I was curious to know how many Canadians were on board RMS Titanic. With the 100th Annivesary of Titanic's sinking, there is a plethora of information available on the Internet. I thought it would be a simple task to find the answer. I was mistaken.
I posted my question on Facebook, and selected a few of my Canadian friends and acquaintances to respond. Two people responded with "it depends". One of these people was my colleague, Lynn Palermo, The Armchair Genealogist. Lynn brought up a good point that I had not considered. She said it depends on how you define "Canadian", because technically at that time Canadians were British citizens.
Obviously, I needed to redefine my term 'Canadian' in relation to what I was seeking. What I wanted to know was how many people on board Titanic were Canadian born and returning to Canada?
Researching 'Canadians' on board Titanic has been an interesting challenge. There is inconsistency in the information available. No two lists about Titanic passengers have the same information. Nonetheless, based upon my research of Titanic passengers at Encyclopedia Titanica, Ancestry.ca, and Find My Past, my answer is there were 29 Canadians on board Titanic.
Here they are:
Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison. His wife, Bessie Waldo Allison was American.
Their daughter, Helen Loraine Allison. Loraine was the only child in first-class to have perished.
Their infant son, Hudson Trevor Allison, was the only one of the family who survived.
Hélène Baxter
Mary Hélène Jane (Baxter) Douglas
Quigg Edmond Baxter
Thomson Beattie
John Hugo Ross
Thomas France McCaffry
Charles Melville Hays
Clara Jennings Hays
Vivian Ponsonby Payne
Mary Anne (Annie) Perreault
Thornton Davidson
Orian (Hays) Davidson
Albert Adrian Dick
Vera Gillespie Dick
Mark Fortune
Mary McDougald Fortune
Ethel Flora Fortune
Alice Elizabeth Fortune
Mabel Helen Fortune
Charles Alexander Fortune
George Edward Graham
James Matthew McCrie
Harry Markland Molson
Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
Dr. Alfred (Alf) Pain
Hilda Mary Slayter
George Wright
As we remember the sinking of RMS Titanic, and those people who survived or perished, I will be posting within the next few weeks the stories about some of the lesser known Canadians who were on that ship.
Copyright by Kathryn Lake Hogan, 2012.
