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MGI vol 2124 number 125

Halifax Disaster Record Office
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.
Dec. 21, 1917.

EYEWITNESS.
Communicated personally by Thomas Cann, aged 9, Fair, rosy cheeks, eyes blue or grey, speaks like a child of 13 or 14, but not larger than 9 year old child. Son, by former husband, of Mrs. John Libby, 49 Duffus St.
Was in Creighton's store, 1480-1484 Barrington St., and on coming out saw the ship on fire. He went down by Richmond Station to watch, but later went to his home on Duffus St. and stood by the gate with his mother watching the burning ship. He doesn't remember hearing or seeing the explosion. Says he was watching the fire and the next thing he remembers was being "pinned down by a burning board." His mother, Mrs Libby, pulled him from under the board and carried him to Mulgrave Park. Then she saw Mr. Libby, who had been working on Richmond School, coming down the hill, and went with him to try and get the other children from the house. They saved Kathleen Libby, aged 4, but a baby four months old and one 18 months old-- also Mrs. Libby's sister, Miss Ethel Inness, were burned to death. Soldiers took Thomas Cann and Kathleen Libby to Cogswell St. Military Hospital on a flat-wagon. Mrs. Libby stayed in the Pavilion at Cogswell St. Hospital. They came to Mrs. Bell's Shelter on December 12.
Mr. Libby's eye was removed and he is at St. Mary's College Hospital.