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MG 1 volume 2124 number 137b

HALIFAX DISASTER RECORD OFFICE
Archibald MacMechan, F. R. S. C.
Director
Halifax, N. S.


Crowdis

Mr. Crowdis was out on the street some distance from the "Manse". Mrs. Crowdis and her sister Marjorie Kennedy were standing by a back window in the upstairs hall, watching the fire. Another sister of Mrs. Crowdis, Mary Kennedy, was helping the children, Jean aged six, and Donald aged four, to dress in their bedroom. When the explosion occurred Mr. Crowdis was knocked down on his face in the street by the first shock. When he got to his feet he ran to the Manse. Found everything down and the two children standing in the middle of the street, unhurt. Jean says "I jumped through the window and Donnie jumped after me". Mary Kennedy was pinned under a beam of the house but when released was not very badly injured, although she was kept in hospital a few days. Marjorie Kennedy was hurt very badly, cut dreadfully about the face and neck and chest. Mr. Crowdis was sure she would not live. Mrs. Crowdis was also frightfully injured. She had thirty very bad cuts about her body, beside many minor ones. One eye has been removed. Her forehead was so badly injured that it [illegible] seemed crushed in. One cut on her [illegible] neck exposed the jugular vein. Her arms and legs were badly cut. One bone in the right arm was split lengthwise. A piece of glass was driven in behind [illegible] the left kneecap. Mr. Crowdis put her in a wheel-barrow and took her to Rockhead. Later he met Mr. John MacAloney and asked him what he could do for them. Mr. MacAloney took Mrs. Crowdis and the children to his home in Fairview. Mrs. Crowdis was removed to Camp Hill Hospital that evening.