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| RMS Melita - Annette Fulford Collection |
In August 2023, Ancestry added a new database that solved a decades long question I’ve had about a death of a young child who was buried at sea. While doing research in passenger lists recently, this database was among the search results. Intrigued, I went on a deep dive down the rabbit hole on a quest for answers.
Back in
1992, I inherited the letter my grandmother wrote while on her journey to
Canada as a war bride in 1919. She was traveling on the RMS Melita in
September that year. One event she wrote about that caught my attention was the
burial at sea of an infant who was only three months old. My grandmother never
mentioned the family by name but she explained that the parents were at the
burial and that it was much sadder because the father, an officer on board, was
blind.
When
additional passenger lists were released in 1998, I was finally able to view
the passenger list for the September sailing of the Melita and learned that the
couple was the HITCHON family from Brantford, Ontario. Wilton Wallace Hitchon,
his wife Enda Verity, and their infant son John Dunstan Hitchon. The one
question I’ve had for the past 20 years has been, what did their son die from?
The couple
married in July 1916 and Wilton Wallace Hitchon enlisted as an officer in the
204th Battalion in August 1916 at Camp Bordon and later went
overseas to France with the 54th Battalion in September 1917. During
the course of the war, he was injured and left blind. He suffered gunshot
wounds to the legs, hands and face including both eyes.
He was sent
to St. Dunstan's Hostel for Blinded Military Personnel to recover and learn new life skills.
His wife Edna requested permission from the Canadian government to travel
overseas and join her husband in England to aid in his recovery. Their son John
D Hitchon was born in London in June 1919
I searched
for the child in the database, but no results were found so I revised the information
to include only the first name of the child and the ship he was travelling on
in 1919. I found his name; it was listed backwards as Hitchon John Dunstan.
I learned
that the cause of death was mucous colitis, a gastrointestinal disorder, with a
secondary cause of marasmus, which is severe undernutrition. He lacked the
necessary fuel to maintain normal body functions. I had been expecting his
death to be from influenza. His death was a sad ending to his very short life.
The database has also helped to learn more about the war brides who gave birth at sea or died from influenza while on the journey and were buried at sea. So, if you
have question about an event that happened on the ship your ancestor travelled
on, the answer might be found in these records.
Sources:
Clark, Grace (Gibson). Letter, written 17 September and 24 September 1919, while on board C.P.R. ship R.M.S. Melita to her parents Mr. and Mrs. F.O. Gibson in Sheffield, England; held since 1992 by the author.
Clark, Grace; Passenger list: RMS Melita, 25 September 1919, Quebec, Library and Archives Canada, Microfilm T14702 (accessed 18 June 1999).
Wilton Wallace Hitchon, Personnel Records of the First World War, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4392 - 40 (accessed 8 August 2008).
