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Archibald MacMechan

Halifax Disaster Record Office Materials

"The Salvation Army's Part in Halifax Relief"

4 pages : 30 x 41 cm.

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THE SALVATION ARMY'S PART IN HALIFAX RELIEF
By AN OFFICER.
Adjutant Hurd, Financial Representative for the Maritime Provinces, arrived in the City on Monday, December 3rd, on property business, and was to leave the city again on the following Saturday, but leaving the home of Staff Captain Byers, No. 2 Garden Street, on Thursday morning, he had only got as far as the middle of Cherry Street when he felt a thud and looking north he saw a ball of fire and smoke, and bracing himself he called the attention of Staff Captain Byers, who was with him, to it, and just that moment the great crash came, threw the Staff Captain across the street on his knees and so loud was the report that although they were two miles from the disaster, Adjutant Hurd was almost deaf for some time after. They both scrambled for the middle of the street to get clear of the flying glass, they saw the roof of the Arena fall in.
Met Sad Sights.
Staff Captain Byers and Adjutant Hurd ran back home where they had just left about five minutes before. On the way they met some sad sights, One woman came running to the door with her face covered with blood, with an infant babe in her arms, but there were so many of them they could not stop: they wanted to find what condition the Staff Captain's wife and children were in. When they arrived they found the door blown off, windows broken, the Staff Captain's wife and four children on the street bleeding. When they saw that they were not seriously injured, they started back to look for the woman that they had seen with the baby. They found that she had been sitting by the stove opposite a large double window when the crash came, the flying glass cutting her very badly, but the baby was not injured much. Going to Major Crichton's home on Jubilee Road, they found the house in bad shape, but no one was seriously hurt. They went from there to Mr. A.S. Austen's on Robie Street, where Brigadier Bettridge, the Young People's Secretary, was billeting. They also found no one seriously hurt here. Then they made their way down to Gerrish Street, found the building here badly wrecked, and Mrs. Ensign Cranwell, wife of the Officer who is in charge of the North End Citadel, cut so badly that she died within twenty minutes. Finding that they could not do anything


Reference: Archibald MacMechan Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 volume 2124 number 303

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