Poignant journey to Titanic grave

By Mike McKimm
BBC Northern Ireland investigations correspondent

His family always thought their grandfather had been lost at sea when Titanic sank.

Marjorie Wilson went to Nova Scotia to see her grandfather's grave

But more than 90 years later, his granddaughter was astonished to see William McQuillan's grave pictured in a television documentary.

Following up the information from the programme, Marjorie Wilson became the first member of her family to pay their respects at the graveside in Nova Scotia, almost a century later.

William McQuillan was a Belfast stoker on the Titanic.

One thousand five hundred people died when the Belfast built ship sank after striking an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.

When the ship sank in April 1912, Mr McQuillan made it safely out of the engine room, only to die in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

His body was subsequently found and taken with others to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada.

BBC report

The bodies were then buried in individually marked graves. William was identified by the Fireman's Union membership book found in his pocket.

But back in Belfast it had been reported in the local newspaper that William McQuillan was one of those who had been lost at sea.

And so his family always believed that was the end of the story.

A whole generation went to their graves believing he was one of the missing.

William McQuillan was a stoker on the Titanic

There was no internet or television news in those days to update news and provide critical detail.

It was October last year when the family were watching a BBC Newsline documentary about Titanic that the trust suddenly became clear.

During it, there was a report from alongside grave 183, that of William McQuillan.

His granddaughter, Marjorie Wilson, contacted the BBC who were able to confirm the details and even provided a colour photograph of the grave.

A year later Marjorie finally got to do what no family member had done before - lay flowers at the grave.

I'm sad and lucky, I have found my grandfather Marjorie Wilson

She flew to Halifax. At the graveyard, a slow walk along the 121 gravestones brought her to an abrupt halt. In front of her was a simple granite stone "William McQuillan, Died 15 April 1912, 183".

Laying the flowers on the stone she simply said "Well, Grandpa, we've found you".

Many of the graves on the site bear no name.

This touched Marjorie. Given how lucky she had been, she felt it was an opportunity that many had missed.

William McQuillan's grave was featured in the BBC report

"It's sad and I'm lucky," she explained. "I've found my grandfather. But there are so many people out there who don't know if these unmarked graves could be their relatives."

It was an emotional moment tinged with the history of the moment.

Here in a sad monument to the world's most famous ship, a solitary woman from Belfast was finally standing at the grave of a grandfather she had never met.

But for the family it was closure at last and a feeling of that history finally being laid to rest.