Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea

 

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 204^th Battalion in August 1916 at Camp Bordon and later went overseas to France with the 54^th 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:

 Ancestry.com. UK, Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1922, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England (accessed 17 December 2023).

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).

Originally published in the Maple Ridge Family History Newsletter, January 2024  

(c) Annette Fulford, January 2024

 

Red Cross Nurses Are Brides Today at Double Wedding Here

 

Romance Indeed in this Happy Ceremony - Grooms Returned Soldiers - Met on Train on Way to City.

A real romance, in fact, two romances, culminated in a double wedding in the solemn quietude of Trinity church this afternoon when James Steadman of Calgary became the husband of Dorothy Tucker of Reigate, England and George Kerr of Moose Jaw wedded Ethel E. Masters of London, Eng. The grooms are returned soldiers and the brides returned nurses, all four having seen strenuous services in the late war from its earliest stages.

Tunisian -  Annette Fulford collection

I posted an article back in 2019 about the young women who travelled to Canada after the war to be married to former Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers.

The brides from the article were Ethel Emily Masters, age 22 and Dorothy Tucker,  age 31. They arrived together on the Tunisian after the war, which landed at St. John, New Brunswick on February 10, 1919. The ceremony was held at the Trinity Church in St. John, the following day.

Ethel Emily Masters was born in 1896 in Lewisham, London, England to Hugh Edmond Masters, a Law Clerk, and his wife Ann Elizabeth Muckle. She married British-born, George Kerr, a Commercial traveller who was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England in March 1885. He came to Canada on the ship Victorian in October 1912 and was headed to his brother living at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

George Kerr travelled to England and enlisted in the 43^rd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Birmingham in July 1915. This is usual. Most British-born men returned home to enlist in the British Expeditionary Force or joined the CEF in Canada. Was he travelling at the time or visiting his brother Walter who lived in Birmingham?

He was wounded on March 31, 1916, just three months after he arrived on the Western Front. George was struck by eight pieces of shrapnel which included his left leg and ankle causing a fracture of his tibia and fibula. He was also hit in his elbow, buttock and his chest causing fractures to two ribs. 

After repairs were done on his leg, his damaged leg was 3/4 of an inch shorter than his right leg and he was having difficulty walking. In December 1916 infection spread in his leg. He spent many months in hospital with a variety of additional issues before being invalided to Canada for further medical treatment on the Missanabie in October 1917.

The second bride Dorothy Tucker was born 1887 in Hackney, London, to George Nathanial Goldsmith Tucker, a Printer, Publisher and Editor and his wife Emily Jane Williams. Dorothy worked as a nurse before the war but I haven't located where she was during the war when she met James.

James Steedman was born in Japan in 1883 to Scottish parents. The family returned to Scotland circa 1887 and James came to Canada circa 1907 destined for Winnipeg, Manitoba where he would find work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as a Land Inspector.

James enlisted with the 56^th Battalion in Calgary in 1915 and while overseas was transferred to the 49^th Battalion. He was wounded in June 1916, a gunshot wound to the arm and returned home on the Andania in January 1917.

The ladies were roommates on the ship and they both indicated on the passenger manifest that they were going to Canada “to be married.” The manifest pages even have details of their intended husbands and where they lived. The men met on the train and discovered that they were both travelling to New Brunswick to meet their sweethearts and get married.

I’ve love to know where the women were working during the war and if these couples remained friends. If you have any further info on them, please contact me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca

(c) Annette Fulford, March 2021

George Kerr, Personnel Records of the First World War: Regimental No. 421122, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5115 - 46, Library and Archives Canada (accessed March 5, 2021)

James Steedman, Personnel Records of the First World War: Regimental No. 447218, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 9252 - 15, Library and Archives Canada (accessed March 5, 2021)

100th Anniversary of First World War Brides' Arrival in Canada

Grace Gibson and Hugh Clark on their wedding day. Annette Fulford collection

This year marks the 100th Anniversary for the majority of war brides that came to Canada after the First World War. My grandmother travelled to Canada in September 1919 on the ship Melita.

Check out the recent story about my grandmother Grace Clark by Tamara Baluja of CBC News Vancouver: Canadian war bride's story shared by her granddaughter (Source: CBC News)

I've often wondered just how many families have letters and photographs in the family archives similar to the ones in my family. Thankfully, many have shared their family stories with me. I use these stories to tell the history of the war brides from this era.

(c) Annette Fulford, November 2019

Remembering the First World War Brides

Grace and Hugh Clark in 1919. Annette Fulford collection

Do you have a First World War Bride in your family tree? Do you know how they met their Canadian soldier? Have you written their story for future generations to remember them by?

With each generation that passes away, information from previous generations gets lost or forgotten. That's why it's so important to write their history before there is no one left to remember them. Send their story to the museum or archive where they lived, or to the local newspaper, and pass it on to your family. Help preserve the history of these pioneering war brides. I'd love to see the day when First World War Brides are remembered alongside the war brides of the Second World War.

Check out my research on First World War Brides: Filling in history: The forgotten stories of WWI war brides by Melanie Nagy of CTV National News from January 31, 2015.

Faded Letters tell untold story  (Source: CTV National News)

(c) Annette Fulford, September 2019

Canadian Pacific Railway ship RMS Melita

RMS Melita - Annette Fulford collection

The Canadian Pacific Railway ship RMS Melita was just one of the many ships that brought war brides to Canada after the First World War. It was purchased by Canadian Pacific Ocean Services in 1917 and she started her first run to a Canadian port in January 1918 at St. John, New Brunswick. The ship could carry 1750 passengers on board.

Manifest details for the Melita. Library and Archives Canada

My grandmother travelled on the Melita in September 1919 and she left the family a wonderful collection of memorabilia of her trip including a voluminous letter, a postcard print of the ship and a souvenir spoon. The latter two were purchased with the proceeds of a boxing match my grandfather won on board.

Melita, July 1919 Menu. LAC, RG 76, Immigration Branch files

This is a menu from the July 1919 sailing. My grandmother wrote about meals she had on board while on her journey:

The sea is awfully rough and has been for some hours. — Quite a large number of people have been sick already, but I am pleased to say I feel o.k. I eat a hearty breakfast consisting of bacon & liver. Of course that does not say I shall not be sick but I am hoping not.

It's a good thing that there were other choices on the menu beside liver and bacon. I imagine that would be hard to stomach if you are experiencing sea sickness.

Well Mother, I must say I am always ready for my meals. We have breakfast, at 7 am, dinner 11:45, tea 4:30, so we are early birds. There are three sittings, usually aft half an hour after the one before.

They could also purchase items from the canteen if they got hungry between meals.

 Hello! Here I am again, it is just eleven o’clock and Hugh has just gone down to the canteen (or stores) to get me some apples. — There is beeftea, & boveril and tea etc., to be got there, which are nice warming tonics. It is not dinner time for another three quarters of an hour yet, and you bet I shall be ready for it.

I am so thankful my grandmother left such a wonderful keepsake of her journey to Canada. It has inspired me to learn more about her journey and the war brides from her era.

(c) Annette Fulford, June 2019

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).

Library and Archives Canada, Immigration Branch, RG 76, Volume 615, file 908571, pt. 20.

The Ships List http://www.theshipslist.com (accessed 20 May 2002)

YWCA National Immigration Secretary, Mrs. Burrington Ham

Edith Alexandra Burrington Ham (1881-1951)

Among the many voluntary organizations to help with the immigration of war brides and soldiers' dependents arriving in Canada after the First World War was the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Mrs. Burrington Ham, a YWCA National Immigration secretary, was the most notable. She had a long history of helping female immigrants arriving in Canada. She travelled the country, lecturing about the White Slave Trade for the government,[i] and the perils of single young women arriving in the Dominion without guidance from a trusted source and how other organizations could assist them.[ii]

An Aura of Mystery

Edith created an aura of mystery about herself in official records, which made it more difficult to find information about her. In most records, she used her initials E. A. and the surname Burrington Ham was often hyphenated, although Burrington was her husband’s middle name, not part of his surname. She often indicated she was a widow who was born in India, although this was proven incorrect. It is likely she was divorced from her husband Harry, who was several years older than her, but a record of their divorce has not been located.

Early life for Edith Alexandra

Mrs. Burrington Ham was born Edith Alexandra Johnston in England in 1881 to Walter Mowbray Johnston and Fanny Louisa Ellen Dunne. Her parents were married in India in 1876 and several of her older siblings were born there but Edith was born in Hammersmith, a suburb of London on April 10, 1881.[iii] In 1888, she and her sister Irene were admitted to the St. Stephen’s Parochial School in Hammersmith.[iv] Edith was taught at home prior to joining the school.

By 1901, I believe she was a sick nurse at the Kensington Infirmary in London.[v] However, more information is needed on this part of her life. Was she a fully trained nurse and where did she train at? The only other indication she was a nurse was in the Militia lists for Canada in 1917.

She married Harry Wilberforce Burrington Ham at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa on February 4^th, 1905[vi]. Harry was the son of Henry Hobbs Ham and Maria Lavenia Davis of Long Ashton, Somerset, England. Harry served during the South African War with the 48^th Company, 7^th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry from North Somerset. Did Edith also serve during the South African War as a nurse or did she go to South Africa to visit her brother Arthur Johnston at Pietermaritzburg?

Their son Arthur Fenton Ham was born in South Africa in January 1906 and in June 1907, the family headed back to England and took up residence in Bristol, England.[vii] They travelled from Durban, South Africa to Southampton, England on the ship Walmer Castle which arrived on June 13.[viii] By 1912, Edith headed to Canada with the YWCA and toured the country lecturing at interested clubs across Canada.

YWCA Immigration Secretary in Canada

Mrs. Ham became a YWCA Immigration secretary in Canada and toured the country looking after the welfare of female immigrants, making sure they had places to stay while travelling, they arrived at their employer's safely and that working conditions were suitable.

In 1913, she became a YWCA National Port secretary in Quebec and was one of the first matrons placed on ships coming to Canada.[ix] She met with female passengers on board to provide them with information about their destinations, how to travel there and answered any questions they may have. 

At the end of the war, Mrs. Burrington-Ham responded quickly to the various needs of the dependents coming to Canada. She travelled overseas to make arrangements for the wives and children of Canadian soldiers working closely with the Commissioner of Emigration in London, J. Obed Smith.[x]

Caring for Soldier’s Families travelling from England

The following article describes the work that was done by Mrs. Ham and her fellow YWCA workers for the soldiers’ dependents in Britain, most of whom were travelling to Canada for the first time:

"Immediately on the signing of the armistice, Mrs. Ham saw the necessity of Y.W.C.A. reception huts at the ports of St. John and Quebec; also the need for Y.W.C.A. secretaries on the ocean-going steamers with dependents. An extra office was opened in St. John and also hut work.

Mrs. Burrington-Ham went to England to organize the work there for the soldiers’ dependents, arrange for the Y.W.C.A. secretary to travel on the ships bringing the women to Canada, and to attend to all the comfort and welfare work necessary for them. She began her work in London at British Columbia House with the Military Dependents branch of the O.M.F. of C. and then moved with them to Cockspur Street. Later [she] transferred to Buxton, where she established an office in the Canadian Discharge depot." [xi]

Buxton was close to Liverpool where many of the dependents travelled to Canada from. Mrs. Burrington Ham travelled across the Atlantic many times during this era assisting passengers on their journey. Her last trip was on the ship Vasari which travelled from Liverpool to New York in early December 1919. 

Edith continued to work in the immigration department for a few years but later remarried in BC in 1927. She died in Sidney, BC on December 3, 1951, at the age of 70.

(c) Annette Fulford, March 2019

---

[i] Marques, Greg. Policing Canada’s Century: A history of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, 194. “In 1917, the CCAC welcomed a rare female speaker Mrs. E.A. Burrington-Ham, British Representative in Canada for the Young Women’s Christian Association and “White Slave Agent” for the federal government at Quebec.” However, Barbara Roberts in Sex, Politics and Religion, indicated “It was not only the female reformers who were concerned about moral dangers to female immigrants. Most immigration reformers and many social reformers were almost obsessive about what they described as “white slave traffic. In fact, there was not a real traffic in Canada. The problems that drove women to prostitution were economic, not moral…”

[ii] “Touring Province: Mrs. Burrington-Ham Inquiring Into Treatment of Female Immigrants”. Manitoba Free Press, February 11, 1916, 5 and “Care of Girls: Immigration Secretary Speaks of Good Work Done”. Manitoba Free Press, February 12, 1916, 8. Online at Manitobia.ca on February 20, 2008.

[iii] London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906. Accessed from Ancestry.com on February 24, 2016.

[iv] London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911. Accessed from Ancestry.com on February 24, 2016.

[v] Census of England and Wales, 1901: RG 13, Piece 33, Folio 29, page 2. Accessed from Ancestry.com on March 3, 2009.

[vi] South Africa, Natal Province, Civil Marriages, 1845-1955," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDCG-:LCJ: 10 March 2018), Harry Wilburforce Burrington-Ham and Edith Alexandra Johnstone, 04 Feb 1905; citing Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa, Natal Province, Civil Marriage 1845-1955; National Archives and Records Services of South Africa, Pretoria; 1,795,040. Accessed at FamilySearch.org on March 19, 2014.  

[vii] British Phone Books, 1880-1984. Accessed at Ancestry.com on March 17, 2016.

[viii] UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. Accessed at Ancestry.com on March 3, 2016.

[ix] Weaver, Otis B. “Official Chaperons on Ocean Liners Are Proven Great Success.”The Shawnee Daily News-Herald, Vol 19, No.90, Ed. 1 Friday, December 19, 1913, 2. Online at The Gateway to Oklahoma History https://gateway.okhistory.org/.  Accessed March 19, 2014

[x] Canadian Almanac & directory 1919: Immigration Dept. Mrs. E.A. Burrington-Ham

[xi] Bio of Mrs. E.A. Burrington-Ham from the article, “City Association Council Meet Two Days at Y.W.C.A.” Calgary Herald, May 17, 1919, 6 & 14.

Lives Cut Short during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

It has been 100 years since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed millions of people worldwide. Some families and communities were devastated by the virus, while many others survived the deadly disease without incident. I’d like to remember the members of one New Brunswick family who was torn apart by the pandemic.

Rhoda Carrier collection

British-born Maud Blanche Cornish was born on 13 June 1895, in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England the daughter of Samuel Cornish and Caroline Horne. She married Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) soldier William Jonathan Carson (Regimental # 42) from Holtville, Northumberland, New Brunswick in December 1917.

William joined the CEF in April 1915 at Fredericton, N.B. and went overseas with the Canadian Army Service Corps (C.A.S.C) but had transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corp by 1917 when he married Maud.

Maud Carson was several months pregnant when she travelled to Canada with her new husband on 24 April 1918, as a war bride. Her husband was returning home as he was longer fit for service. They sailed from Liverpool on the SS Aquitania and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia at Pier 2 on 29 April, where they boarded a train to her new home in Holtville, N.B. Maud obtained an Emergency Certificate of British Nationality for Canada in order to travel to the Dominion during the war. 

Rhoda Carrier collection

The harbour in Halifax was still being rebuilt after an explosion rocked the city on 6 December 1917. Two boats collided in the harbour; one was a munitions ship loaded with explosives destined for the battlefields in Europe. It destroyed much of the downtown core around Pier 6, killing over 1,900 people and injuring more than 9,000. Pier 2 also sustained damage and was unable to support the large numbers of passengers that it had in previous years.

Maud settled into life in the small town of Holtville to await the birth of her first child. She was one of the many people who was counted during in the Canadian National Registration of 1918 which was taken on 22 June 1918.

Maud Carson gave birth to her only son, William James Carson (“Jim” as he was known) on 6 November 1918. Tragically, life for this family would be forever altered. Influenza swept through their household killing her father-in-law on 4 November. Both Maud and her husband William contracted the flu shortly after and succumbed to the virus about a week later, leaving their only child an orphan. Records indicate Maud gave birth while fighting the virus. The only other person who lived in the house at the time was Christina Carson, Maud’s mother-in-law. She survived the ordeal and went to live with her daughter.

Evening Times & Star, November 1918

A reverend from the church in nearby Boiestown, N.B. took the young orphan into his household but refused to surrender the infant to his family. A custody battle ensued. William’s sister, Christina Plume, travelled from nearby York County to fight for custody of her nephew. She applied for guardianship of him, which she was granted on 12 May 1919. William’s WWI personnel file shows that Rev. Smith of Boiestown was issued a cheque as the guardian of William and Maud’s son in the amount of $424.90 in April 1919.

Her lawyer, Charles D. Richard, of Fredericton advised that with guardianship papers in hand and a provincial constable at her side, she should be able to obtain custody of the child by any means possible, given that “you do not commit any definite act of violence or assault” in order to do so.

Christina Plume finally gained custody of her nephew six months after his birth. Fortunately, his aunt was able to provide him with a loving and stable household despite that the fact that her husband Samuel died five years later after a threshing accident on the farm.

The following poem was written about the death of William Carson and his wife Maud by a neighbour of Plume family, Mrs. James McKinnon of Tay Falls.

Back to old New Brunswick,

The war-worn hero came,

And one there was beside him

Who had chosen to bear his name.

One of Old England’s daughters,

Faithful and true and brave,

She crossed the broad Atlantic

To sleep in a foreign grave.

One short year together,

In love and hope and joy;

Then they passed from earth for ever,

And left a baby boy.

Just a little gift from Heaven,

Sent with a Father’s love,

To turn our thoughts from this sad world

To the better world above.

For a little child shall lead them

Over the stormy tide,

Till they meet their own dear soldier

And his little English bride.

So weep no more, dear mother,

For those that have passed away,

For the loving Father called them

Into Eternal Day.

Jim Carson grew up with many siblings. Christina and Samuel Plume had ten children of their own. During WW2, he enlisted in the Canadian army and served overseas with the Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE). While overseas he was able to meet his mother Maud’s siblings and spend time with them.

In a letter home to his mother, Christine Plume, in 1943 he wrote:

Dear Momma: just a few lines to let you know that I am well and hope this letter finds you all the same  how is Mack getting along with the work  suppose Bert is helping him  have you sent any smokes yet  hope you have as I am out of tobacco now and this English tobacco is so dear and besides I don’t like it either  have you got any of my letters yet  I sent you an air mail letter just after I arrived here so I hope you have it by now  I was up to my aunt last week end and they are all well  they don’t live far from here my Bond will be paid up this month so you let me know as it should be there by the middle of November  how is Ella and Margie  suppose they stay with you most of the time  I like this country but at the same time I would like to be back in Canada  but o the war will soon be over and then I will be home  I have eleven months in the army to day  well Momma I guess I have said all for this time so will close.

Bye  Lots of Love Jim XXOO

Rhoda Carrier collection

Jim survived the war and returned home to his family. He married Rhoda Jordan in 1950. They had four children together. Jim died in October 1992 at the age of 73. He is buried at the foot of his parent’s grave in the Cameron Hill Cemetery in Holtville, N.B. He was not able to spend this lifetime with them but they will be together for all eternity.

Sources: 
William Jonathan Carson, Regimental No. 42, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1536 – 50, Personnel Files of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=90547

Influenza, 1918-1919

http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/wartime-tragedies/influenza-1918-1919/ 

The Canadian Encyclopedia: The Halifax Explosion

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/halifax-explosion/

Halifax Explosion

http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/wartime-tragedies/the-halifax-explosion/ 

The Halifax Explosion

http://www.halifaxexplosion.org

National Registration of 1918

http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/CanadaWarEffort.1914-1918.pdf

Remembering Pier 2: Halifax’s Other Immigrant Gateway By Craig Dodge  https://pier21.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/files/First_75_Years/research_remembering_pier2.pdf

(c) Annette Fulford, November 2018

Using Canadian WWI War Diaries for Military Ships with Civilian Passengers

Toronto Star

A great resource that many people are not aware of is the war diaries for ships during and after WWI. If your war bride travelled on a ship that contained military men, you might be able to locate a war diary for their sailing at Library and Archives Canada in War Diaries.  Some are online, while others are available on microfilm only. An alternative viewer for war diaries is online at UVIC C.G.W.P. War Diaries.

To do a search for the diaries for ships do an Advanced Archives Search for War Diaries and add the name of the ship on the second line in the search function. They show up under War Diaries - Progress Charts, Transports  Olympic for example.

Lily May Young married British-born Canadian Expeditionary Force soldier Samuel Palmer (Regimental #778984) in 1918 in England. Sam was a widower with three young children back home in Ontario. Not long after she married, Lily left from Southampton, England on the Olympic on 1st November 1918, intending to travel to Toronto and set up a house for her husband and his family while he was still overseas.

Lily travelled to Canada during the height of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, so I was interested to learn whether the cause of her death was influenza. The passenger list for the Olympic shows her name is crossed off and the info "died at sea" is written above her line on the manifest but no cause of death is listed.

Olympic Passenger List. Library and Archives Canada

In order to confirm how she died, I needed to find an alternative source of information about her death. That is where the war diaries come in useful. This is one page from the November 1918 sailing of the Olympic. 

War Diaries, Olympic. Library and Archives Canada

The diary records that Lily took sick with a septic throat and was placed in an isolation hospital on board on 4^th November. She died on 8 November 1918, at age 23 of Broncho-pneumonia and septicemia and was buried at sea the next day. The ship landed at New York two days later on the 10^th. 

Sadly, she was just the first of many young war brides who died during their journey to Canada. Officials on the next sailing of the Olympic issued gauze masks to the passengers in order to keep the outbreak on board to a minimum but it didn't stop the deaths of a number of war brides coming to Canada during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.

Source:
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922. Database with images. FamilySearch.orf http://FamilySearch.org: 27 August 2018. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

MIKAN 2005288 War Diaries - Progress Charts, Transports: OLYPMIC = Journal de guerre - Tableau d'avancement, Transports: OLYMPIC. 1916/09/14-1919/04/21. Library and Archives Canada 

(c) Annette Fulford, September 2018
Updated on January 23, 2021

First War Bride Ship Arrives At Sand Point in St. John, New Brunswick

Sand Point, New Brunswick Harbour circa 1909. Annette Fulford collection.

It was on 10 February 1919, that the first official ship carrying military dependents - war brides and their children, arrived at Sand Point in St. John, NB. Many war brides had travelled to Canada since 1917 but this was the first sailing where the ship was just for dependents. The Tunisian carried 711 adults and 202 children under 14 years of age and sailed from Liverpool on 31 January, landing 11 days later.

Tunisian Manifest Info. Library and Archives Canada.

All soldiers’ dependents were provided with free third-class passage aboard the troopships, except for those who paid to travel in a superior class. Unfortunately, obtaining a superior class on board usually meant they had to travel to Canada at later date. And when given the option to wait until later to sail, most chose third class passage in order to get to Canada as soon as possible with their husbands.

Third-class is essentially steerage, where the cheapest accommodations on the ship are housed. This is where the majority of the passengers were located on the ship. The rooms are below deck and were very crowded. In some cases, there is no proper ventilation to air out the stale air, the smell of seasickness or dirty diapers.

The rooms were very basic, often containing only two or four berths, which included bunk beds, and a wash basin. Steerage also had limited toilet facilities for the vast amount of passengers it contained. It was inadequate for women travelling with small infants.

CONDITIONS ABOARD

At the beginning of the repatriation scheme, there are many complaints in the immigration files about conditions in the third-class accommodations as most families were not used to travelling in steerage. It was an ordeal for most travellers.

Once on the ship, though, most passengers preferred to be on deck in the fresh air, not stuck in their cramped berths. Another common complaint was the lack of seating on deck for those who wanted to escape their berths. There were additional complaints about seasickness, overcrowded, dirty accommodations, and lack of amenities. Many of these complaints were dealt with while on board, while many other complaints were aired in local newspapers after the voyage.

The Calgary Herald, on 15 February 1919, described the adverse conditions on board the Tunisian:

  

Mr. Dyson who was a travelling representative for the Returned Soldiers' Commission, reported that "there was a good deal of sickness among the women and children owing to the conditions they were subjected to on board the steamer." Due to rough seas, lavatory water soaked the floors in steerage.

However, this information was not confirmed in any of the other news reports about the sailing.

Annette Fulford Collection

Gladys Kendrey, a war bride who was headed to Peterborough, Ontario, noted in a letter to her parents in England a month later, that the sailing was uncomfortable but she did not expand on the subject further. It was possible that she was trying to appease her parents so that they would not worry about her. Her father had sent a news clipping from a British paper with the headline "Brides Pelted with Refuse." She was adamant that this was not the case. Gladys was concerned about the many war brides who had yet to travel would read this and change their minds about coming to Canada.

She told her parents that her arrival in Canada was very pleasant. They had expected a cool reception from the Canadians. Once they made it through the immigration process, they were treated to free refreshments from the Salvation Army, Knights of Columbus War Activities and Y.M.C.A, in a large hall. They had time to freshen up and were shown a place for their children to take a nap while they waited for the trains to be loaded with passengers. If someone was ill, they could be seen by a nurse.

On the final leg of their journey, young children and the ill were given special treatment while travelling by train. Each train carried a Red Cross nurse. Once they arrived at their final destination, the local Rotary Club took them home in cars.

Cars taking soldiers home. Annette Fulford collection.

Sadly, Gladys Kendrey didn't stay in Canada for long. She and her husband Roscoe went to the US where her husband died in 1930. She returned to England with her young son. Donald Walker Kendrey enlisted in the British army during WW2 and died on 28 November 1944. His name is listed on a memorial in Singapore for the soldiers and airmen who have no known grave.

(c) Annette Fulford, February 2018

Voyage of the RMS Melita

Grace and Hugh Clark, taken in England. Annette Fulford Collection.

On 17 September 1919, my grandparents, Hugh and Grace Clark, boarded the RMS Melita for their journey to Canada. Hugh was a returning Canadian soldier; Grace, his war bride. Grace would document their crossing in a letter to her parents back home in England. It chronicles her maiden voyage on a troop ship carrying returning Canadian soldiers, military dependents, and civilians after the First World War.

The original letter (or as she describes it - her "epistle") was sent to her family back in Sheffield, England and it describes the events that occurred during her trip on board the Melita. It was written in pencil on both sides of 5 x 8-inch paper, more than 68 pages in all. Although some of the pages are missing or tattered, the majority of the letter is still intact.

It became evident as I tried to learn more about the war brides from the Great War, that they were barely a footnote in Canadian history. Not many stories could be found, and the ones that I did locate were in local histories. Fortunately, a few of these war brides wrote about their experiences for a new generation of war brides arriving in Canada after WWII; yet their collective history remains to be told.

Since 2006, I have been an avid researcher of the war brides from this era. I've documented a large number of the ones who made their home in Canada. If you have a war bride from the First World War in your family, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca  or avidgenie@hotmail.com  

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).

(c) Annette Fulford, September 2017

Born in Mid Ocean

Corsican. Annette Fulford collection.

Thousands of war brides travelled to Canada after the First World War in an immigration scheme that was paid for by the Canadian government.

While the war brides were not supposed to travel during the latter stages of their pregnancy, a number of war brides gave birth while on their journey to Canada. In April 1919, the newspaper reported that two war brides on the Grampian gave birth to sons. However, records show that Mrs. Susan Riddell had a son, while Mrs. Germaine Durand, a daughter.

In September 1919, while travelling to Canada on the ship Cedric, Mrs. Winifred Orchard, wife of Private Frank Orchard, gave birth to a son. He was christened “Cedric” [1] after the ship and the captain was chosen to be his godfather. He gave the couple $50, while the passengers chipped in and gave them $95. It’s a good thing he wasn’t travelling on the Grampian or Metagama otherwise he might have a very different name!

Edmonton Bulletin, January 16, 1919

I found this article about another ship that had quite a few births on board but I have not been able to learn just what ship it is yet. If anyone finds a ship landing at Halifax in January 1919 with a large number of births on the manifest, send me an email at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca. I'd love to track the families.


(c) Annette Fulford, September 2017

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[1] He is listed as Franklin Cedric Orchard, 3 days old, on the ship’s manifest.