In 1892 "Review of Reviews" carried a fictitious tale of a clairvoyant aboard the White Star Line's Majestic who sensed a ship had collided with an iceberg, though the Majestic was able to rescue the survivors. In 1886 William Stead wrote How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid Atlantic, predicting that insufficient numbers of lifeboats would cause a great loss of life. Twenty-six years after he wrote that piece first-class passenger William Stead, "probably the best known journalist in the world" sailing to New York to speak at a peace congress at the request of the president William Howard Taft, found himself in that situation. William Stead died in the tragedy.

On 25th April 1912 a memorial service was held for Mr Stead in Westminster Chapel, attended by representatives of the Queen and Prime Minster and Mr Stead's family. During the service the hymn Nearer My God to Thee was sung and Mr Stead was remembered as "a journalist - brilliant, gifted, unconventional, rapid, accomplished, as a fountain of fresh and original ideas...always a prophet".

A memorial stone and plaque stand opposite the Northern Echo offices in Darlington, County Durham where Mr Stead was editor for nine years from 1871. The plaque states "This stone, originally in possession of Mr W T Stead when resident at Grainey Hill and to which he tethered his dogs and pony, is probably the only monument in granite to his memory in Darlington. The boulder is a fitting symbol of his indomitable courage and strength of character and may keep green the memory of one of England's greatest men. His body perished on the Titanic, when she sank April 15th 1912. His spirit still lives."

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