Margaret Jane Fortescue drowned on this day in 1918
Margaret Fortescue was born nr York Factory, Hudson Bay, Canada 1879. York Factory, Hudson Bay was a factory town established by the Hudson Bay Company. She was also known as 'Daisy'.
Margaret was the youngest daughter of Joseph Fortescue, Chief Factor, Hudson’s Bay Company and Sarah Jane (née Mason), her late father the Reverend Mason from Northumberland.
Margaret went to school back in England, in Dawlish, Devon, at Miss Susan Parrott's, High Class Ladies School, 8 West Cliff, Dawlish where her uncle Matthew Fortescue was a County Court Judge in Totnes.
She trained as a nurse at Montreal General Hospital. With the outbreak of war she volunteered for foreign service and joined the Canadian Red Cross in 1915. She was 36 years old on attestation.
Margaret's attestation papers reveal that she was 5ft 3 ¾ inches tall, had brown hair and brown eyes.
She served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from 18 May 1915, posted to various hospitals and casualty clearing stations.
On 5 June 1918 she was posted to H.M.Hospital Ship Llandovery Castle which was torpedoed and sunk in the Irish Sea on 27 June 1918.
Nurse Sister, Margaret Jane Fortescue, Canadian Army Medical Corps
27 June 1918
Margaret is commemorated on the the Halifax Memorial. She was one of some 30 or more nurses who drowned that day along with troops on the ship.
Sources: Du Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour vol. 5, Margaret Jane Fortescue, WW1 Canada Attestation Papers; Find A Grave Index; The Canadian Red Cross in the First World War; H M S Llandovery Castle - Wikipedia.