William Thomas Stead. William Thomas Stead, well known journalist, was born in Manse, Embleton, Northumberland on 5 July 1849. Stead boarded the RMS Titanic for a visit to the USA to take part in a peace congress at Carnegie Hall at the request of William Howard Taft. After the ship struck the iceberg, Stead helped several women and children into the lifeboats. After all the boats had gone, Stead went into the 1st Class Smoking Room, where he was last seen sitting in a leather chair and reading