The Coxswain’s Widow: Charity, Heroism, and the Working Class in the Life and Death of James Maynard

Abstract

In the months following the drowning of James Maynard, the circumstances of his death were commemorated in prose. A poem, “The Lifeboat,” was written by an accountant from Exeter named Samuel Steer. Describing James’ heroism and the tragedy of his loss, both to his family and the community at large, Steer published his work as part of a general fundraising effort for Thirza Maynard, widow of the late coxswain, and her eleven children. It was this poem that first drew me to the story of James Maynard—though he was my third great–grandfather, I knew nothing of his life or death before encountering “The Lifeboat.”8 From its lines emerged a narrative of heroism, charity, working–class ideals, intertwined with the history of a changing seaside community at the heart of the Victorian era. To Steer and the people of Bude, Cornwall, and beyond, James was the personification of popular British values of the nineteenth century: his story marks the intersections of class, gender, personal image, and patriotism at the forefront of contemporary social discourse. In this essay, I will follow the life of James Maynard, the repercussions of his death, and the extent to which these relate to the experiences of his widow, Thirza, the Exeter accountant Samuel Steer, and a myriad of other players, local and otherwise. His voice is never heard directly—he left no record of his personal thoughts and feelings—but his story remains nonetheless, told through accounts of his actions and efforts to do him justice. Through the magnification of a single tragic tale amidst a sea of history, this essay and the story of the late coxswain present a view of life, death, and British values of the Victorian era.