John Harper

Who was John Harper?

John Harper was a Baptist pastor from Great Britain who died in the Titanic disaster on the North Atlantic. Harper was born in the village of Houston, Renfrewshire, Scotland, in 1872. He personally embraced his parents' Christian faith at age 14 and began preaching at 18. He supported himself in early adulthood by doing manual labor in a mill until Baptist pastor E.A. Carter of Baptist Pioneer Mission in London heard of his preaching and placed him in ministry work in Govan, Scotland. In 1897, he became the first pastor of Paisley Road Baptist Church in Glasgow, Scotland. Under his care, the church quickly grew from 25 members to over 500 and soon moved to a new location on Plantation Street. In 1922, it moved into its present building on Craigiehall Street and was renamed Harper Memorial Baptist Church in his honor.

At the time of the Titanic disaster, Harper was 39, a widower with a six-year-old daughter, Annie Jessie, and pastor of Walworth Road Baptist Church in London. He was traveling with his daughter and sister Jessie W.