Enjoy this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series Time Travelling with Kevin Ballantyne.

Enjoy this episode of the HSO/Rogers TV series Time Travelling with Paul Weber.

On the afternoon of April 26^th, 2025, members of the Historical Society of Ottawa, along with many members of the general public, gathered at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library for the presentation of the 2024 / 2025 François Bregha Storyteller awards. Following the ceremony, the large crowd, numbering some 75, settled in to listen to one of the recipients, Denise Chong, speak to us about many of the aspects of being a non-fiction writer.

Denise Chong, an Order of Canada recipient, is the highly acclaimed author of five non-fiction books. These are: “The Concubine's Children” (1994); “The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story” (1999); “Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship” (2009); “Lives of the Family: Stories of Fate and Circumstance” (2013) and “Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse” (2024). Prior to her career as a writer and historian, Denise studied economics at the University of British Columbia, later receiving her M.A. from the University of Toronto in 1978. She moved to Ottawa to work as an economist in the federal government and in 1981 became a senior economic advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau until his retirement in 1984.

Denise began her presentation with a brief summary of part of The Concubine's Children, which is the story of her own family. She explained that her grandfather, Chan Sam, came to Canada in 1913 to find work and send money home to his wife, Huangbo, who remained in China. Life in Vancouver was lonely, so in 1924, Chan Sam sent to China for a concubine, a second wife, May-ying, who was 17. They had two daughters together, Ping and Nan, before returning to China. Discovering that she was pregnant again, May-ying sought information from a blind soothsayer and was told that she would have a son this time. Believing that it would be better for their son to be born in Canada, Chan Sam and May-ying left their two daughters in China with Huangbo returning to Vancouver in 1930. Shortly thereafter, a third daughter, Hing, was born to the couple. This was a great disappointment for May-ying. Hing went on to have five children of her own, one of these being Denise.

Denise explained that her interest in her own history had been sparked by a couple of old photos. Her desire to understand the story behind the photos lead to her research, her trip to China, and eventually to the book. A similar thirst was initiated when she was offered an opportunity to do a quick biography of Kim Phuc. She knew, however, that the only way she could write one was to really dig into the full story. Research in countries like China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh is fraught with danger as such governments are not anxious to have challenging stores told ad have the inclination and means to suppress investigation. Denise told us of some of the tricks she has used, such as memorizing the map of a village so she would not look like a tourist or recording her covert research notes in the form of a travel journal and by conducting interviews while walking along public pathways.

Memory, Denise reminded us, is the pond from which the non-fiction writer must try to catch much of their information. Memory can be a flawed source, fragmentary, sometime manipulated, and sometimes contradictory. Different people may have different, but equally valid, memories of the same event and the writer must try to sift out what really took place. Denise pointed out that the act of asking promotes a rethinking of events and that for the most important questions, the initial time asking often yields the least contaminated responses.

Denise spoke to us of how the non-fiction writer uses the story of an individual or a single incident to tell a larger story. As such, the story of one family can represent the history of a community or of a collective experience, the story of one girl can tell the broader story of the horror of war, one man’s act of defiance can reveal an entire culture of oppression and an attack on one woman can expose not only systemic domestic violence but courage and triumph as well.

There are strong parallels in the writing of fiction and non-fiction, Denise explained, the only real difference being that the non-fiction writer does not create their characters and events. Their obligation remains to create a compelling narrative. One of the ways this is done is by inhabiting the characters, walking where they walked, seeing what they saw, feeling what they felt and doing, as much as is possible, what they did. She gave us the example of filling eggs with honey and throwing these against the second storey of her own house so she would have the feel of the egg in her hand and the sense of force and motion of hurling eggs, so she could accurately reflect this in her book “Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship”.

As Denise concluded her session, she let the audience know the final piece in becoming a successful non-fiction writer. Apart from all the research, work and skill that goes into a book, luck plays a large part. Her publisher had only intended to print a couple of hundred copies of The Concubine's Children, believing that these would sell in and around Vancouver. Instead it became an international best seller, and is now even being adapted for TV in China. The great success of her first book meant that other opportunities were presented to her and her initial success gave her the power to tell those stories in the way she felt they should be told.

Opened in 1872, the Ottawa Ladies’ College (OLC) was originally located on the southwest corner of Albert and Bay Streets before moving to its First Avenue location in 1914. Established as the expressed desire of many “earnest Protestant gentlemen” (including timber baron Henry Bronson) who represented the citizens of Ottawa and residents of Canada in their petition to form a school. The basis of this petition was to have a “first-class education put within the reach of the young women of the City of Ottawa and vicinity.” [2]

While private educational institutions, like convent schools and the Young Ladies’ Academy (founded in 1861) provided education to young women in Ottawa before the OLC was founded, what set the OLC apart was the designation as a college which provided education at the primary, secondary and collegiate levels. [3]

[Fig.2] The editors of the O.L.C. Echoes (student journal) April 1905 issue - University of Toronto Robarts Library Internet Archive Collection.

A primary aim of ladies’ colleges was to “assist in the moulding of character [and]. . . to afford refining influences.” [4] As the 1879 edition of the OLC school calendar states, this type of education offered a “good English education, together with the with the usual polite accomplishments for young women, under sound Evangelical, though non-sectarian influences.” [5] Ladies’ Colleges emphasized training in languages, classical studies, domestic science, fine arts and music. While at the same time, bookkeeping and stenography, mathematics and science were also included in the curriculum, particularly at the upper levels.

Though emphasis continued to be placed on education to further gendered social responsibilities, print media related to the promotion of the school reflects the OLC’s acknowledgment of the widening number of spheres in which women actively participated. As a 1921 article from the Ottawa Citizen articulates, the program of education adopted by the college was well-rounded, with the “aim of developing strong, intelligent, cultured and useful womanhood,” stating that “the commercial department provides a thorough business education; while in household arts, instruction is given in the most capable and efficient methods of keeping a home.” [6]

In addition to educational endeavours, the school boasted active social life for its students. Student organizations included the May Court Club (founded in 1898 by Lady Aberdeen), the Literary and Dramatic Club and the Athletic Association. Following their time at the college, alumnae maintained social connections through groups such as the Literacy Circle of the Alumnae Association.

[Fig.3] Ottawa Ladies College Athletic Association (April 13, 1934) - Yousuf Karsh, Yousuf Karsh fonds, Library and Archives Canada, Accession 1987-054, e010678972.

In 1942, the college decided to close following the takeover of the building by the Women’s Army Corps. Reflecting upon the legacy of the school, Chairman Colin Frasier Elliott told The Ottawa Journal that, graduates of the school have “gone out with a clearer recognition of their own reasonability as members of the community and the intensified desire to render service.” [7] In July 1942, in recognition of the “renowned institution,” the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa displayed more than 125 photographs at the Bytown Museum which spanned the OLC’s seventy-year history. At the time of this exhibit, Mrs. James R. Dickson (who was an Alumnae of the college) was president of the Historical Society. [8]

In 1947, the building on First Avenue became the campus of the new Carleton College, which later evolved into Carleton University.

The French version of the series “Time Travelling” will being airing on May 14, 2025 on Rogers TV 23.

Timeslots will be as follows:

• Dominique Lajoie “Château Laurier: Si les murs pouvaient parler” – May 14, 2025
• Rick Henderson “Philemon Wright et son village” – May 21, 2025

Wednesday 9:00pm (mercredi 21h) *original timeslot*

Thursday 12:30pm (jeudi 12h30)

Thursday 8:30pm (jeudi 20h30)

Friday 4:00pm (vendredi 16h)

Monday 11:00am (lundi 11h)

Both shows will be available on the TV Rogers YouTube site at a later date.

We filled the virtual bleachers on the evening of Wednesday, April 9th, 2025 as we watched Steve Rennie start for the Historical Society of Ottawa. Steve is a baseball writer and researcher who lives in Ottawa. A former journalist, he is the president of the Ottawa-Gatineau and Eastern Ontario chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). In the spring of 2024, he presented on Ottawa’s early baseball history at the Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference in Cooperstown, New York. He has a particular interest in 19th century baseball in Canada and enjoys unearthing long-forgotten games and teams. He is a contributor and co-editor of “From Bytown to the Big Leagues: 150 Years of America’s Pastime in Canada’s Capital: Ottawa Baseball from 1865 to 2025” available online  and his upcoming work will cover early baseball history in the far north and during the  Klondike Gold Rush.

Steve began his session with a brief introduction to the origins of the sport.  Although it has been widely claimed that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, this myth has been debunked by baseball historians, the Doubleday family not living in Cooperstown at that time. The game had clearly existed earlier. It had made its way to Canada by 1838, the first recorded game being played in Beachville, Ontario. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York formalized a set of rules in the 1840s that were widely adopted and form the basis of today’s rules. Steve highlighted some of the differences, pitching being underhand, the batter being able to accept as many pitches as he liked as long as he didn’t swing and an out being recorded if the ball was caught on the first bounce. He pointed out that early on there were no gloves, catcher’s masks, or other protective equipment.

By the 1850s, Steve explained, Base Ball had become very popular, especially in the New York metropolitan area and was spreading following the rail lines. International play began as early as 1860 when a game was played by a team from Buffalo against a team from Hamilton, while another was played a few weeks later by teams from Ogdensburg and Prescott. Steve showed us that the Prescott team was identified in the newspaper as Greenville, but he suspects that it could have actually been Grenville, as in Leeds and Grenville. In 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first fully professional Base Ball team, leading in 1871 to the establishment of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.

Steve told us that the first game he has so far been able to find in the Ottawa area took place in Metcalfe on September 13, 1865. An interesting aspect of the write-up of this event is that there was no description of the play, indicating that the readers must have been familiar with the game and that it must have been played locally for some time.

In 1867 Ottawa’s first Base Ball Club was formed, the New Dominion Club of Ottawa, likely taking its name from Confederation. They established a Club House at the Ottawa Skating and Curling Club on Albert Street and played in a field behind it. Shortly after their formation they travelled to Ogdensburg for a game, which they lost 141 – 20. Scores of this type were not uncommon in the early days due to the differences in pitching, rules and the relative experience of the players. The next year saw increasing interest in the game, the New Dominion Club often splitting into two teams to play themselves. They also played a team of mechanics, a 4 game set against a local cricket club, in which 2 games were Base Ball and 2 were cricket. There were 2 more games against the team from Ogdensburg, losing both but doing well in the first of thee two matches. There was a strong social element in the sport at this time, the games being followed by dinners, drinks and songs. In 1869, or just after, their club house and the field on which they played was subdivided into lots and sold, bringing an end to the New Dominion Club of Ottawa.

In 1871 a new club was formed, the Ottawa Base Ball Club, which included a number of members of the earlier New Dominion Club. Steve explained that they were responsible for creating the first Ball Park in Ottawa, actually in Stewarton, a separate village. The park was in the Gladstone/Cartier area to the canal and was needed to host a game on August 27, 1872 against the Boston Red Stockings, the most famous team in the world at that time. The Red Stockings returned to play a second game in 1873, Ottawa losing both games.

Steve gave us a bit of information about two of the early stars that are associated with Ottawa. George Latham, an American born player, played for the Ottawa Base Ball Club against the Red Stockings in the 1873 game. He joined the Red Stockings briefly in 1875 before moving on to play for a number of other teams. Jack Humphries was born in North Gower and was the first locally born player to go to play in the Major Leagues, serving as a backup catcher for a couple of teams.

Although Base Ball was very popular in Ottawa during the 1880s and 1890s, all the teams were amateur. Teams based around professions, government departments, or other local towns competed against each other. In the summer of 1898, Steve explained, the Ottawa Citizen started a campaign to bring professional Base Ball to Ottawa. The timing was good as the Rochester team of the Eastern League was in financial difficulty and so in mid-July it relocated to Ottawa. Met with initial excitement, the attraction faded as the team struggled to a losing season, and continued to lose money, an estimated $4,000 in just its 6-week stay in Ottawa. The team, known as the Senators, as was the team in Washington, folded at the end of the season. It was some years before Ottawa had another professional Base Ball team. July 19, 1898: Jimmy ‘Gussie’ Gannon leads Ottawa to its first home victory in professional baseball – Society for American Baseball Research

You can view Steve’s full presentation at: Ottawa’s Early Baseball History - The Historical Society of Ottawa

Steve also produced a pamphlet for us which has even more information and can be found on our website at: 127. Forgotten Gems: Ottawa’s Early Baseball History (1865–1900)

Steve Rennie, author of “Forgotten Gems: Ottawa’s Early Baseball History” and “From Bytown to the Big Leagues: 150 Years of America’s Pastime in Canada’s Capital” recounts the early history of baseball in Ottawa.

If you didn’t have a chance to hop aboard Black History Ottawa’s excellent bus tour last summer then grab a seat now. The Historical Society of Ottawa is proud to partner with Black History Ottawa for a virtual re-creation of the tour. The bus leaves on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 19:00, or anytime through the link below. Our driver tonight is Jean-Marie Guerrier.

Jean-Marie is a cardiology technologist at the Ottawa Heart Institute. He is a member of the Board of Flo’s Seniors Health and Care Programs Network and has more than 25 years of volunteering in Montreal and Ottawa. Jean-Marie’s name is now inscribed on Ottawa’s Wall of Inspiration at City Hall and he is also the Vice-President of Black History Ottawa.

The bus tour evolved from an earlier project that looked at slavery in Canada and how it remains today embedded in the street names in Ottawa. It was felt that a broader project that highlighted the accomplishments and contributions of Canadians of African descent would shift the focus to the positive and be an inspiration to younger Canadians.

The first stop for our virtual bus was Notre Dame Basilica, where we have evidence of the first Black family recorded in Bytown.  In 1844, Perry Adams and Henrietta Joyce baptized their child Frances.  A few steps down Sussex Drive we find the Royal Canadian Mint, which has produced a number of coins that highlight the contributions of Black Canadians or events of historic importance. These include: Willie O’Ree, Oscar Peterson, the Black Loyalists, and the Underground Railroad, among others.  Jean-Marie noted that the Bank of Canada produced a vertical $10 bill in 2018 featuring a portrait of Viola Desmond. Viola was a Black business woman from Halifax who, in 1946, was arrested, jailed overnight, and fined for sitting in the whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow. Her appeal to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court was unsuccessful, serving as a catalyst to the Civil Rights movement in Canada.

We swing briefly up to the Canada Post building on Sparks Street, where Jean-Marie tells us of some of the Black Canadians that Canada Post has featured on their stamps. These include: Albert Jackson, Mathieu Da Costa, and Chloe Cooley. We then popped over to Osgoode Street in Sandy Hill where Jean-Marie told us Chloe Cooley’s tragic story. Osgoode Street is named for William Osgoode, who on December 31, 1791, was named the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. In March 1793, Chloe Cooley, a young Black slave, was, despite her struggles and calls for help, bound and taken across the Niagara River to New York State and sold by her enslaver. What happened to her after is unknown. On July 9th 1793, during Osgoode’s term, legislation was passed to limit, but not abolish, slavery in Upper Canada.

From here, Jean-Marie drove us to Rockcliffe Lookout, where we could see across the Ottawa River to lands where London Oxford, the first Black settler in the area arrived in March 1800 as one of the five families in the party led by Philemon Wright. It is unclear if he was alone or if he had a family with him. On June 11, 1806, London was one of the five men who took the first timber raft down the Ottawa River and then on to Quebec City.

From there we travelled to the Lord Elgin Hotel where Jean-Marie gave us some background on the Underground Railroad. Between 1800 and 1865, this secret network of routes and safe-houses allowed some 30,000 escaped slaves to make their way to Canada. In 1847, Lord Elgin was appointed as the first Governor-General of the Province of Canada, and two years later, Reverend William King established the Elgin Settlement (aka Elgin-Buxton Settlement), in his name in southwestern Ontario. It was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad and now a National Historic Site. In the second half of the 1800s many other Black settlements were established across Canada, including in both British Columbia and Alberta.

In Lowertown, Jean-Marie told us the fascinating story of Paul Barber and the Barber family. Born into slavery, Paul was sold to the Barber family in 1852 at age 4. They were horse breeders and trainers in Kentucky and taught Paul the skills. In 1885 he moved to Ottawa and in 1892 married Elizabeth Brown, a white woman from Renfrew County, this being the first known inter-racial marriage in Ottawa.

We then stopped at Laurier House, former residence of Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier, who was responsible for Order-in-Council PC 1911-1324, which was approved on August 12, 1911, and prohibited immigration of Blacks to Canada and declared that they were unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada.

Jean-Marie had us “get off the bus” at the National War Memorial so we could learn more about the contributions of Black Canadians in the Canadian military. During both World Wars Black Canadians faced and fought racism in the recruiting practices of the Canadian military. Despite these challenges, during the First World War some 1,300 Black Canadians served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. They participated in many actions, including the battle of Vimy Ridge. On July 5^th 1916, Canada formed the 2^nd Construction Battalion, a Black unit lead by white Officers, four of these Officers being from Ottawa. In the Second World War, thousands of Black Canadians joined the armed forces and served throughout Europe. They continued to serve with distinction in the Korean Conflict through to today.  Nearby there are also relevant memorials which relate to those who served during the American Revolutionary war and the war of 1812,. To learn more stories of Black Canadian Veterans, please visit: Black History | Black Canadian Veterans Stories

We made a quick stop at Browns Cleaners where we learnt the story of Herbert “Pops” Brown and his wife Estelle. Herbert came to Canada in 1937, serving in the Canadian army between 1939 and 1942. His family joined him in Canada in 1953 and they moved first to Hull and then to Ottawa opening Brown’s Cleaners and Tailors on Murray Street in 1957. Having worked through the immigration challenges themselves, the Browns opened their home and business to support newcomers from the Caribbean and Africa. The nickname “Pops” arose as Herbert was a stand-in father at some weddings of young women who had come to Ottawa under the West Indian Domestic Scheme. Estelle often made the dresses. The family sold the business in the late 1970s but asked that the new owners retain the name.

Next, Jean-Marie took us to the old Union Station, currently the home of the Senate. It served as Ottawa’s railway station until 1966. This site is important for a couple of reasons. On April 27, 1954, Donald Moore led a delegation to Ottawa to meet with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Walter Harris. The discussions, related to Canada’s discriminatory immigration policy, eventually leading to the government adopting the West Indian Domestic Scheme a year later. See: West Indian Domestic Scheme (1955–1967) National Historic Event.  The railways are of special significance to the Black community as many Black men were employed as porters or sleeping car porters, to serve the railway’s passengers. Portering was one of the few employment opportunities for Black men prior to the 1950s. Pay and working conditions were poor, eventually leading the porters to unionize for improved conditions.

The West Indian Domestic Scheme shows up again as Jean-Marie took us to the YM/YWCA. The YM/YWCA, though not at this location at the time, was the meeting place for many of the young women who had come to Ottawa through the scheme. They met on Thursday afternoons, their only time off from their 7-day work week, to share companionship and information. These women, once liberated from their domestic service contracts, went on to advance their education, open businesses, and establish many of the social and community organizations directed to Caribbean immigrants in Ottawa. The current YM/YWCA stands on the site of the old Ottawa Auditorium, where the Hull-Ottawa Canadians played some of their home games. Willie O’Ree, the first Black player in the NHL, was a member of this team after being traded from the Boston Bruins to the Montreal Canadians who owned the team. He was sent down to the Hull-Ottawa minor league team without being given a chance to play for Montreal.

We next stopped at the statue of Oscar Peterson beside the National Arts Centre, where Jean-Marie challenged us to guess the occupations of Oscar’s mother and father. Not surprisingly, based on what we had learnt so far, his mother was a domestic worker and his father was a porter. Born in Montreal, he was a world-famous musician and activist. One of his compositions, the 1963 Hymn to Freedom, was widely adopted by Civil Rights movements around the world: Oscar Peterson - Hymn To Freedom

We made a series of other stops along the way, one at the Public Service Alliance Commission, where we heard about Cal Best, a noted union organizer and activist. At the Ottawa Police station on Elgin Street, Jean-Marie told us a bit about the first Black officers who joined the service in the 1970s, the first Black women who joined the service in the 1990s, and Peter Sloly, the first Black Police Chief in Ottawa, who held the position from October 2019 to February 2022. We then moved to City Hall, where we acknowledged Rawlston King, who became the first Black City Councillor in Ottawa, 164 years after its incorporation. Jean-Marie also told us of some Black Ottawans who have received the Order of Ottawa and of the Black athletes in the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, including Olympic Gold Medalist Glenroy Gilbert.  We then paused at Nelson Mandela Square on Elgin Street across from the Human Rights monument. This was dedicated on Thursday July 17th 2014 in recognition of his life-long dedication to democracy and human rights.

From there we moved to the University of Ottawa where Jean-Marie gave us some information on a couple of remarkable health care professionals. Myrtha Lapierre was the first Black Francophone woman in the Nursing Program at the U of O, earning both a B.A. and an M.A. She taught nursing in hospitals and at Algonquin College between 1961 and 1997 and was very active in empowering immigrant women in Ottawa. The City of Ottawa declared October 25, 2008, as “Myrtha Lapierre Day” and in 2018 she was appointed to the Order of Ontario. The second person mentioned was Dr. Rudy Gittens, long-time doctor for many of our local sports teams including the Ottawa Gee-Gees, the 67s, the Rough Riders and the National Men’s Soccer team among others.

Our final two stops were at Rideau Hall where Jean-Marie told us a bit about the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean. After arriving in Canada as a refugee in 1968, she completed her education before serving as a journalist with both Radio-Canada and the CBC.  She served as the 27^th Governor-General of Canada between 2005 and 2010. In 2010 she was appointed as the Special Envoy for Haiti for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and from 2015 to 2018 served as the Secretary-General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

As we slow down at the end of our journey we pass Parliament Hill, where Jean-Marie highlighted the careers of several Black MPs including Jean Augustine and Lincoln Alexander. Jean Augustine was born in Granada and came to Canada in 1960 under the West Indian Domestic Scheme. Following her contract she obtained a teacher’s certificate in Toronto, followed by a B.A. and an M.A. in Education from the University of Toronto. After working as a teacher and school principal she entered federal politics, becoming the first Black woman elected to Parliament. She served as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from 1994 to 1996. From 2002 to 2004, she became the first Black woman to hold a Cabinet position, serving as the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women. In 1995 she introduced the Bill in the House of Commons that eventually led to February being officially recognized as Black History Month. Lincoln Alexander was the first Black Canadian Member of Parliament in 1968. In 1979 he became the first Black Cabinet Minister and on September 9, 1985, he became the 24^th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, the first Black Canadian to hold such a position anywhere in the country.

You can view Jean-Marie’s full presentation, which contains many further examples, at: Black History in Ottawa Streets

The virtual tour is only a sample of the real thing, so put aside some time this summer to hop on the real bus for the full experience.

The weather on that evening, Sunday, December 27^th 1942 was miserable. The Ottawa Valley was hit with a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain as the local 550 train made its way from Petawawa toward Ottawa. Mist rising from the rivers and the blackout, necessitated by the war added to the darkness.

By contrast, it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, February 22^nd, 2025 when almost 60 of us gathered at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library to hear Jamie Bramburger relate the tragic story of the wreck of train 550 at Almonte on the night of December 27^th, 1942. Jamie Bramburger ;was trained as a broadcast journalist and spent 14 years working as a news director, assignment editor, and news reporter in radio and television, before joining Algonquin College’s Pembroke Campus as its Manager of Community and Student Affairs. Jamie is the author of two books, Go Kings Go - A Century of Pembroke Lumber Kings Hockey, and Sudden Impact -The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942.

Jamie told us that the 550 had left Petawawa at 5:35 that afternoon, pulled by a locomotive known by its crews as the “Cantankerous Old Hog”, which had a boiler leak, further diminishing its efficiency. Being at the end of the Christmas holiday, it was pulling 10 wooden coaches, about 3 times its normal length, mainly women and families returning to their government work in Ottawa. It was a “milk run”, stopping at every station along the way for more passengers, arriving in Almonte at 8:32pm to a station crowded with well-wishers saying farewell to their own family members and guests. The sound of Christmas carols filled the night air.

A troop train with13 metal coacheshad left Chalk River shortly after the departure of 550 from Petawawa, Jamie explained, that it had been instructed to get to Ottawa as quickly as possible. Trains travelling along the same track in the same direction were protected from collision by a 20 minute block. This was a forced stop at each station by the following train to ensure that there was a 20 minute gap between the time it left and the preceding train had left. This was enforced at each station along the route that was staffed, and the procedure was followed at Renfrew and again at Arnprior. In Almonte, at 8:38, as the 550 was preparing to leave, the troop train slammed into the back of 550, totally destroying the last 2 coaches and finally coming to rest halfway into the 3^rd last coach.

Jamie did his best to describe to us the horror of the scene that unfolded. Many were killed instantly, some were seriously injured, some were thrown from the train and were not found until the next day. Ultimately 38 were killed or died within a few days while over 150 others were injured. Almonte responded heroically, the townsfolk flocking to the crash site to lend assistance, driving their cars to the site to use their headlights to illuminate the wreck and surrounding area. The nearby O’Brien Theatre was turned into a casualty clearing station while the Town Hall became a temporary morgue. The small Rosamond Memorial Hospital and the town’s 3 doctors and few nurses were overwhelmed but worked without stop to treat the injured as other medical help was brought in from the surrounding towns and finally a hospital train arrived from Ottawa.

The soldiers from the troop train also swarmed to action, bringing their blankets and their first aid kits. Though there were no casualties on the troop train, 8 members of the military were killed on 550, making their way back to Ottawa.

Jamie shared with us the stories, accompanied by photos, of a number of the individuals that were involved in the crash. One story was of Jean O’Brien, who survived with serious injuries only to discover that her husband, Harold, and 2 year old son, Jackie, had perished. Another highlighted a nursing Sister, Anne Thorpe, who tore pieces from her own clothing to treat the wounded, took the hospital train back to Ottawa, then went immediately to work for her regular hospital shift. There was also the story of Thomas Lynn, who suffered a serious leg injury in the crash that prevented him from serving in the Armed Forces. He kept the ticket of his trip in his wallet for the rest of his life, unbeknownst to his family. We invite you to check out the filmed presentation to obtain the details of these and many others stories through the link toward the end of this article. Jamie pointed out that the impact of the injuries and of the lives lost lasted throughout the lifetimes of those who survived and continues, through the 80 years that have now passed. It has become an integral part of these families’ history.

Despite the scale of the tragedy, the wreckage was quickly cleared and the rail line was open again the next day. As Jamie explained, there was a war on.

Officials sought to understand the cause of the disaster and Jamie told us that there were 5 separate inquiries. One was conducted by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), one by Canada’s Transportation Commission, one by the Ontario Provincial Police, one by the military and finally there was a Coroner’s Inquest. Using Freedom of Information requests, Jamie was able to obtain details of 4 of these, which included interviews with all of the crew members of both trains. No information seems to have survived from the investigation conducted by the military. The Coroner’s Inquest, held on January 7, 1943, from a jury of 5 business men from Almonte, cleared the crews of both trains of any responsibility for the accident, concluding that the CPR was responsible. Their justification being that the CPR had failed to staff the station in Pakenham and so the troop train was not held at that station to provide the mandatory 20 minute block.  Canada’s Transportation Commission disagreed, finding fault with both crews. The Commission found that the troop train was travelling too fast and was not under control of its engineer, Lorne Richardson, while also citing the crew of 550 for not lighting a flare at the back of their train.

There was one more death. Jamie told us about John Howard, who was the conductor on the troop train, and so the one in charge. He had been in the caboose at the time of the crash but had worked tirelessly after. Just prior to the inquest he took his own life.

 We were fortunate to be joined in the audience by a daughter of one of the survivors, who generously shared her family’s story. Her mother was thrown from the wreck and not found until the following day. Her injuries were extensive and she was not expected to live, but did so, spending a year in the hospital recovering. She was told that she would not be able to have children, but went on to have 6, and lived into her late 70s, though still suffering from the effects of the crash.

In 1978, the railway station in Almonte was torn down and has since been replaced by the Public Library. In 2012, the tracks themselves were removed. In 2002 two granite markers were erected by the North Lanark Historical Society at the corner of Mill Street and Bridge Street to commemorate the accident.

Jamie’s session was filmed by HSO volunteer Jenny Armina and can be viewed in full on the HSO YouTube channel.

An article by Jamie can be found on the Historical Society of Ottawa blog at: Sudden Impact - The Story of the 1942 Almonte Train Wreck - The Historical Society of Ottawa

We would also encourage you to try and get a copy of Jamie’s book, Sudden Impact -The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942. 

Note: It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Jamie Bramburger, only weeks after being honoured to have Jamie as guest speaker for our February HSO Speaker Series. Our thoughts remain with Jamie's family and friends, and the Algonquin College and Ottawa Valley communities in which he played such an important role.

A message from Algonquin College: https://algonquintimes.com/college-mourns-sudden-loss-of-jamie-bramburger