John Law Hume

"Played till the very end." 

This blog post is about John Law Hume and what happened to his family after he died.


                                        Fact File


Name: John 'Jock' Law Hume

Born: 9th August 1890 - Dumfries, Scotland

Died: 15th April 1912 (21 years, 8 months and 6 days old) - North Atlantic Ocean 

Buried: 8th May 1912 - Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada  

Occupation: Violinist employed by the music agency, C.W. and F.N. Black

John Law Hume is the most well known member of the band that played on Titanic, as his family spent many years after his death feuding in court

…The feud started when in 1909 at the Rood Fair, Jock's sister Nellie introduced him to her a friend from the glove making factory, Mary Costin who managed to 'capture young Jock’s heart’ during the final years of his life.

Andrew Hume however did not approve of his son's relationship with Mary Costin as he thought that Jock could do better so he did everything in his power to stop it. So he forbade him from bringing Mary to the house and 'made life as difficult as possible for Jock' but instead of pushing them apart he pushed them closer together.

Andrew Hume 

During the last year of his life, Jock lived with Mary and her mother Susan in between voyages and on the 9th April 1912 when he left Dumfries for the final time, they were engaged to be married on his return from the Titanic. Also, Mary had just told him that she was expecting their first child together.

After Titanic sank, Mary had gone to tell Jock's father that he was going to be a grandfather but he didn’t want to acknowledge it, instead he accused her of being a whore and that the baby was not Jock's. So when Mary give birth to hers and Jock’s daughter Johnann Law Hume Costin, she filed for paternity.

Mary now had proof that Jock was the father, she applied for the Titanic Relief Fund which was set up to help the families who lost their loved ones. The cheque which was sent to Mary for Johnann accidently got sent to Andrew Hume, who was told it was to be forwarded on but he denied receiving the money. In December 1913, Mary was awarded the money through the court.

Although this is not where John Law Hume story ends, as his sister Kate also suffered but that is another blog post.

Keep a look out for my next blog post on John Law Hume

John Law Hume  (Back row on the left hand side)