Thomas Ranger was born on 10 December 1882 in Northam, Southampton, Hampshire, England, the son of George William Ranger (1848-1909), a coal porter, and Ann (nee Ashbolt, [1854-1902). He had nine known siblings including: Mary Ann Ranger (1873-1923), Ellen Louisa Ranger (1875-1941), George W Ranger (1875-1959), Elizabeth Maria Ranger (born 1878), Kate Ranger (born 1889), Fanny Ranger (born 1890) and Beatrice Lucy Ranger (1893-1976).
Thomas joined the Royal Navy as a stoker and in 1901 was listed in the census aboard the Duke of Wellington, in Portsmouth Harbour.
In 1906 he married Isabel Pendry (1882-1947). In the 1911 census he was listed as a house builder bricklayer living with his wife at 81 Middle Road, Sholing. He gave this same address when he signed on to RMS Titanic as a greaser on 6 April 1912.
Thomas was in the electrical workshop above the turbine room. 2 minutes after feeling the shock from the impact with the iceberg, he noticed the turbine had stopped. He survived the foundering of Titanic by crawling out of a funnel and finding lifeboat 4. He was rescued from the sinking in Lifeboat 4,together with the other occupants who were, after many hours, picked up by the SS Carpathia, and taken to New York, and subsequently to London.
Thomas Ranger, forefather of Wayne Ranger gave his Testimony with an Examination on day 5 of the British Wreck Commissioners inquiry in London.
A relative of Wayne Ranger was Charles Frederick William Hatfield, born c.1879 in Southampton. Charles spent most of his life below decks in engine and boiler rooms as a stoker and greaser. Subsequent to the foundering of RMS Titanic, Fred, as he was known, was chosen by the White Star Line to be a model for the Titanic Engineers Memorial in Southampton, sculpted by Ferdinand Victor Blundstone, that was unveiled on the 22nd of April 1914. See sections below modelled by Fred from The Titanic Engineers Memorial, Southampton.
Joseph Bell, Chief Engineer on the R.M.S. Titanic 
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