TITANIC: Somerset County Council officer's great uncle died (From This is The West Country)

TITANIC: Somerset County Council officer's great uncle died

7:10am Friday 13th April 2012 in News By Daniel Milligan

ALMOST 100 years on, the story of the Titanic still tugs at the heartstrings.

Weekly News reporter Daniel Milligan delves into the archives to look at Somerset’s links to the disaster, which killed 1,500 people when the 46,000-tonne ship struck an iceberg on its maiden passenger voyage and sank in the Atlantic, and speaks to descendants of lost ones during that memorable night on April 15.

THE great uncle of Somerset County Council’s Purchasing Officer David Pengilly died in the sinking of the Titanic.

John Richard Jago Smith, 35, known as Jago, was a postal officer on the ship when it slid beneath the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912.

Jago, from Cornwall, received one invitational ticket for working on the ship which he offered to Mr Pengilly’s grandfather, Austin Pengilly – but he could not take it as he was too busy on the farm.

Mr Pengilly, who lives at Creech St Michael, told the Weekly News: “My grandfather was going to go on the ship and had he taken the ticket I would not be here today.

“Jago’s sister woke up in the middle of the night and knew something bad had happened on the night the ship sank.”

Jago was lost in the tragedy along with his four colleagues.

His body, if recovered, was never identified.