I’m writting a book about Canadian casulaties of WW II, specially those who died while in service with the
merchant navy. Miss Hannah Baird was the first Canadian casulaty of that war. Can you tell me what you know about her (birthdate, place, parents, etc) ?
Memorial Plaque
BAIRD , Stewardess, HANNAH S.S. Athenia (Glasgow).
Merchant Navy. 3rd - 4th September 1939 Canadian Merchant
Navy HALIFAX MEMORIAL Nova Scotia, Canada Panel 17.
BAIRD
HANNAH
Stewardess SS Athenia SS Athenia
Halifax Memorial
Sep 04, 1939
September 1939.
The German air force bombed Polish cities, the German navy
shelled the port of Danzig, and a million German troops
forced their way into Poland on September 1. Hannah Baird
of Quebec city became Canada‘s first war death when the a
German submarine torpedoed her liner, the SS Athena, just
off the coast of the Hebrides, in northern Scotland.
List of those who served or sailed on the SS Athenia
during The Second World War
• Stewardess Hannah Baird (d.3rd Sep 1939)
Stwrdss Hannah Russell Crawford Baird.
•
Birth: Dec. 26, 1872
Glasgow, Scotland
Death: Sep. 3, 1939, At Sea
Casualty of WWII,Hannah was a Canadian national,a civilian
waitress from Montreal, and according to a newspaper
report at the time, was the first Canadian to be killed in
the war.She was a stewardess in the Canadian Merchant Navy
on the S.S.Athenia (Glasgow, Scotland)
She was travelling back to Canada on the S.S. Athenia
which was sunk by torpedo fired from U30, an enemy
submarine in the Atlantic Ocean, 250 miles off the
north-west coast of Ireland during the night of 3rd/4th
September. Britain declared war on Germany on Sunday 3rd
September 1939 and Athenia was the first British ship to
be sunk by Nazi Germany in World War II.
In memory of
Stewardess
HANNAH BAIRD
who died on September 4, 1939
Military Service:
Force: Merchant Navy Unit: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: S.S. Athenia (Glasgow, Scotland) Additional
Information:
Stewardess Baird, as well as being commemorated on the
Halifax Memorial, is also commemorated on a memorial
plaque affixed to a new eight sided old-fashioned
bandstand in Veteran's Park in Langford, British Columbia.
The plaque was unveiled by ex-merchant mariner Tom Osborne
and Barbara Duncan on May 19, 2002 as a bugler sounded
Reveille. It is believed to be the first war memorial
anywhere in the world dedicated to women merchant mariners
who died at their posts in the two world wars.
Commemorated on Page 90 of the Merchant Navy Book of
Remembrance.
[CLICK HERE FOR AN IMAGE OF THIS PAGE]
[TO ORDER A COPY OF THIS PAGE CLICK HERE]
There is a digital photo collection relating to HANNAH
BAIRD .
[CLICK HERE TO VIEW PHOTOS AND/OR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION]
[CLICK HERE TO ADD TO THE COLLECTION] Burial Information:
Cemetery:
HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Nova Scotia,Canada
Grave Reference: Panel 17.
Location:
The HALIFAX MEMORIAL in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in
Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders
of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by
the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly
2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives.
This Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission and was unveiled in November 1967 with naval
ceremony by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova
Scotia, in the presence of R. Teillet, then Minister of
Veterans Affairs.
The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12
metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching
Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing 23
bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over
3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea.
The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads
as follows:
1914 1939
1918 1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE.
Thanks alot for answering so quickly. I believe she were married and her maiden name was Crawford, Baird being her husband’s name. Am I right ?
