Hugh Morrison McFadyen was born in Galt, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada, on the 29th August 1890, the son of Hugh and Janet McFadyen (née Morrison). His father was an engineer, and Hugh was the second-youngest of four children – all boys. His parents had come to Canada from Scotland. On completing his education, he became a fitter, and later, a machinist.
In 1915, he decided to travel to Scotland to visit relatives, before attempting to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps. Consequently, he bought a second cabin ticket on the May sailing of the Lusitania from New York to Liverpool, which was scheduled to leave the port at 10.00 a.m., on 1st May 1915.
Having left Galt some in April, he travelled to New York City and boarded the liner at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in on that morning. Her departure was then postponed until the early afternoon whilst she loaded cargo and took on board passengers and crew from Anchor Liner the S.S. Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned as a troop ship.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off The Old Head of Kinsale in southern Ireland. She sank only eighteen minutes later. At that stage of her voyage, she was a mere twelve or fourteen hours steaming time away from her destination and home port.
Hugh McFadyen managed to survive this action, however and having been rescued from the sea, he was landed at Queenstown. His ordeal had either rendered him ill or had injured him in some way, however, for he was taken straight to the local hospital for treatment, although he was released within three days. From there, he presumably made it to the British mainland and his original intended destination.
Whether or not he tried to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps or any other branches of the armed forces is unknown, but on the 12th June 1915, he boarded the Tuscania in Liverpool, on the first part of his journey home to Galt. On his return to Canada, he submitted a claim to the Canadian Commission, seeking compensation for damage to his health and the loss of his personal effects in the sinking of the Lusitania.
On the 7th October 1915, he married Ada Belle Stevens in Galt, and their daughter, Ada Edith Jean, known as “Jeanie”, was born on the 30th May 1917. Tragically, Ada Belle died of septicaemia, on the 22nd June, just over three weeks after giving birth to her daughter.
In August 1926, the Canadian Commission awarded Hugh $1,000, with interest at the rate of 5% per annum from the date of the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles on the 10th January 1910, in compensation for damage to his health, and a further $400 in compensation for the loss of his personal effects, with interest of 5% per annum from the date of the sinking of the Lusitania. When Hugh was interviewed by the Commission in 1923, he claimed that when he had returned to Canada in 1915, he found he was unable to work as a machinist, and had worked as hotel clerk, and later as a clerk for a tobacconist.
His daughter, Jeanie, was raised by Hugh’s parents, and his brothers families, while Hugh earned his living. Unfortunately, Jeanie died on Christmas Day 1939, at Woodstock General Hospital, Woodstock, Oxford County, Ontario, having been treated there for almost two months for aplastic anaemia. She was unmarried and aged 22 years at the time of her death, and was working as a telephone operator for the Bell Telephone Company.
Hugh McFadyen moved to Windsor, Ontario, in 1940, where he worked as a tool and die maker for the Bryant Pattern and Manufacturing Company Limited. He met, and later married, Louise Margaret “Lucy” Goodfellow, who had been twice-widowed – first in 1924, and then in 1939. They lived at 669. Tecumseh Road East, Windsor.
Hugh McFadyen died at the Hotel Dieu medical centre, Windsor, on the 30th July 1960, aged 69 years. He remains were brought back to Galt, where he was laid to rest with his first wife, Ada, and his daughter, Jeanie, in Trinity Anglican Cemetery, Galt.
Ontario Canada Births 183 – 1914, Ontario Canada Marriages 1826 – 1938, Ontario Canada Deaths and Deaths Overseas 1869 – 1948, 1891 Census of Canada, 1901 Census of Canada, 1911 Census of Canada, 1921 Census of Canada, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Canadian Claims Case No. 822, The Windsor Star, UniLiv.D92/1/8-10, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.