small defensive force of mostly Texans had become holed up, and where they vowed to ‘never surrender or retreat’. After a siege lasting thirteen days, the Mexicans assaulted the fortification during the early hours of Sunday, 6 March 1836\\. Except for a few women and children, and one male slave, everyone inside was killed. All this is well known, and to this day the Alamo Mission is an American national monument sacred to the people of Texas. The Battle of Alamo sits alongside such dramatic last stands as Little Big Horn and Rorke’s Drift as one of the most heroic and sacrificial battles against the odds in military history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut what few realise is that a large number of those who fought and died for Texas at the Alamo were British. For the first time, the stories of these men, their lives and their deaths at the Alamo, are revealed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey include an Englishman named William Blazeby, who led a troop of New Orleans Greys; a Scotsman named John McGregor, who took to his bagpipes and accompanied Davy Crockett on the fiddle to keep up the spirits of the defenders; and an Irishman named Robert Evans, who, as Master of Ordnance was shot down while trying to set light to the gunpowder in the chapel when the battle was lost. Through men such as these, the full story of this iconic encounter in the history of the United States of America is told in detail by the author. The roles of the opposing commanders, the infamous General Santa Anna and Lieutenant Colonel William ‘Buck’ Travis, are also examined. At the same time, James Bancroft also investigates the death of James Bowie, renowned, of course, for his large hunting knife, and Davy Crockett. Exactly how the so called ‘King of the Wild Frontier’ met his end has been the subject of controversial debate ever since Texas fought off its Mexican shackles – thanks in no small measure to those Britons who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their American comrades on the crumbling walls of the Alamo more than 185 years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298318070133,"sku":"9781399009911","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399009911_e6bd8e9d-744e-498a-90e6-1b5e3dccdbd7.jpg?v=1786019631"},{"product_id":"9781399060523","title":"The Great Redan at Sebastopol","description":"On 18 June 1855, the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, British assault troops moved out of their trenches before Sebastopol in the Crimea, and attacked the formidable Russian bastion known as the Great Redan. They came under such a murderous fire from the Russian defenders that the attack faltered, and the British were eventually forced to fall back. As they did so, they left over 1,000 comrades dead and dying out in the open and at the mercy of enemy snipers.   The Siege of Sebastopol saw the development of trench warfare for the first time. Using eyewitness accounts and unpublished letters, the author tells the story of how the men coped with the terrible conditions as they prepared for the assault - as well as the events during and after the fighting. Among the anecdotes is an officer who had the ingenious idea of warming up cannon balls in the camp fires and taking them into the tents at night to keep warm; and he went on to live for over a hundred years!Well-known for his depth of research, the author questions a number of points regarding the Great Redan that are commonly believed to be historical fact. Quoting the father of Alexander the Great, it was the Russians who, soon after the assault on the Great Redan, first referred to the British as,  An army of lions led on by donkeys'. For over 100 years it was stated in many publications that the most Victoria Crosses awarded for a single action was the eleven presented for actions during the Defence of Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War in 1879. However, as the author reveals, twenty of the lions who fought at the Great Redan received Britain's highest gallantry award, in whole, or in part, for their actions on 18 June 1855.   The book includes biographical tributes to many of the men who were killed in action, gives details of the places where they are commemorated, and provides biographies with all the up-to-date information concerning the twenty Victoria Cross recipients.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298749624693,"sku":"9781399060523","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399060523_1f1b89c6-f7e4-430f-ae0f-1cfc6c8fc991.jpg?v=1786019425"},{"product_id":"9781399099912","title":"The Early Years of the FA Cup","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 2021-2022 season marked the 150th anniversary of the first FA Cup, the world’s oldest football knockout tournament. The inaugural matches began on 11 November 1871, with the final played at Kennington Oval on 16 March 1872, featuring the Royal Engineers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the first decade, military teams played a pivotal role in the competition. Teams like the Royal Engineers, 1st Surrey Rifles, and 105th Regiment competed in 74 matches, winning over half and scoring 154 goals. Major Francis Marindin was instrumental as a player, referee, and administrator, shaping the FA Cup's legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMilitary figures achieved notable milestones in football history. The Royal Engineers reached the first FA Cup final. Lieutenant James Prinsep of the Essex Regiment was the youngest player to feature in a full match at the time, while Lieutenant William Maynard played in the first official international match for England. Captain William Kenyon-Slaney scored the first international goal for England, and Lieutenant Henry Renny-Tailyour scored Scotland’s first goal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Early Years of the FA Cup explores the intersection of Victorian football and military history. It recounts FA Cup matches involving military players, their contributions to infrastructure and mapping, and their roles in conflicts such as the Zulu War, Afghanistan, and the Western Front, many sacrificing their lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685991620981,"sku":"9781399099950","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56298764927349,"sku":"9781399099912","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399099950.jpg?v=1792599285"},{"product_id":"9781399009966","title":"The Rorke's Drift Commanders","description":"Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead and Lieutenant John Chard had fame thrust upon them, as did the place known as Rorke's Drift, which before 1879 was an unknown homestead situated in the middle of the South African veld.   Although both men came from families whose various members were highly distinguished for their military service and for their service to the church, they became reluctant heroes after being awarded Britain's highest decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross.   During the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, a British invasion force was massacred at iSandlwana, after which a wing of the Zulu army about 3,000 strong attacked the outpost at Rorke's Drift. Lieutenants Bromhead and Chard commanded the post, and after supervising the construction of barricades they led their men in defensive actions throughout the night until the Zulus lost heart and returned to their kraals. For their gallantry  under most trying circumstances', both Bromhead and Chard, along with nine of their comrades, were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross.   In 1964 the defence of Rorke's Drift was brought back to public attention with the producing of the epic motion picture Zulu! In this film, Chard was portrayed by Sir Stanley Baker, whilst Bromhead provided Sir Michael Caine with his first starring role.   Bromhead and Chard epitomised the way of life of Victorian officers, with the exception that fate put them at Rorke's Drift. They became major players in a battle which continues to excite interest and cause debate, and is unlikely ever to be forgotten.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312263016821,"sku":"9781399009966","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399009966_f5664164-4aa1-4375-9ae1-72615a71077a.jpg?v=1786019631"},{"product_id":"sportspeople-on-titanic","title":"Sportspeople on Titanic","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmong those onboard the RMS Titanic when it collided with an iceberg on the night of 14\/15 April 1912, and sank in less than three hours with a terrible loss of life, were at least thirty people with connections to various sports.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBetween them, these individuals had been involved in twenty-two major spectator sports, including the Olympic Games, and several national championships of Great Britain and the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMany of them perished in the disaster.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSome of those among the members of the aristocracy, businessmen and ordinary folk onboard the ship had already made their names in the world of sports, in disciplines such as boxing, swimming, motor-racing, baseball and American Football.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere were people such as Karl Howell Behr. A lawn tennis player, he had been a member of the United States Davis Cup squad and was a Wimbledon finalist. Among the female passengers was Lucile Carter, who was the first woman to play polo while riding astride the horse instead of side-saddle; she also raced coach-and-four teams.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOthers who survived the disaster went on to have successful careers in sports like golf, lawn tennis and equestrianism. There is, for example, the story of a young boy whose father had to fight for his place in a lifeboat before he went on to a successful career in golf, and is mentioned in Ripley’s Believe it or Not for playing on over 1,000 golf courses during his career, or a lawn tennis player who was threatened with amputation of his legs because of frostbite, but worked hard to bring the feelings back to his limbs and went on to gain an Olympic gold medal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Sportspeople on Titanic, James Bancroft explores the lives of these sporting individuals before they boarded the doomed ship, what they did as the vessel was sinking and how they miraculously escaped or lost their lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57502197645685,"sku":"9781036192075","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781036192075.jpg?v=1786781017"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-james-w-bancroft.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}