To honour the memory of the 1,514 lives lost on Titanic I wanted to try and find another local connection that may help bridge the widening gap of time between us and that April night in 1912. That search turned up info there was another local connection, just south of Ottawa...

It is the homestead of Titanic passenger Hudson Allison and his family, a stately Edwardian home he had built in Chesterville on his farm that was to welcome them back after their transatlantic voyage.

However, the young family would never set foot in the house...

Mr. Allison and family were in England as Hudson was a member of the board of the British Lumber Corporation. While there, the Allison family took a trip to the Scottish Highlands where Mr. Hudson purchased two dozen horses for the farm back in Chesterville.

They then reserved cabins C-22/24/26 on the First Class Upper Deck of Titanic. This cabin was just around the corner form the French sculptor Chevre who made the marble bust of Laurier that now sits in the Chateau Laurier lobby. Mr. Allison & Mr. Chevre likely passed each other.

Hudson, his wife Bess, & their children, Loraine and Trevor, all boarded Titanic for the exciting adventure across the Atlantic to their new home in Chesterville.

Hudson & his wife would dine w/ Harry Molson from Montreal (Molson Brewery fame) the night Titanic hit the iceberg.

As the ship began to sink, young Trevor was placed on a lifeboat. He would be the only Allison to survive Titanic.

Mr.Allison was recovered & was buried in the Allison family plot in Maple Ridge cemetery near Winchester.

We found the gravestone that mentions Titanic on it.

The house the family never got to set foot in, and the gravestone south of Ottawa are sombre connections to the many souls lost along with Hudson and his family that tragic cold night on April 14th, 1912. 

End.