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MG 1 vol 2124 number 232

Halifax Disaster Record Office
Chronicle Building
Halifax, N.S.

Personal Testimony of Miss Thomas, of Mahon Bros. staff.

There was no disorder in the store when the explosion occurred. A few of the girls screamed at first, but this stopped in a minute or so. She cried out "The cellar, girls." All started for the cellar. They thought the Germans had come. She wondered if she would be killed instantly or would live for a long time under the wreckage. After a few minutes they thought there wasn't going to be 'any more', and all the girls went out on the street. They stood on the side walk by St. Paul's church, some on Barrington St. and some on Prince St. They watched injured people going about and soon vehicles came from the North and with terribly injured people. Miss Thomas told Mr. Meehan that she would go to his home on LeMarchant St. and tell his wife that he was safe. First, however, she started toward the North End, walking with a girl who lived in the North End. This girl seemed to be troubled about not finding her hat more than anything else. She kept asking the girls if they had seen anything of her hat. Finally one girl answered "Oh, for goodness sake, go home without your hat, what does a hat matter now?" The distressed damsel then started for home, Miss Thomas with her. As they went along Barrington St. they met a soldier wearing the lost hat. She [The?] girl very politely said "Excuse me, but I think you are wearing my hat". He looked at her blankly for a minute then lifted the hat from his head, gazed at it in astonishment for a second and said "My God woman, I thought it was my own." Miss Thomas went North as far as Jacob St., up