This is the house of my great great Aunt, Frances Stephens. It is on Dorchester Street in Montreal where Place Ville Marie is now. She was, in 1915, a widow and the second wife and sister of the first wife of George Washington Stephens. (Here is a link to much much more)
Here she is just before she left Montreal for England. She will bring her grandson, John, with her. Note the pearls - we will come back to them later.
His sister, my great Aunt Frances, is already in England with her mother Hazel nee Kemp Stephens.
Here is Chattan Stephens, Frances Stephens' son. He had been in the 13th Battalion, the same as Guy Drummond. But he had contracted Trench Fever that had them lead to Endocarditis - a very serious heart problem.
Chattan's sister and Frances' daughter was Marguerite Gault, Uncle Hammy Gault's wife. She had come over with the PPLCI in October 1914. Hammy had been wounded and was recuperating. He did not return to the front until May 8 and he may well have seen Marguerite.
If you have been following our story, you may now be getting a sense of how intertwined this group of Montrealers was then.
On or around the 23rd of April, Hazel had received a letter, dated 22nd April, from Chattan telling her that he was being repatriated to England. A formal note from the Army dated April 20th, informed Hazel that Chattan was "Dangerously ill". She would have got that about the same time.
So, at about the same time that Dorothy Braithwaite heard in Canada of the deaths on April 20th and 22nd, of her two brothers in law, Guy Drummond and Trum Warren, Frances Stephens heard of Chattan being close to death.
The family story for why she then booked a crossing on the Lusitania was that she always went shopping for clothes in Paris every year and she was not going to let the Germans stop her. I suspect that, deep down, she felt that if he saw his son that this would boost his morale.
The irony is that Chattan did not want any of his children to be risked on the journey. He had pushed back at Hazel when she took Aunt Frances. Back on October 27th his letter included these lines.
"I am glad the kiddies are well. Mother is happy as a lark with John. It was an awfully good idea of yours to let her have him. It helps you and she is just delighted. ... Dearest, I want you but I honestly think that you are better there. This is no place for women and children."
He ate crow in his next letter.
"I got a letter from you in which you as much said to Blazes with staying in Canada and that you were coming over. This letter I got just after writing to you and rather discouraging the idea for which I duly ask for forgiveness. I did it with the best of intentions as I thought that you would have a hard time of it here. But if you have made up that wonderful little mind of yours, why hurry up! You won't find your welcome lukewarm."
These letters are in the family collection.
I am not sure how Hazel felt about her mother in law coming over. She had her hands full with the sick Chattan and with the 3 year old Frances. Her sister in law, Marguerite was a bit of a flake at the best of times too and could not be relied on.
Most mothers in law can be a trial. Frances Stephens was known to be difficult. Until she married her dead sister's husband, she had been very poor and a spinster aged 27 with no prospects at all. To compensate, after her marriage, 19 years her husbands junior, she became very grand indeed. Her famous pearls were part of this persona.
She would, of course, be no help at all and would herself have to be looked after. With baby John added to the mix, Hazel might well have wished that her mother in law had not taken the trip.
Frances booked two cabins in First Class - for herself with her maid Elise Oberlin (Swiss) in D5 and Baby John and his nurse Caroline Milne (English) in D9. I myself cannot make sense of this arrangement. No one shared a cabin with their maid then. And the last person in the world to share with her maid would be the very grand Frances. My bet is that Elise and Caroline shared D9 with John and that Frances was on her own.
Frances was also very Scots and tight as a tick with money. The First Class cabins on D deck were on the same floor as the First Class dining room but this was the cheaper deck for first class. The best Deck was B deck.
But she was still part of the Montreal elite.
I can imagine much communication between Frances and my Aunt Marguerite Allan. What were their plans for travel? Maybe they shared a railway car to New York? Maybe they just took the same train. Would they stay overnight in New York before the sailing on May 1st?
Certainly they arranged a grand Montreal Table in the dining room of the Lusitania.
Interestingly, on the grand but cheap track, Aunt Marguerite's staff and Slingsby, who worked for Aunt M's close friend, Frederick Orr Lewis, shared a table in the First Class dining room on the balcony by the window on the starboard side . Also with then was William Stainton who was Charles Frohman's valet. Slingsby shared a cabin with Ronald Denyer, Mt Vanderbilt's valet. The really grand people looked after their people.
There is no record of the dining arrangements for Frances Stephens' staff. Was Mrs Stephens being "Scots"?
May 1st is sailing day. At some point in the next few days Frances and the rest of the party will take the sleeper train from Montreal to Penn Station in New York. More on that later.
The Lusitania sails on May 1st 1915. On April 28th, or earlier, Aunt Marguerite Lady Allan and her two daughters must have set out from Montreal. It makes sense to me for them to arrive in New York at least one day ahead of sailing. Maybe two days ahead? After all, there is shopping to do and no one wanted to miss the sailing if there had been a problem with the train.
So I think there is a good chance that they would have left on the night of the 28th April.
The train would have left from here, Windsor Station, which was the CP mainline station that went to New York.
I think it very likely that they would have travelled in a private car. I don't know if the Allans had a private car. I would think it was likely. If not they might have borrowed one.
The bedrooms might have looked like this.
The dining area might have looked like this.
The next morning they would have arrived at Penn Station in mid-town Manhattan.
Then, Penn Station was above ground and looked like a palace. It was only 15 minutes by taxi away from Pier 54 - the Cunard Pier where the Lusitania was waiting.
Here is the L arriving.
How exciting this must have been! Imagine you are Anna or Gwen. You are a girl of 15 or 16. You are crossing with your mother on the queen of ships. You will be in the Regal Suite. You are with friends. Robert Holt will be with you. There are celebrities like Mr Vanderbilt and Charles Frohman. There are starlets like Rita Jolivet. You will see your old friend Slingsby who is looking after Mr Orr Lewis. You are invited to stay with him in his house in Enfield. This is what it looks like.
Soon, you will see your dear brother Hugh who has just left Eton and catch up with your sister Martha before she goes to France.
Your parents have rented a huge mansion in Sandgate Kent next to the army camp where the entire Canadian Army will pass through. Your parents are close friends of the Royal family and you will likely meet them too. What's not to be excited about?
And you are doing all of this with your beloved mother. But now, shopping in New York!
Just try and keep away from boring Mrs Stephens. Maybe we will take Robert Holt with us. Maybe not? What 15 year old boy wants to go shopping with two girls? Maybe he might spend the day with Mr Orr Lewis and Slingsby? There are surely things that a boy and a man can do?
Hanging on like a spare wheel might be Dorothy Braithwaite. Poor thing! But she might also be like a big sister. She is 24 and just about to be 25. Mummy is planning a birthday party for her. Her sisters were married to really nice men, so maybe she is interesting too? It is so sad about them though. Widows with babies on the way.
Less fun is the idea of going back to boarding school in England. But it's only for a year. Soon we will come out and be counted as women and not girls anymore.
Meanwhile, as the girls are dreaming, there is work to be done.
Annie and Emily are hard at work in the hotel getting mummy's outfit ready for boarding the ship and they are working with Cunard to get the 18 steamer trunks and the cabin luggage organized. It will need a truck to take it all to pier 54.
You can hardly sleep it is so exciting. What could possibly go wrong?
On April 15th the 2nd Brigade CFA, 3 batteries (5th, 6th, 7th) and an ammunition train - 18 guns in all and nearly 800 horses got their orders to move into position to support the 2nd Brigade CI. Each Battery was about 200 men and had 6 officers. Each battery had 6 guns and 200 horses.
In the picture above, we see a battery just coming on line in the open. The horses all 200+ of them would then have been moved 1,000 yards to the rear.
On April 17th, my Grandfather Alec Paterson's battery, the 5th in the 2nd Brigade, CFA, arrived in their new position deep inside the Salient in support of Arthur Currie's 2nd Brigade of Infantry.
But because they were so close to the Germans, they then dug gun pits and stacked ammunition beside their guns. The men had to work all night to do this.
This is an Australian Battery later in the war - but the set up for the 5th Battery on April 22 1915 would have been similar. There would have been a shallow gun pit and spare ammunition would be stacked by the side. In 1915 on the left of the gun.
Here is the big picture of the Ypres battle before it began.
In this map, look up at the green. This is the French position. They are on the left of the Canadians and above. As you follow the front down from the French, you will see the 3rd Brigade and then the 2nd. In the 3rd Brigade were Trum Warren and Guy Drummond.
Behind the 2nd Brigade CI (Canadian Infantry) is the 2nd Brigade of the CFA. (Canadian Field Artillery)
On April 22, the 8th battery from the 3rd Brigade CFA came to relieve the 5th in the 2nd CFA. But the Germans had other ideas. The 8th, from the 3rd Brigade, worked with the 2nd Brigade for the duration of the battle..
The Red Stars on this map show us where the 5th Battery was at various times during the battle. On April 22, they are on the far right hand side of the line of guns that are the 3 batteries of the 2nd Brigade. The HQ for the 2nd CFA is back at Wieltje in the middle of the map.
As with the infantry, communication and supply, especially the supply of ammunition, will be the core issues in the next 6 days. Here is a link to more context for the battle where you can see these issues more clearly.
In short, it's a long way back to the Division HQ at Ypres and to resupply.
On April 22, there are about 2,800 rounds for the 2nd Brigade CFA and there is another 1,200 rounds in the ammunition column at Wieltje under Captain Eakins, one of the heroes of this battle. When compared to the usage in earlier engagements, this looked like a lot. But in the next two days, they would fire over 12,000 rounds. More on what happened before and on the 18 pounder gun here.
In this close up map, you can see the positions more clearly as the battle opens at 5.30pm on April 22nd.
Guy Drummond is in the 3rd Company in the Apex (The Hinge) in the top left corner where the Germans are trying to turn the line.
10 batteries of French guns, that had covered the Canadians in support of the 3rd and 2nd brigades CFA, were over-run immediately and the two Canadian Infantry Brigades now depended on the the remaining 12 batteries of the two Canadian brigades. These, of course, had been facing south east covering the front lines. But as you can see from this map, the threat was coming from the north west now.
Guy and Edward Norsworthy sacrifice themselves to hold the Apex and prevent the Germans from rolling up the line at this junction.
The Canadian guns immediately have to split their attention to the north but also they still have to cover the east. They begin firing north at 6pm and continue firing continuously until 8pm. They start again at 8.10 and go on until 10.20pm.
By that time there is so much pressure from the north and west that, to save the guns, they are ordered, at 11.25pm, to retire to around Wieltje. Under fire, the 800 horses that are needed to extract the brigade come up to the guns and they are all limbered up. They move off at 12.50pm. Only one man was killed.
At 3.30am on April 23, they are in position again near Wieltje. They are in action all the next day firing continuously now mainly north to to support the counter attack into Kitchener Wood. You can see this on the big yellow map. Look above Wieltje at the red lines showing the counter attack of the 3rd division.
By nightfall on April 23, it is quiet for once. But there is no rest. New gun pits have to be dug and ammunition and food and water brought up. 800 horses have to be fed and watered too.
The full crisis is about to fall upon them.
On April 24th, at 4.05am, the Germans attack again with gas. This time it is the Canadians that are the target. The infantry are pushed back. At 6am, April 24th it is reported that the Germans have broken though on the left. The 5th battery and the 7th (under Andy MacNaughton) turn left to cover this open flank.
By 9.45am they are very short of ammunition and very exposed. Colonel Creelman reduces his risk by giving up all the remaining ammunition to the 5th and to the 6th batteries and withdraws the 7th and 8th 1 & 1/2 miles to the GHQ line near Poitje. Then 1/2 the 6th (2 guns) run out of ammunition and they too have to retire leaving the 5th and the two remaining guns of the 6th alone and exposed.
While the 5th carries on alone, there is relief for the rest of the brigade. At 4.36pm reinforcements arrive and then, miracle of miracles, Captain Eakins arrives with 3 wagons of ammunition. He had had to scrounge most of this from the British and had come back from Ypres, under fire for miles, to save his comrades.
I will try and make sense of this map for you. Look to the right. The Canadian front facing the Germans to the east has been squashed flat and now it is the 28th British Division that still faces the enemy on the east.
The 2nd Brigade has been pushed back off the ridge and now faces north on the right. The 1st Canadian Brigade has come out of reserve, from west of Ypres, and has been pushed into the centre where it is counter attacking. To its left is a new Brigade made up of a number of scratch units under the command of Col Geddes a British officer. We don't see the 3rd Brigade. It has been largely wiped out with 1,500 men captured in the Apex.
The 2nd brigade CFA are now just north of the road at the bottom of the map near the village of Verlorenhoek. That is the 2nd Brigade minus the 5th battery. The war diary says "The 5th battery could not be found." They are "lost". No one knows where they are. No orders have reached them and no messages have been received from them. There must have been a time when HQ thought that they had been overrun in their rearguard effort.
Later that night the 2nd Brigade CFA move again and are now closer to Poitje on the bottom left of this map.
At 3.30am April 25th, in the new positions, the brigade opens fire on the wood to the north. Off and on they fire all day into the woods as the Geddes Brigade and then the Indian Lahore Division attempt to take back St Julien.
At 10.50pm, April 25th, orders are acknowledged by the 5th battery to join the brigade in the new position. The diary says no more. But you can surmise that the 5th had remained in its old position. Likely it had not received any orders to change. The runners must have died or been wounded and never got to them. The 5th had stayed at their posts.
At 11.50am, the next day, April 26, the 5th battery rejoins the 2nd brigade. The 2nd Brigade and the 5th are in action all day. At 2am, April 27, the 5th is ordered to change position again and joins the 6th battery at Poitje.
At this point, I start to think about how much sleep anyone had had since they had moved into the line on April 16/17. Certainly none since 5.30pm April 22nd.
5 nights and 6 days in action and no sleep.
But the crisis is over. From April 26 things settle down on this part of the front. The Germans had shot their bolt and had run out of energy. For the next week there is shelling and counter shelling but no more chaos.
But it is now clear to the high command that the salient, that had been a wide bulge, was now more a long thin point and so was now indefensible. The British 27th and 28th Divisions would have to pull back and offer more of a gentle curve of a front.
In the 27th was the PPCLI.
On May 4th, the 5th battery and the Canadian Gunners retire to the west side of the Yser Canal. The shattered Canadian Division retires from the Salient to rest and to reform. Total casualties had been about 6,000 killed, wounded, missing or captured.
The PPCLI take up a position on the Apex of the southern flank of the Salient.
On May 5th, Uncle Hammy Gault returns to the regiment with a batch of replacements. Just in time for the defining moment in the history of the regiment on May 8th.
He returns also in the knowledge that his nephew, John Stephens, is crossing the Atlantic with his mother in law, Baby John's granny, on the Lusitania and that his brother in law, Chattan Stephens is gravely ill and is not expected to live. But at least he knows that his wife, Marguerite (nee Stephens) is in England and ready to help.
Meanwhile other actors in our play are in motion too.
Mrs Stephens is closing her house in Montreal and is excited by her trip. She always goes to Paris every year to go clothes shopping. She tells her family that she is damned if the Germans will stop her this year. She is also privately convinced that bringing baby John with her will buck up the spirits of her sick son, Chattan.
Alexis Helmer, in the 1st Brigade CFA, has survived the worst of the battle. He and his battery also pull back to the west of the Yser near his friend Dr Jack McCrae who has been working day and night on the wounded and the dying in a bunker cut into the side of the west bank of the Yser Canal. They probably enjoy each other's company.
My cousin Martha Allan was about to arrive in England on the Adriatic. Her beloved brother Hugh would be meeting her. They would have a few days of fun in London together before going to Liverpool to meet their sisters Gwen and Anna and their mother.
Aunt Marguerite is excited to see her son again and to get going on her great adventure with the Red Cross in England. She has rented a mansion called Encombe in Sandgate. It is just next to the huge army camp of Shorncliffe that will be the Canadians' main base.
Aunt Marguerite and Uncle Montagu probably have dinner with Lt Col Yates and his wife Alice. Maybe their daughter Emily is there too? They are best friends. Yates will board the Metagama on May 7 with the Number 3 McGill General Hospital. It will start its work at Shorncliffe. I am sure that Lady Allan is looking forward to looking after Henry there. Uncle Montagu is godfather to their son Montagu. Alice is the head of the IODE in Montreal. She is working with Lady Julia Drummond who is in London to set Lady Allan up. Emily is not going anywhere and might be jealous of her friend Martha Allan who will be a VAD Nurse.
Aunt Marguerite will have comforting Julia Drummond, who has just lost her son Guy, high on her to do list. She and Julia know each other very well. The Allans had bought Guy's summer home after the death of his father in 1910. Lady Julia will be her partner in the work ahead.
Dr Todd who is chaperoning Martha on the Acadia will join the Allans at Encombe too. He will take up a post at the Number 3 McGill Hospital and will work with his friends Major Dr John McCrae and Lt Col Dr Yates.
Dorothy Braithwaite is heartbroken to hear of the death of her sisters' husbands but is thrilled to think that she can help them both. She is excited to be part of the Allan set on the journey. She will not be on her own. She will have her 25th birthday on board. Lady Allan will host a party for her.
Robert Holt, 15, and the son of Sir Herbert, the President of the Royal Bank of Canada, is excited to be returning to his friends at school at Marlborough. He had been taken out at the beginning of the war, but Sir Herbert now thought it safe to send him back. He also would have have felt safe about Robert being looked after by Lady Allan. Robert might have had a bit of a thrill to think he would spend all this time with Gwen and Anna. After the war he will become a neighbour of my Grandfather Alec.
The family staff were also very busy. George Slingsby would have been very busy getting all of his master Frederick Orr Lewis things ready to return to England. Annie Walker and Emily Davis would have been going mad doing the same for Lady Allan. They packed 18 steamer trunks. You can imagine the 3 women arguing about what was to go and what was to be left. It would have been the same for Mrs Stephen maid Elise Oberlin. Baby John's nurse, Caroline Milne, was packing for him too.
Ypres had been terrible. Worse was about to follow for this group of Montrealers.
On April 21st, 100 years ago today, my cousin Martha Allan sets sail across the Atlantic on the Adriatic.
She is the advanced guard. Her mother my great Aunt Marguerite Lady Allan will leave on May 1st also from New York.
Martha was foiled in her attempt to join the nursing staff of the Number 3 General (McGill) Hospital that will depart Montreal on the Metagama on May 6th.
Her guardians on this trip with be a doctor who will join the No3, Dr John Lancelot Todd and his wife Marjory Clouston. Her father had been the General Manager of the Bank of Montreal. Todd will later leave the hospital and join Martha's father in setting up the pension system for Canadian soldiers.
The connections go on and on.
It was John Todd who gave Dr Jack McCrae, a close friend, a horse. Bonfire was to be forever associated with McCrae and carried his boots at his funeral in 1918.
The sailing was uneventful.
When Martha arrived she likely went to London for a few days to see her brother Hugh who had just left Eton. They then journeyed to Liverpool on or around May 7 to meet their mother and their two sisters Anna and Gwen who were due to arrive on May 8th.
It is likely that the Todd's went to Shorncliffe where the No3 was to set up and where the Allan's had rented a house called Encombe. The Allans lived there for at least a year after the sinking of the Lusitania.
Meanwhile, back in Montreal, Aunt Marguerite is closing down her home, Ravenscrag. Here are some pictures of it in its heyday. It will be rented well into 1919 when Aunt M returns in effect homeless. Ironically she was a guest there of the Byngs who rented it as their Montreal base when General Byng was Governor General. When she moved back it was full of ghosts. Martha could not bear it and moved out to the stables.
Here it is today - slowly crumbling.
The full structure 60,000 + square feet.
The ball room in 1914 hosting a charity card game.
Empty and ready for a ball.
The Dining Room - set for the family.
The entrance hall.
One of the girls in the gardens of Ravenscrag.
The Allans had bought Guy Drummond's summer home in what is now Beaconsfield. The house had 32 rooms and had been called Huntlywood when Sir George, Guys' father had it. It was renamed Allancroft.
The Allans ran a dairy farm there. The house burned down in the 1930's and the land was sold for development and is now all built up.
The farm was one of the few farms clean enough to safely offer milk and was run through the war but the house would have been closed.
Already closed up was the family "Cottage", Montrose, in Cacouna. (More here) All the family had spent much of the summer of 1914 there. The last time they would be as one family. Aunt M found it hard to return there. Too many ghosts. She sold it for $10,000 to the Capuchins in 1941.
And here are the children with their mother back in the golden days - they are in the back row and Aunt M is on the right as you look at the photo.
When I think of my own children now - they are in their late 30's - I often think of them as little ones just like this. I am sure that is how Aunt M often remembered her lost babies.
April 22 begins quietly for the Canadians on the Ypres front. The action had been in the rear. The Germans had been shelling Ypres for days and one of these shells had killed Guy's friend and brother in law, Trum Warren, on April 20th. Guy had been given permission to attend his funeral on April 21st.
Guy and his company commander Edward Norsworthy were in reserve in the 13th Battalion - the Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch). The other companies were spread out in a series of moon shaped pits that were what the French had used for the front line.
At 5.30pm that evening, hell will break loose. Guy and the others in the Black Watch hear the French line to their left erupt in firing. Then the firing stops and they start to see men staggering back from the French line and some into their lines.
This is how the map looks and this is where you see Guy and the 13th in the top left corner of the Canadian line.
The map makes it clear to us what could happen. If the Germans can turn the corner at the left of the Canadians, they can outflank the entire line and roll them up. That is clear to us. But imagine what it may have been like at 6pm that April evening. You can smell the gas, many commented that they could. You knew that it was chlorine because the water in your water bottles was full of chlorine. But you had never experienced chlorine being used as a gas.
The entire French division of 20,000 men on your right had evaporated including 10 batteries of 75mm field guns that had been in support of you. Gasping dying men were streaming through your own positions.
This was exactly the job for the reserve company to fill the new gap and Norsworthy and Guy take their men into the apex at the top left hand corner.
The war diary is silent. In fact there are no entries for the 13th at all for days. There is simply too much chaos and everything became a matter of survival. All we have are the memories of a few survivors. Note the road just t the upper left, West, of the 13th. This is the Ypres - Poelcapelle Road. Note the small bulge into the Canadian line there. This is where Norsworthy and Drummond took their men.
Norm Christie quotes a private "After having remained in the dug outs for about an hour with our throats parched and our eyes watering, caused by the gas, we could see that the Germans had broken our lines...He (Major Norsworthy) gave the order to stand-to which we were waiting anxiously to do and he lead us out to the Ypres-Poelcapelle Road. I was not long before they began to pick our boys off. Major Norsworthy was hit in the neck by a bullet but it did not stop him from walking up and down our line encouraging our men to hold fast. It was not until he had received a second bullet that he had to give in and lie down. We bound him up as well as we could but the wound was serious and he died 45 minutes later."
Here is how Col Currie of the Red Watch, the 15th Battalion, the CO of Trum Warren recoded Guy's death.
“One of the first officers of my acquaintance to fall on the evening of the 22nd was Lieutenant Drummond of the 13th Battalion. I had spoken to him in the morning. When the Turcos had come streaming across the field, tearing through his company of Montreal Highlanders, he, together with Major Norsworthy, gallantly tried to rally these men, along with my adjutant. Drummond fell, together with his comrade, each a victim to a German bullet. No braver lad, no more ardent Highlander ever donned the tartan of the Black Watch than Lieutenant Guy Drummond. When he fell Canada lost a valuable and useful citizen. His training, education and charm of manner, coupled with his intense patriotism, marked him for a great career. Major Norsworthy, his friend and comrade, fell by his side.”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
Here is how the history of the battalion recall these events.
“Having broken through the French lines on a wide front, as already described, the Germans had swung in towards the Canadians' flank and were making some progress in the general direction of St. Julien. This brought the enemy into contact with Major Norsworthy and the two platoons of No. 3 Coy. in support, or rather the remnant of these platoons, which had suffered severely in the opening bombardment.
Inspired by the gallant leadership of Major Norsworthy and Capt. Guy Drummond, the men of the supporting platoons fought a dauntless fight. Every moment was precious and no one can estimate the value of the time that was gained by the delay this devoted effort caused to the Germans. But even sublime courage can not withstand fire and steel. Overwhelmed at last, Norsworthy and Drummond fell and such of their men as had not been killed were, with a few exceptions, surrounded and captured. Amongst the exceptions were Private Telfer and five other men. who made their way through to the front and reported to McCuaig the disaster that had befallen his supports.”
Excerpt From: Fetherstonhaugh, R. C. (Robert Collier), 1892-1949. “The 13th Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada, 1914-1919.” iBooks.
So begins 4 days and nights of chaos and constant fighting.
Drummond and Norsworthy's bodies were of course lost in the chaos of the battle and in the churn of the Salient. But in 1920, during the clearances of St Julien, the labour company found a cross marked "Unknown Canadian Officer - Royal Highlanders of Canada." During the exhumation, they found the remains of two officers and four soldiers. One of the officers had a long femur and was judged to be about 6' 3" or 4". This was Guy. The other officer being then Edward Norsworthy. They are now buried in Tyne Cot in plot 59, Row B in Graves 24 and 28. They lie together for eternity. (Thanks to Norm Christie The Canadians at Ypres)
Guy's death is only one drop in an ocean of millions who were to die. But each single death is a heartbreak for those who were close.
In London await his mother, Julia, Lady Drummond and his wife Mary Hendrie Braithwaite Drummond.
Here is Guy with his mother as a boy. In those days little boys had long hair and even wore dresses for a while. She had already lost Guy's older brother as an infant. She was also widowed twice.
Here she is at the end of the war. A woman of great privilege who had lost nearly everything that mattered to her. In reaction to her loss, she did not withdraw but instead poured her energy into helping all the other boys of all the other mothers. She becomes one of the great figures of the war.
I suspect that she was sustained by the fact that Guy's son was being carried by her daughter in law, Mary Braithwaite. He will be born in late summer of 1915.
But this must have been a terrible time for Mary. Her sister Marjory had just learned of her husband's (Trum Warren) death the day before. She too was pregnant. Both were in London and probably were living with Julia at Browns Hotel.
Stunned by her sister's loss, their other sister Dorothy must have contacted my Aunt Marguerite Lady Allan. Could she join their party on the Lusitania so that she could go to London and comfort her sisters? She was part of the Allan table and party. They all would have celebrated her birthday on board.
"Dorothy’s ticket for Lusitania was 12934, and her cabin was D-63. She celebrated her 25th birthday on board the Lusitania, on Wednesday, 5 May.
Afterwards Harold Boulton found her in the water and she died holding his hand.
The New York Times had erroneously printed her name on the survivors list, saying that she was from Morristown, New Jersey. (Source)"
I find all of this just heartbreaking as loss piles on loss and we are only in the spring of 1915.
Next we watch over my grandfather Alec and the men of there 5th Battery of the 2nd Brigade CFA. They will go into action in the evening of the 22nd of April and not stop, day and night, for a week. But he will live and fight in every action to follow until September 1918, when he is gassed.
I will follow that with a view of Hamilton Gault and the great stand of the PPCLI at the other hinge of the Salient where Uncle Hammy finds himself cut off in a shell hole wounded so badly that he will have to have his leg amputated tossing his empty revolver back and forth to his men in the trench behind him as they reload for him.
And then we board the Lusitania and spend the week with the girls and many other cousins and friends of the family.
On April 14, the Germans started to shell Ypres in earnest. In this picture taken on the 28th we can see that the great Cloth Hall is at the epicentre of the destruction.
But that is the big picture. In the next 2 weeks I will restrict our story to the tiny world of each of the small set of characters in our Montreal Story. For how can any of us comprehend the death of millions? But the loss of a dear friend, contemporary, a young person - that hits home.
On April 20th, my cousin Guy Drummond's good friend and brother in law, Trumbull Warren was in Ypres. Since April 14th the Germans had began a bombardment of the town that was to reduce it to rubble.
You could not safely be out in the open. Many lived in cellars or even as this picture shows in the sewers.
It got so bad by April 17th that orders were given to limit the men "congregating in the street" and officers "not to leave the immediate vicinity of their posts".
This is Guy's good friend "Trum" Warren back in 1914 at Valcartier when all of this was going to be such an adventure.
Trum was in the street in Cloth Square at the wrong time that fateful April and was to become the first of my family and their friends to die. It was a terrible shock to Guy who wrote to his mother Julia, Lady Drummond, on April 22, on the morning that he too was to die.
Dearest Mother,
Of course I came to the war knowing that its bitterest trial would be the loss of my friends or relatives, but I had not expected such a sudden or heavy loss as that of Tim Warren the day before yesterday.
He ends it with these prescient thoughts referring to his sister in law.
Words are no good, are they? Poor little wife. (He refers here to Trum's Wife who is Guy's wife's sister) Indeed and truly it’s much harder for you women at home.
Your affectionate son, Guy
As I read this, I am reminded of how I felt aged 18 when I received news of my roommate at school being killed in a car accident. At that age, it is impossible to reconcile this kind of death and I have never really been able to absorb it. But Guy would never have to get used to this as others did.
And what of Trum's mother? She was described as a "Spartan Mother " in the press.
And who was Trum when he was not a son or a friend or a husband?
The 48th Highlanders were the family regiment. His son would continue the tradition.
He is in the front row seated and is 2nd on the left. This is what is CO thought of him
“I had offered the position to Captain Trumbull Warren, but he declined it, as he was second in command with Major Osborne and he said he wanted "company" experience, how to handle men and to get to know them and learn how the military machine was worked. The real reason he stayed with his company was because he was so devoted to his men. He had formed ties which he did not like to break. Every man in the company thought he was the greatest company officer in the division, and I thought so too. ”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
This is how he died.
“Shortly after luncheon Captain Warren and Lieutenant Macdonald came to the orderly room to ask some questions about the order in which we were to march into the trenches. An officer from each company had gone into these trenches the night before and looked them carefully over. The left section was given to Captain Osborne, the right to Captain McGregor and the centre to Captain MacLaren. The position consisted of seventeen half moon redoubts and they were not at all strong. Captain Alexander's company was to be in reserve with headquarters at St. Julien. As the officers had received orders not to go away from their billeting area, and had to receive permission to do so, both Warren and Macdonald asked me if they could go up to the Cloth Square to buy some comforts to take down into the trenches for the men. I gave my consent, but warned them to be careful and take cover from any shells that came along. About ten minutes later Lieutenant Macdonald arrived back breathless. He asked quite coolly, "Where is Major MacKenzie? Trum's hit with a piece of shell."
I immediately called the major, who was in the next room, and we learned that "Trum," as Captain Warren was affectionately called, had been badly wounded. He and Macdonald were standing in a grocery store at the north side of the square when a "Jack Johnson," as the huge seventeen inch shells fired by the Germans from the Austrian howitzers they have brought up to shell this town are called, fell into a building in the south side just opposite.
The shell wrecked the building into which it fell, killing an officer and seventeen men. A piece about an inch square flew fully two hundred yards across the square, passed through a plate glass window, missed Macdonald by an inch, and struck Warren below the right collar bone piercing his lung. "They have got me in the back, Fred”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
Unlike many who were killed near the Salient this early in the war, his grave survived. Col Currie tried to attend the funeral but was rightly refused permission by General Turner - there was too much going on. But Guy did attend.
“In the morning I tried to arrange to go down to Ypres to the funeral of Captain Warren. Major Osborne wanted to go also and take a firing party with him, but much as he would have liked to acquiesce, General Turner had to refuse, for we were in a dangerous corner and no one could be spared. Lieutenant Drummond, his brother-in-law, was permitted to attend. Captain Duguid, the quartermaster, with the assistance of the engineers, had a metallic coffin made for him and they buried him in the Canadian burial plot.”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
As I said earlier, it is the earlier deaths that hurt the most. Here is how Currie describes how he feels losing his two favourite officers.
“That morning I learned of the death of Captain Darling in London. We had expected that Captain Darling would be convalescent shortly after he went to England, but about a week before news had come that gangrene, the terrible disease that took so many of our wounded, had infected his shoulder, and a number of serious operations had to be performed. Still we had hoped that his splendid physique would pull him through. But it was not to be, and the two comrades that had been the pride of the regiment died within a few hours of each other.
The whole Empire did not possess two kinder or braver men than Captains Darling and Warren. It is only when men go down into the valley of the shadow of death together that they learn to appreciate each other. In the trenches soldiers are true comrades, backbiting, lying and slandering is left to the slackers and "tin soldiers" who stay at home. Both these young men were in the flower of their youth, both left young wives, both were men of means, brought up amidst wealth and refinement. They gave up a good deal to go to the war, and their example and their lives should fix a tradition not only for their fellow officers of "The Red Watch" but also for the whole Canadian Army. They did not hesitate to "take their place in the ranks," and they died like the heroes of Marathon and Salamis.”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
So my dear readers we begin a two week period when over 6,000 Canadians will be killed or wounded out of the 24,000 in France and when over 1,000 passengers will die on the Lusitania.
And what of the 15th?
“The Muster of the 48th Highlanders after Battle of St. Julien—212 out of 1,034”
Excerpt From: John Allister Currie. “The Red Watch" / With the First Canadian Division in Flanders.” iBooks.
They were nearly wiped out.
But out of all this gloom also is hope. For Trum's wife, Marjory is pregnant. Her son, also Trumbull, will grow up and have a most distinguished career and will be General Montgomery's chief personal staff officer and kind of adopted son in WWII. He was conceived on Trum's last leave during Christmas 1914. Here is a lovely obituary that describes this relationship.
On April 15 1915, the Canadian Division get their orders to take over a piece of the line from the French on April 16. So begins the time in 1915 that will change everything.
The 2nd Battle of Ypres was very confusing for all involved, the "Fog of War" was extreme. So I am today going to try and give you a "Dummies" guide to 2nd Ypres.
First of all, let's get a sense for the terrain. Terrain shaped the battle.
As you can see from this topographical map, the Salient bulges out to the east where it is ringed by high ground.
By looking at the ground we can see what was at stake.
If the Germans could capture all the high ground, the Salient would become almost impossible to defend and certainly very difficult to attack from: everything could be seen.
If they could break through at either hinge, they might win the war. For then, they could roll up the allied line from the North all the way to Switzerland.
The high ground and the hinges are key.
In this map, that shows the various shifts of the line during the war, note the brown line. This is the front line when the Canadians come into the line on April 16/17. By the end of May, the Allies will be pushed back onto the red line.
Note the Yser canal. All the supplies for anyone in the Salient had to cross the canal. This was quite a barrier.
Note the roads and how exposed they are to artillery from the ridges. All supplies had to come up these roads too.
Note the label for Zillbeke Lake. Look above the label and you will see where the railway crosses the road. This is the infamous Hellfire Corner, the most dangerous place in the world. For the entire war, supplies and reinforcement had to move through Hellfire Corner. German artillery was zeroed into this point and it was a lottery if you were going to make it.
The terrain meant that keeping the men in the Salient supplied was exceptionally difficult. Water ammunition and food would all cost blood to deliver.
Terrain also meant that communications will be a telling issue in the weeks to come. In this context, General Turner's consistent inability to comprehend the battle space and his persistent misunderstanding of his orders were to create a situation where the Canadians nearly were wiped out.
Terrain is a major reason for this problem.
The distance between Division HQ, just west of Ypres, and the front was significant. Telephone lines were consistently knocked out and radio was in its infancy. Most orders depend on scraps of paper written in haste in pencil that were then carried by runner who was inevitably under observation and fire.
As a result, many orders were often late, did not arrive at all or were confusing. It was impossible for Division and Corps to know what was going on too. The Fog of War always is a factor. In 2nd Ypres it was almost overwhelming.
Now we come to the issue of deployment.
In war, no place is more vulnerable to attack than where two separate commands touch. No place is more vulnerable than when these different commands come from different nations. You can be in a company right next to another from a different command and you will have no way of working collaboratively with them. Each company reports only to their own HQ. Neither are connected to each other. So, there are, in effect, two bodies and two heads next to each other that cannot communicate or work with each other.
This was why the Germans chose their point of attack with exquisite care right between the French and the Canadians.
As we can see in the map, the Canadians were deployed just next to the French Algerian Division who are on their right to the north. The Canadians had just taken over their sector from another French division.
In itself, taking over from the French was a problem. The issue is doctrine. The British doctrine was to hold the front line at all costs. This meant a very strong front line.
On April 16th the Canadians arrived in what had been the French front line to find that there was no front line really but a only series of scrapes. Many of these had been used as latrines. So the order of the day for the Canadians was to get digging. No one slept much and the work was back breaking. This meant that when the attack came on the evening 22nd of April, the Canadians were not as well dug in as they had hoped to be.
The French doctrine was to hold the front line lightly but then defend further back in depth.
In the Salient in April 1915, this second line was called the GHQ line. It was not much of a line either. The map shows this line clearly marked running North South at the west end of the Salient. But it was only a series of ditches and some wire.
Now let's look at the map again and this time look at nature of the unit deployments on the front. For this too was affected by the unique terrain of the salient.
Note that the frontage of each British and Canadian division is quite short. The Canadian front is held by 2 brigades, the 3rd under General Turner on the left and the 2nd under General Currie on the right. The 1st brigade was being held west of Ypres in reserve with V Corps.
Just south of them is the British 28th division. Below the 28th is the 27th that includes the PPCLI.
So here is the terrain issue. The front facing the Germans for each division in the line is quite short but the distance back to the rear is very long. In particular, the Canadians have a very long left flank with the French.
Understanding this is the key to the Canadian part of this battle. What happens is that after the gas attack on April 22, is that the French leave this entire flank open.
The success of the gas attack means that the French, on the Canadian left, simply vanish leaving a huge new front on the the Canadian left flank. The Canadians still have to hold their front to the east but now also have to pivot to extend their coverage along their northern and eastern border.
Their flank has been turned.
This is the challenge and it is the Canadians' great achievement that in the crucial first two days that they hold. If they had not, the war might have been lost.
Later, reinforcements in the shape of the 1st brigade are pushed into the northern hinge and a pickup force under the command of Col Geddes, a British officer, are crucial. Later still, the Lahore Division is pushed into the northern hinge. For remember the hinges are the war ending points.
This next map shows this process as the 3rd brigade bends around and the Geddes Brigade pushes in from the west into the hinge.
Meanwhile at the southern hinge, south of the 28th division of the British army is the 27th division. Part of this is the PPCLI. Here the Germans attack in force on May 8th. The Pats are almost wiped out but they hold their part of the southern hinge.
The Canadians save the day on both hinges of the Salient.
But I get ahead of myself. In the next few days I will do my best to show you what happened to my grandfather and his battery so we can experience the chaos as he would have experienced it. We will also look in more detail and the PPCLI on the other side of the Salient.
On April 10, the PPLCI arrived at Polygon Wood. "Uncle Hammie", Hamilton Gault, is not with then on that day. He had been wounded at St Eloi on February 28th but he will arrive back to join the regiment on May 5th just in time to be part of the worst days for the regiment where he will be badly wounded and lose a leg. and the Pats will be almost wiped out holding the hinge on the south. Lieut. Niven was acting CO by May 18. All the senior officers had been killed or wounded.
My grandfather Alec, with the 5th battery 2nd Brigade CFA will move into position at the far eastern corner of the front in support of Currie's 2nd brigade. They will spend the next few days digging gun pits and bringing up ammunition. "The billets taken over were in a very unsanitary condition and filthy and dirty!" (War Diary).
We will follow my cousin Guy Drummond in the 13th Battalion as well.
Guy Drummond is in the reserve company of the 13th Battalion in the 3rd brigade on the left hand northern sector. This unit is commanded by his friend Major Edward Norsworthy. They are the firefighters of their battalion and are ready to intervene in a crisis.
And finally we will look at John McCrae, close friend of family friends. On April 15, he is setting up an aid post in a dugout, burrowed into the west bank of the Yser Canal at what will be called Essex Farm.
I leave you here with the starting position of April 21st.
Guy and Major Norsworthy are in the top left in the 13th Battalion. This location is to be called the Apex.
Grandfather Alec's battery is just the west of the small river that extends west to east behind the 5th Battalion. Look for the label for the 28th Div. Alec's battery is just north of the stream between the 2 and the 8.
Jack McCrae is a short distance north of Ypres on the west side of the Canal. The PPCLI and Uncle Hammy Gault will be moving to a position in the bottom centre of the map where the lines disappear off the map.
The French occupy all the salient from the 23h battalion west to the hinge. By April 22 the French will have been pushed right out of this sector and it will be filled with Germans.
This is the Essex Farm First Aid station where Dr John McCrae served at the 2nd battle of Ypres. April 22 - May 18th 1915) His close friend Alexis Helmer was blown to pieces nearby on May 2nd 1915. Elmer's friends bagged up the pieces and McRae said the service that night over the grave. This experience and the weeks of dealing with thousands of wounded at Ypres broke him.
Many of my family and their friends were to experience tragedy in these 3 weeks. All, somehow, pulled themselves together, but none were whole ever again. But on April 7th, this was all unknowable and in the future. Like a play, the next few weeks were a time when all the main players in my family were moving into position for the events of the end of the month. Let's have a quick look at who is who and what they are doing.
Alexis Helmer (see above) and Jack McRae were in the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery. They were billeted in early April near Poperinge with the 2nd Brigade where my grandfather Alec Paterson was a Lieutenant in the 5th Battery.
McRae had been a serving gunner in the Boer War (middle of the back row) but was now attached to the 1st Brigade as their Medical Officer. The hospital that he would serve the war in, the 3rd, was then preparing to sail from Montreal.
The Canadian Division had played a minor role in the Battle of Neuve Chappelle and was now "resting". On April 16th they would take over from a French Division a few miles East of Ypres. Here is a map showing their movements by date.
Meanwhile, in Montreal, the "McGill" Hospital was in the final stages of preparation. They were to sail to England on May 7th on the Metagama. Much more on the 3rd here.
Second in command was my Uncle Montagu's best friend Lt Col Henry Brydges Yates. His wife Alice was equally close to Aunt Marguerite and was the head of the IODE in Montreal. Aunt Marguerite was planning to join her in England to work with her and Julia, Lady Drummond for the Red Cross.
Martha, Aunt Marguerite's eldest daughter, had this picture taken just before she too left for England and France. She had bobbed her hair to make it easier to live and work as a nurse. She had failed to be accepted by the 3rd Hospital - she was too young and untrained - and so planned to go to war as VAD. She also planned to spend a lot of time with her wounded fiancé, the gallant Lieut. Thierry Mallet who had been wounded.
She had booked passage on the Adriatic that would leave on April 21st. She was going over in the company of another close friend of her father, Dr John Lancelot Todd. Todd was going to join the 3rd Hospital and later in the war join Uncle Montagu in setting up the War Pensions organization. Todd was a close friend of Jack McCrae and had given him the horse Bonfire.
Uncle Montagu's son, Hugh, was already in England where he was in his last term at Eton. He was in Pop and had planned to go to McGill. But after the Lusitania he changed his plans and joined up.
The other Allan children, Gwen and Anna, (This is an earlier picture of the two with their mother) had been taken out of English boarding school at the outbreak of war but now were going to return with their mother to go back to school there. In the interim they had lived in Toronto with relatives and had attended Havergal. Nearly all the children of this group went to boarding school in England. It helped to own a shipping line too! There was even a kind of "School Run" crossing where they would all go over together. It must have ben fun.
Accompanying the Allan girls was Robert Holt, aged 15, the youngest son of Sir Herbert Holt who was the President of the Royal Bank of Canada. Robert too had been taken out of school in England at the outbreak of war but was now going back to return to Marlborough. He was to be seated at the Allan table and I have to assume that Aunt M was officially in charge of him. Slingsby would have likely had the day to day duties of care for the boy who fortunately was an excellent swimmer.
Aunt Marguerite was closing up her home, Ravenscrag. She would not return until 1920 and then it would be filled with the ghosts of her dead children. Emily Davis and Annie Walker, her maids, were packing 18 steamer trunks. They planned to be in England for the duration.
Nearly all the Allan line ships had been booked solid by the government as troop ships. So, Aunt M had booked passage on the Lusitania for a May 1 departure. She had the Regal Suite. As the owner of the Allan line, this may have been a complementary trip.
Chattan Stephens, my great Aunt Frances' father, was in France in the same unit as Guy Drummond, the 13th Battalion - the Royal Highlanders of Canada (Black Watch). His wife, Hazel, had left the rented house near Salisbury Plain and, based at Earles Hotel on Grosvenor St, was house hunting with her daughter my Great Aunt Frances. He was to avoid the 2nd battle of Ypres as he came down with trench fever on April 13th and was hospitalized. The trench fever developed into a very serious heart disease and he was invalided back to the UK on May 8th.
On hearing of her son's illness (the authorities did not expect him to live and their letter to his wife hardly obscured their fears - "In confirmation of my telegram of this date, I regret very much to inform you that Lieutenant F C Stephens, 13th Battalion, Canadians, is dangerously ill at No 2 Red Cross Hospital Rouen, suffering form Endocarditis......") - Mrs Stephens, his mother in Montreal, decided to come to England and took with her, his son John who had stayed in Canada. Hearing that her friend, Marguerite Allan was taking the Lusitania, she decided to join her on that sailing.
Chattan's sister, also called Marguerite, had come over to England with her husband Hamilton Gault on the troopship carrying the PPCLI. Here she is surrounded by men. The PPCLI had left England for France in early January. Ugly rumours were now circulating about her and a brother officer. This was to bubble up and destroy their marriage and become a huge scandal.
Uncle Hammie had already been wounded on Feb 28th and returned to the unit to take command on May 5th. Just in time to see his regiment nearly wiped out on May 8th. Only 150 men remained.
Julia Lady Drummond was now getting into her stride in London where she was running the Information Bureau. She spent the war at Browns Hotel and had spent Christmas with her son Guy and his best friend Trumbell Warren. Trum was in the 48th Highlanders and Guy in the 13th Battalion, Royal Highlanders. Both were in the 3rd Brigade. Both were married to sisters. Guy to Mary and Trum to Marjory Braithwaite. Both girls conceived that Christmas leave. I would think it likely that by mid April, Julia would have known that she was to be a granny. Their sister, Dorothy was still in Canada. When she learned on April 23rd that both her sisters had been widowed, she too booked passage on the Lusitania. Knowing that Lady Allan and Mrs Stephens were on board must have made her mother feel safer. Dorothy also joined the Allan party on the same table.
Uncle Montagu was still in Montreal. He had been instrumental in getting the Number 3 Hospital set up and still had extensive business interests that he had to tidy up before leaving to join the family in England. After Aunt Marguerite recovered from her injuries and her loss, he, aged 55, enlisted in the active armed services in April 1916.
So here we are, at the edge of the abyss. Act 2 of the drama is about to start and the destiny of my family will be changed forever in the next 6 weeks. All the fantastic privilege that they enjoyed will count for nothing as they pay the price of war.
This is George Slingsby - one the great heroes of the Lusitania. We are only a just over a month away now from the 7th of May when my family lost so many on the Lusitania. Central to their story is "Slingsby".
George Slingsby was the valet to my Aunt Marguerite's close friend Fredrick Orr Lewis. It was Slingsby who first saw the torpedo. It was Slingsby who gathered the Allans, Aunt Marguerite and her daughters Gwen and Anna; Mr Orr Lewis; Dorothy Braithwaite, sister in law to Guy Drummond; Aunt Frances Stephens and her grandson, my great uncle, baby John and their staff. Namely, Emily Davis and Annie Walker who were Aunt Marguerite's maids and Aunt Frances' maid Elise Oberlin and her nurse, Caroline Milne.
The Allan table was in the main first class dining room. As Aunt Marguerite had the Regal Suite, she would have had the best table. It may have been like this one. Slingsby and the staff also ate in the first class dining room. They also had cabins on first class (More on where they all were in a later post). Slingsby and the staff ate in the gallery that you can see above.
On the fatal day, lunch for the Allans was over and they had retired to the lounge for coffee.
Image by kind permission of Eric Sauder - who has more images on the Lusitania than anyone.
George was late and, as he came to the upstairs staff table for his lunch, he saw the torpedo out of the window. It is likely, because he saw the torpedo first, that it was George that warned the family party.
It seems to have been him who organized the life jackets too. The Lusitania was sinking very fast. It took only 18 minutes from start to finish. The life jackets were in the cabins. There had to have been a mad rush to get them. Here is George's account (Source)
“I at once made for my lifebelt and fixed it on ready for what was to take place. When I got to the boat deck I saw my master and Lady Allan and two daughters and two maids without lifebelts. I at once pulled my belt off and gave it to the ladies. I then rushed in the ship and got two more, which I also gave to the ladies, and by that time the ship had got too much of a list on, and it took me all my time to get back on deck, as the fore part of the ship was almost level with the captain’s bridge."
So here we see the valet in charge. But there is more. George could not swim. By giving aunt M his wife jacket, George must have thought that he was giving up his life for her.
So why did George do this?
He was her friend.
It may be hard for modern readers to understand this but, while people behaved with decorum and formally with each other, deep friendships often developed between personal staff and the people they worked for.
The girls and their brother Hugh all went to school in England before the war. On board, and also part of the party, was the 15 year old Robert Holt, the son of Sir Herbert Holt. Robert was returning to Marlborough where he was at school. Emily Davis had been a maid at his father's house before she joined Lady Allan. Everyone, staff and employers, knew each other well.
There were 6 "school run" crossings each year. So those runs and all the other social and business trips meant that, for people like Lady Allan, crossings were almost routine. In those days, HM Customs levied duty on personal jewelry. To avoid paying duty, Aunt Marguerite would give her jewels to George who had a specially made smuggling cummerbund. He would carry them under his shirt. She in return had given him a diamond pin.
It is clear that they spent a lot of time with him on the voyage. It would have been safe and proper for them to do that. They were the awkward age. The Lusitania had a group of stewardesses that looked after the young children. But aged 16 and 15, and a girl, you would not fit into that. But at that age, you also did not fit into the world of the grown ups. So George would have filled the space. They could be open and themselves with George but would have to be closed with other adults.
My bet is that they were a bit in love with him. He certainly thought the world of them.
So, how does this trust and affection take place in what might seem to us today have been a feudal system?
It starts with intimacy. George as Orr Lewis valet would see and know everything. He would attend Orr Lewis as he bathed. He would shave him. He would dress and undress him. He would take care of all his clothes. From these menial tasks would come trust. For, while this tasks were performed, they talked. You would talk about everything with your valet. There was no holding back. In effect, your valet was also your therapist. A therapist that you could not hide from or lie to. After all he knew you at your most vulnerable.
We see this bond in action. On the Titanic, Astor and his valet, Victor Robbins, spent their last hours helping the women and children get to the life boats. On the Lusitania, Vanderbilt and his valet, Ronald Denyer, who shared a cabin with George, spent their last minutes helping others such as Alice Middleton.
This was a bond created from the most intimate contact over time.
It was the same with the maids and the ladies. Emily and Annie were part of a 3 woman team who had looked after Aunt Marguerite for years. On this trip it was just the two of them.
A woman like Aunt Marguerite would have needed even more care than Orr Lewis. She boarded with 18 steamer trunks. She would have had breakfast in her suite in her dressing gown. But then would have changed for lunch, changed for the afternoon and then changed for dinner.
Image by kind permission of Eric Sauder - who has more images on the Lusitania than anyone.
Aunt M's Cabin. This is where the girls slept. Here is the cabin plan - again thanks to Eric Sauder.
Emily and Annie would not only dress Marguerite but also do her hair and makeup. The dresses had sleeves that were detachable and had to be put together. The day hats had feathers that were packed separately and had to be reassembled. Each night on the trip the evening dress increased in splendour.
Emily and Annie were so much more than maids. They were hairdressers, manicurists, seamstresses, milliners and confidants.
Their days were very long. For every dressing there was the undressing. As Aunt Marguerite might be closing her eyes at night, Emily or Annie, on the late shift, would have to put everything away, make repairs etc and get ready for the next day. Then they would retire to a nearby cabin, also in first class, so that they could be close to their charge.
What would have been discussed? Everything! Your maid was the only safe person you could expose your hopes and fears to. And this in the end is the greatest act of intimacy. Your maid knew you as no other human could. She certainly knew you better than your husband, any friend or your children.
Finally more about the children. This was not a time when parents were traditionally warm and affectionate with their children. When Chattan heard of the death of his mother Frances Stephens and his son, John, this was his diary entry on May 8th.
"Just heard that Lusitania has been torpedoed. 1700 lost 800 saved. Mother and John on board."
That's it! That is the sum total of his remarks. The explanation is the opposite of the bond between maid and lady or valet and master. There was almost no contact and so no chance of intimacy or feeling between upper class parents and children then.
Children in this era and later, could only be close to their servants. Personal servants were the only safe source of love and attention for upper class children. Hence my sense of George's relationship with Gwen and Anna.
I grew up in an Edwardian time slip myself. I used to have lunch with my mother on Thursdays when Nanny had her day off. My first strong memory of my father was when he came into the nursery to tell us that we had a new sister. I was 7. My own nanny Fluffy was my sole source of love. Our Slingsby was Charlie, my father's driver. He was the brother I never had by blood. When I buried my father, Charlie carried his coffin with me.
Privileged children then, and maybe even now, find what affection and love they can with the staff. These are not trivial relationships. Churchill kept "Woomany's" picture by his bedside his entire life. She, Mrs Everest, was his nanny. My father's nanny died in the arms of my aunt is buried next to her boy, my father, in the family plot.
This was the life of a child like John then.
John, my great uncle, had not seen his mother for months and had been with Granny Stephens and with Granny Kemp in Toronto. In reality, his nurse, Caroline Milne, was his de facto mummy.
So when George Slingsby ran into the lounge with the rest of the staff behind him, the employers paid attention. When there were no life jackets, he got them. When there was still one jacket missing, George offered up his and so his life to my Aunt.
In May, we will post about why this group were sailing, what happened on board, what cabins they used, what happened in the water and what happened on shore. We explore the full drama.
But today, I would like to pay tribute to George Slingsby. He lived. But he could not have known that that when he handed his life jacket to Marguerite.
Aunt Marguerite would have died without his life jacket as she was terribly injured and was unconscious for most of the 3 hours the survivors had to wait for rescue. Thank you George.
This picture was taken in the best summer of my youth. It was the summer of 1967. I am on the far left. My best friend then and now, Esme Johnstone, is in the centre. Diana, my sister, is on the right. We had been to visit Expo 67 in Montreal and were now in St Andrews by the Sea.
Today, we are all grand parents. Esme and I will be 65 this summer. Diana is a bit younger.
We were then at the end of our teen years. In two years, Esme and I would be at university. In 5 years Diana would be married. So would Esme. I write this now because in 2015, I find myself in the same kind of end of a stage in life and the beginning of another.
Then it was all about the end of being a child and the onset of being an adult. Of becoming a person who had to support themselves and maybe have a family. When what was ahead was duty and obligation and the end of the freedoms from responsibility that are so much part of being a teen.
1967 was our last year of total freedom.
The irony for me is that, as I reach 65, I am regaining that lost freedom. I no longer have to work to support others.
My own children, now in their late 30's, have their own careers and families. I'm nice to have around but no longer essential. I love seeing my grand children but I don't have to raise them. My parents are dead and no longer need my attention after 30 years of being in my care. I don't have any debt. I own a small house that is easy and inexpensive to run. I need only a tiny income to get by. So I don't need to work for money either.
I am healthy. My father was dead by 55. My mother was totally disabled by 40. I did not have high expectations of keeping my health. But fortunately, back in 2009, some new friends got me involved with the movement that is helping people take charge of their health. I now have every chance of not developing any of the chronic illnesses that were my destiny back then and that make old age a misery for so many.
One last factor. At 65, I am acutely aware that death is inevitable and will take place soon. In my case 15 - 25 or 30 years is still "soon". Having lived 65 years already, I know how fast 10 years can go now. With death as the inevitable future, I have very little to worry about. The smallest things, breakfast, a hug from my wife, a walk, wine all are things to be celebrated. It takes so little to please me. Even a cold rainy day is better than no day at all!
So I find myself back to where I was that glorious summer in 1967.
I am free. I have time. I have time for friends and I have time for me.
I have friends here where I live that live just around the corner. I can go by and ask if they want to come out and play.
Our play is usually some form of work but not "job work". We help each other get things done. I helped this winter with a friend in maintaining a skating rink on the lake. I help our local paper on Facebook. I volunteer at our local museum.
I have time for me.
I have time to write. I am writing, as you can see on this blog, an episodic history of World War 1. I am also writing a Fantasy/Historical trilogy for young readers. I am building new tools to help others take charge of their health.
At 65, I am free at last.
So for my younger readers, it's not so bad being an old fart. And for those that wonder what we all look like now.
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