A BLUE plaque in honour of Colne’s Titanic bandmaster Wallace Hartley is to be unveiled next year.

Mr Hartley, who was born and raised in Colne, left home in 1903 in his early 30s, to join the municipal orchestra in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, where he stayed for six years.

There is already a plaque in Colne, at Wallace’s childhood home near to The Crown, in Albert Road, but now one is to be installed outside the Spa Theatre, in the seaside town.

Richard Jones has been campaigning for a plaque to honour Wallace’s Bridlington links for several months.

He said: “East Yorkshire Council have agreed to 100 per cent fund a blue plaque to honour the six years Titanic’s bandmaster Wallace Hartley lived and played in Bridlington.

“An unveiling ceremony will be taking place, all being well, on April 14 next year.

“The idea is to have the blue plaque unveiled by one of his relatives or somebody who is connected to him.”

Recently, the violin used by Wallace on the fateful Titanic voyage was discovered in the attic of a house in Bridlington.

The instrument, which Wallace continued to play as the band famously played on while the ship sank, was discovered at a Bridlington home in 2006.

It was originally thought that it had been lost in the 1912 disaster, but it had actually been returned to Bridlington girl Maria Robinson, who was engaged to Wallace at the time.

Earlier this year a scan confirmed the instrument’s authenticity and last month it sold at auction for £900,000, to become the most costly piece of Titanic memorabilia ever sold.