John Hart - man of many talents from businessman and charity champion to grammars campaigner and Titanic tragedy expert

Well-known quantity surveyor and charity fund raiser John Hart has died at his home in Torquay aged 88.

He will also be remembered as an expert on the Titanic sinking after discovering virtually by chance that his father had been a hero of the famous boat tragedy 110 years ago.

John was born in Paignton on June 17, 1934, to John and Florence Hart. He spent his childhood in Paignton, living in Old Torquay Road, Preston, and attending the local technical college. It was during these early years that he developed a love for South Devon and the coast in particular, and throughout his life spent countless happy days at his beach hut on Preston beach.

After school John started working for quantity surveyors WT Hills in Paignton as a draughtsman. However, National Service quickly intervened with John serving with the Devonshire Regiment for two years and seeing active service in Kenya.

John subsequently returned to Hills and in 1955 met Sheila to whom he became engaged and then married in 1958. The birth of children followed, Christopher (a local solicitor) in 1963, Sarah (a teacher) in 1967, and Robin (who has followed in his father’s footsteps as a quantity surveyor in 1971).

During these years John’s career flourished, qualifying as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in 1964, and moving to Newton Abbot firm Bare, Leaning & Bare in 1967. He then formed his own partnership, Hart & Hunnam, based in Chelston in Torquay, together with Robin Hunnam in 1976. John sat on the RICS panel which oversaw the RICS Homebuyers Report, and frequently worked as an expert witness in building disputes. Many years later John was to mentor his son Robin who qualified in 2010, and the firm was then rebranded as Hart QS to reflect its core business. John retired in 2014 when the business came full circle and Hart QS merged with Hills Chartered Surveyors, now based in Ide, Exeter, and Harts QS continues as part of the WT Hills Group.

Together with Sheila, John devoted decades of his life to supporting charity work. In 1982, he sat on the inception committee for Rowcroft Hospice and for more than 30 years chaired the Chelston and Livermead branch of Friends of Rowcroft, spending hours supporting the charity every week. John also organised the annual Christian Aid collections for St. Matthias Church, where he and Sheila worshipped since the 1970s, and committed much time to the Friends of St Matthias, where he served as chairman of the fabric committee.

John was also heavily involved within the education sector in Torbay. He was the chairman of the parent teacher association at Torquay Boys’ Grammar School during the 1970s and subsequently became a governor at the school. It was during this time that he led a small campaigning group with the successful 'Keep the Grammar School' campaign challenging the policy of the government of the time to close grammar schools. In subsequent years he also served as chairman of governors at Westlands School in the 1990s and 2000s.

It was in 1954 that John discovered a fascinating piece of family history. It was only upon the death of his father, John Edward Hart, that he discovered a seaman’s log, newspapers and mourning cards, revealing that his father had served as a third class steward on the doomed Titanic in 1912.

There began a long period of investigation and research into the disaster and the discovery that his father had managed to escort two groups of 50 women and children from the bowels of the ship to the boat deck, and had then been ordered to row one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship by First Officer Murdoch. His middle Christian name of Murdoch then made sense!

JE Hart’s character has since been portrayed in numerous films and TV series and described in books. John subsequently became a member of the British Titanic Society, and gave numerous talks and lectures about the tragedy to groups and organisations, and was invited to the opening of the Sea City Museum in Southampton where his father’s evidence to the British Enquiry is depicted.

John Hart died on December 5 after a courageous battle with Motor Neurone Disease and is survived by his wife Sheila, three children, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. A private family funeral will be followed by a memorial service to celebrate John’s life to be held in early 2023 at a date to be confirmed.