Passengers
I have added a separate page to the website with the best available list of passengers and casualties. The page can be accessed from the menu or the link HERE.
There is no dedicated memorial to those lost on Athenia, but a number of individual memorials to passengers have been drawn to my attention. I would be pleased to hear from anyone with information or photos of any others. You can contact me via the Menu.
Robert Shenton Harris
I am grateful to Bill Zimmerman of Norfolk Virginia who contacted me about Robert Shenton Harris from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Robert was an American student returning home via Canada when Athenia was lost, and must have been one of the first US Casualties of WW2.
Margaret Hayworth
I found details about Margaret Hayworth in an article in 'The Hamilton Spectator' from 15 September 2016. Margaret was a passenger along with her mother Georgina and sister Jacqueline. A transcription of the article follows:
Seventy-seven years ago Thursday, more than 1,000 people jammed the area around the Canadian National Railway Station to catch a glimpse of a small casket carrying the remains of a 10-year-old girl. Margaret Hayworth was among the first Canadian fatalities of the Second World War and Hamilton was reeling in grief over her death. She was knocked unconscious by flying debris when the passenger ship Athenia was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic on Sept. 3, 1939. She died six days later. Her body was transported by ship to Halifax and then by train to the station on James Street North.
After a packed public service at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Hamilton the next day that saw hundreds of mourners lining the streets, a bronze plaque was prominently displayed at the church to remember the young girl whose death led to "the first funeral in Canada of the 2nd Great War." But the plaque went missing after St. Andrew's closed in the early 1980s. That was until this summer when it resurfaced in a basement at a Presbyterian Church facility in Toronto. And on Sept. 25 it will be rededicated at Knox Presbyterian on Elizabeth Street in Burlington in a ceremony for parishioners.
Margaret's sister, Jacqueline Hayworth Bullock, 82, of Burlington, says she is elated that the memorial has been recovered. "It shouldn't have been sitting in a basement where no one could see it," said Bullock, who was also on the Athenia with her mom when it was torpedoed. Neither was injured. "It should be hanging somewhere. Since my father was an elder at Knox Presbyterian in Burlington and my sister went to Sunday school there, it was a logical place for it."
The plaque was recovered due to the efforts of Knox parishioner and local history book publisher Gary Evans. He came to know of the plaque from a 2005 book he published called "Hamilton at War" by Margaret Houghton that "made mention of the plaque, and said it was hanging in the Presbyterian Church archives in Toronto." Evans felt the plaque should be moved to Knox because of the family's connection to the church. So he set out to find it. "I contacted the museum, and the national Presbyterian Church archives, but no one knew of its existence," he said. He also contacted Bullock who told him the family had also tried to recover the plaque from the archives without success.
But Evans persisted, and over the years convinced officials with the church to take a harder look. Then finally in June the artifact was located. Evans contacted the family about the discovery and drove to Toronto where it was handed over to him in a very dirty state. He cleaned it up for the official unveiling next week. Bullock said she still vividly remembers the torpedo attack all those years ago even though she was only five years old and had no idea about the world tumbling into war at the time. The family had spent the summer in Scotland, visiting relatives. Father John had already returned to Canada on another ship and on Sept. 1 mother Georgina with her two daughters set out for home on the Athenia. Two days into the voyage, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany and it was on that evening that the German submarine struck in the North Atlantic, more than 320 kilometres west of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. "It was after dinner, around 7 o'clock and it was just starting to get dark and kids were playing on deck and the mothers were sitting on the chairs and all of a sudden there was a thud, an explosion. The boat shook and tilted and everybody started running around and yelling for life-jackets. "I didn't know what was going on. My mom ran around with us trying to find life-jackets. I remember a sailor putting one on me."
Jacqueline got separated from her mother and sister and was scooped onto a different life boat that in turn met up with a rescue ship. She ended up in Scotland, staying with relatives and did not meet up with her parents in Canada until a couple of months later. She said it was many months after that she finally learned her sister had died. "Nobody told me about my sister. I guess they thought I was too young to understand. I heard from other kids. My mother would never talk about it. I guess she felt it was because she wanted to stay longer in Scotland that we ended up on the Athenia."
As an adult, she learned details from her father as well as from newspaper stories and books that she collected. Looking back on it now, she feels, the massive public funeral in Hamilton "was political. My family didn't want a big funeral. They just wanted family and friends. It was pushed on them. War had started and all these bigwigs came and they filled the papers with the story about my sister. "I can't understand why they singled out a child to try to pump up the world."
Annie Quine
I am grateful to Paul Charlesworth who contacted me after coming across the gravestone of Annie Quine at Halsall in Lancashire and also located the cuttings from 'The Ormskirk Advertiser' shown elsewhere on this website.
Helen Burrows
I am grateful to Phil Gunyon for the additional information about Helen Burrows and photos from St. James Church Orillia, Ontario. Phil was a survivor from Athenia and his account can be found on the website HERE.
In a note to me Phil said:
There are 2 photos of the memorial plaque in St. James Anglican church in Orillia, Ontario, just a half-hour’s drive south of our home in Bracebridge. I've added two interior photos of St. James' and one exterior one. I happened to be at this church in March 2007 and during the lunch break I wandered around the interior looking at the wall plaques. I came to the Memorial Chapel and the first name I saw was that of Helen Burrows, 'killed when S.S. Athenia was torpedoed'. You can imagine how I was taken aback, having also been on the ship when she was torpedoed. The date of 4th September puzzled me as the liner was torpedoed on 3rd September. I later realized that being in the lifeboat that was capsized while alongside the City of Flint, it was indeed on the 4th when Helen died. This is confirmed by the CWGC website.
Merchant Seamen
I have added a separate page to the website with the best available crew list. The page can be accessed from the menu or the link HERE.
The Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill
Eighteen of the crew members who lost their lives on Athenia are commemorated on the memorial at Tower Hill to those 'who have no grave but the sea'.
The Halifax Memorial
Stewardess Hannah Baird is commemorated on a Memorial at Halifax, Nova Scotia. The memorial at Point Pleasant Park commemorates Royal Canadian Navy and Merchant Navy losses in WW2. Twenty-four ships were lost and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives. The 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. On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.
Veteran's Park
Hannah Baird 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.
Memorabilia
The Glasgow Museum of Transport
The Glasgow Museum of Transport housed at the Riverside Museum at Pointside Quay has an excellent model of Athenia and various memorabilia. They are not easy to photograph but I have done my best with them.
Miscellaneous Artefacts
The image below of a doily from Athenia is from Philip Gunyon.
The image below shows a brass nameplate from a lifeboat from Athenia. It was found by a donor to the Historylinks Archive by the donor's husband, David Murray, while serving with the Lovat Scouts in the Faroes in 1940. They spotted wreckage at the foot of cliffs flanking the south side of Oyndar Fiord, to the NE of the island of Eysturoy, one of the most northerly of the Faroe Islands and have had it mounted.
The image below is of a souvenir salt shaker from Athenia and is from David Woodman - who is presumably a collector as his name does not appear on the passenger list.
The image below is of child's sandal made by a member of the crew of City of Flint.
80th Anniversary Reunion
The material in this section has been provided by survivors Vivian Collver, Philip Gunyon and Heather Watts. [71]
In 2019 Heather Watts, Vivian Collver and Phil Gunyon, with great help from Heather’s son-in-law Scott Fraser, organised a reunion event for survivors which was held in Halifax Nova Scotia at the Marriott Harbourfront Hotel and the Small Craft Gallery of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It was attended by 9 survivors: Phil, his sister Barbara Gunyon, Vivian (Hunt) Collyer, Heather (Donald) Watts, George "Scott" Calder, Cynthia (Hunt) Gustafson, Geoff Etherington, Margaret (Ferguson) Desanti and Jacqueline (Hayworth) Bullock. The short video below from CBC/Radio-Canada was taken at this event.
September 3 2019, 12:00 p.m.
Three generations of families met one another. The first reunion, the first Athenia family gathering, the first time many had met and shared their experiences. The Marriott Harbourfront Hotel in Halifax Nova Scotia was home for a day to nine living survivors, their family members, and the family members of those passengers who have passed on. Each person in attendance, at this commemorative luncheon, had experienced this tragedy either firsthand, or through stories told by their parents or grandparents. Over one short day, stories were told, friendships made, andemotions validated.
This is how they participated in each others lives:
At 12:30 p.m. Philip Gunyon, host and one of four organizers introduced his fellow committee members. Heather Donald Watts, Vivian Hunt Collver, and Scott Fraser. Nine survivors were identified, along with the succeeding generations of family members who had traveled from afar to honour their parents or grandparents. The following speakers welcomed those in attendance, gave a historical perspective of the sinking, or talked about personal or remembered reactions to the tragedy.
Dr. Roger Marsters – Curator of Marine History at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic- welcomed guests and invited those in attendance to the evening event featuring Thomas Sanger author of ‘Without Warning’.
Dr. Francis Carroll – author of ‘Athenia Torpedoed’ – A historical perspective
Dean Collver – Son and grandson of a survivor
Scott Calder - Survivor
6:30 p.m. The Speaker Series – The Maritiime Museum of the Atlantic
Tom Sanger, author of ‘Without Warning’ spoke about the historical facts and the personal stories, that described the sinking of the the Athenia.
One hundred and forty people crowded into the Small Craft Gallery of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic to listen to and absorb the fascinating tale of the sinking of the Athenia. With words and pictures Mr. Sanger described the historical events leading up to the attack on the Athenia, the reports of survivors in the lifeboats, and on the recovery vessels, and the effects of the aftermath of this experience on those who were able to return to the lives they had lived before the disaster.
A Message from the Organisers
The original organizing committee, Vivian Collver, Phil Gunyon and myself, Heather Watts, had wondered early in the year 2018 if it would really be worthwhile to hold the first reunion of survivors of the Athenia sinking so many years after the event. But the 80th anniversary in 2019 seemed like an appropriate time to commemorate it and we decided to go ahead. Now I think we have our answer.
Our planning had started in March of 2018 and by July of the following year we knew that we would have nine survivors of the sinking present, with a number of family members accompanying them, and several special guests. We wanted to have three separate events which would occur on September 3rd – the first was a private lunch at the Marriott Harbourfront Hotel for those survivors, their families and special closely connected people at which they could get to know one another and talk. The second would be a special tour of Pier 21 where City of Flint, the only rescue ship to come to North America, brought many of our guests on September 13th 1939. In the evening, with the assistance of the Maritime Museum, there would be a public lecture given by Thomas Sanger, author of ‘Without Warning’.
Vivian’s son-in-law Scott Fraser, known as ‘Earl of Extraordinary’, became the fourth member of the organizing committee as September got closer, and was involved with the smooth running of the arrangements at the Marriott among other things. He really lived up to his nickname!
For us, the most wonderful thing was the number of people who came from across the continent to attend, from both Canada and the United States. We were so pleased as well to witness the active participation and interest of the family members who were sometimes two and three generations removed from the sinking. We had wanted to show our young people something of the futility of war, and that this wasn’t just an exciting story from their grandparents’ past, but could and did have a terrible effect on the lives of innocent people. We were impressed and very grateful for the way they listened, questioned and learned.
We noticed a sense of closure among the survivors themselves. Most had never met anyone before who had shared their experience, to whom they could talk. From the historians present they also understood the importance of the event, not just to the people involved but as part of the history of World War Two.
Vivian, who created and maintained the website www.athenia.info from the beginning, has recently been adding more information to it, preparing it for transfer to Archives Canada where it will remain. She has received wonderful support from so many survivors in submitting and revising their stories to conform with the limitations of the site, and wants to tell them of her gratitude. Their stories have already been viewed around the world and will continue to be viewed in the years to come.
Many letters were written to the organizing committee after the participants went home, which summed up their feelings about the commemoration. "There was a sense of closeness" they said, "it was memorable, meaningful and somewhat surreal" and "we’ll cherish these memories forever". Finally, from our new friend (George) Scott Calder in New York City, whose emails and cartoons had kept us laughing throughout the long organizing process, came this: "We felt a large degree of emptiness upon leaving...it was the best affinity reunion of all time. God bless the Queen, Lord Jeffrey Amherst and the Bluenosers of Halifax".
And a big thank you from us to all those who came, for making it the wonderful event that it was. We will never forget it either.
Vivian, Philip, Heather and Scott
The images below are from the reunion:
Ongoing Interest in Athenia
Eighty-two years later, the sinking of Athenia continues to be of interest and I often receive messages from relatives of passengers about what happened.
Research Prompted by a Family Connection
Ronnie MacLean, whose father William Alvin MacLean served briefly on Athenia, has taken a keen interest in the sinking and has provided the best crew list available to date which can be found on the Merchant Seaman page HERE. Ronnie also wrote an article about the sinking for the Shetland Times which was published on 26 June 2020 and is reproduced below. [67]
Click image for enlarged view
Discovery of Wreck
On 5 October 2017 it was reported that wreck hunter David Mearns believed he had located the wreck of Athenia at a depth of 650 feet but this has yet to be confirmed. There is a BBC News article about this HERE and a copy of the sonar image published below. As of February 2023 I can find no further information about the discovery, and personally hope the wreck will be left undisturbed in honour of those that lost their lives.
