Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Hannah Baird
In memory of:
Stewardess Hannah Baird
September 4, 1939
North Atlantic
Military Service
66
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
S.S. Athenia (Glasgow, Scotland)(146330)
Additional Information
December 26, 1872
Glasgow, Scotland
Her maiden name is Hannah Russell Crawford.
Daughter of John Russell Crawford and Marion McMillan, of Glasgow, Scotland. Wife of James Baird. Mother of Marion, Nellie and Nancy Baird and adoptive mother of the three children from her husband's first marriage.
On 4 September 1939, at 19:39, the Athenia was torpedoed by the U-30 250 miles (402 km) west of Inishtrahull, Ireland. The submarine surfaced and fired twice at the liner, which was carrying 1,103 civilians and 315 crew members. The lifeboat, with Hannah Baird on board, collided with the propeller of the MS Knute Nelson, which had come to the rescue of the shipwrecked crew. The collision killed 52 women, including Hannah Baird, and three sailors. The attack cost the lives of 112 people.
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. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.
Burial Information
HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Nova Scotia, Canada
Panel 17.
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:
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.
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.
Digital Collection
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Newspaper clipping – Submitted for the project Operation Picture Me -
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Memorial Plaque -
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Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
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