Titanic victim’s last wishes shared in newly released letter

It's been one hundred years since the RMS Titanic sank 375 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, killing 1,514 North America-bound passengers and inspiring countless books, documentaries and films. You would think that in that time, almost every detail that could be mined from the night of April 15, 1912 had already reached the surface.

But as the Chronicle Herald reports, a new letter has recently been added to the pile of documents and information that fill in the narrative of the infamous event.

On Monday, a century to the day it was written, the National Records of Scotland released a letter written by Glasgow resident Robert Douglas Norman to his brother in Vancouver.

As the article notes, Scottish record keepers recently discovered the letter during their efforts to digitize scores of paper records for a national genealogy website.

Norman, who perished as the British passenger liner met the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, was on his way to meet his brother in Vancouver where he had also purchased a share in a parcel of land.

In the letter, dated April 9, 1912, the 28-year-old electrical engineer from Glasgow had the uncanny foresight to draft a will, wherein he detailed what should become of his £8,500 estate in the event of his death.

The estate in today's currency is the equivalent to approximately £650,000 ($1 million) — the sum of which Norman instructed to divide between his half-sister, step-niece and cousin.

"This, of course, only holds good should I die unmarried and no other will is made by me," he wrote.

The discovery of Norman's letter has provided a thrill for historians and history lovers alike in wake of the Titanic's upcoming centennial.

"I've lived and breathed the Titanic's story for decades now, and yet a poignant discovery like this can still take my breath away and bring tears to my eyes," Susan Morrison, director of Scotland's history festival, said in an official press release.

The letter, along with details from Norman's estate, will go on display Monday until late May at the Scotlands People Centre in Edinburgh.

"This is one of those exciting discoveries we make in the archives," George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland, also said in a release.

"The letter gives a tantalizing insight into the mind of Robert Norman the day before he embarked on the Titanic, bound for Canada."

Norman was born on Sept. 14, 1884 in Edinburgh. After the death of his silk merchant father in 1893, the family relocated to Morningside. The young man would eventually find his way to Glasgow where he took a job at A.E.G. Electric Co. before deciding to embark on his fateful cross-Atlantic trip.

Like many victims of the disaster, Norman's body was recovered by a rescue crew and buried in Halifax's Fairview Lawn Cemetery.