Editor’s note: The information for this series came from the Moose Jaw Public Library archives, the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, and EphemeralTreasures.net.
Days after the catastrophic mid-air collision that killed 37 people, residents and politicians filled Moose Jaw churches as memorial services and funerals were held for the victims.
Civic memorial
The community held a special civic memorial service at Zion United Church on April 11, 1954, which saw 1,000 pack the building, including ministers of all Christian denominations, Premier Tommy Douglas, Mayor Louis H. (Scoop) Lewry, city council and other dignitaries.
Members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Trans-Canada Airlines, the chamber of commerce, MP Ross Thatcher, and the MLA also attended.
A special Roman Catholic service was held later.
Meanwhile, flags atop businesses and all government and city buildings and institutions flew at half-staff from noon to sundown. Also, council arranged to send flowers to hometown burials of the victims.
The Times-Herald reported Premier Douglas — a former Baptist minister — saying that people often forget how uncertain life is, while life was measured by how they lived and not how long they lived. Furthermore, he said it was appropriate that the ministerial association, mayor and council arranged the service “so that in time of crisis we could turn to God.”
Quoting the Bible, Douglas said that God was their refuge and strength and a very present help in times of trouble.
Meanwhile, Douglas said the answer to why calamities happened was not usually known, but what was known was Jesus Christ did not come to make life easy.
“Being a Christian and a religious person did not mean that no burdens would have to be faced, but it did mean that Christians would have the courage to face tragedy when it came and face it unflinchingly,” he added.
Also taking part were clergy from Zion United Church, the Moose Jaw Ministerial Association, 15 Wing Airbase, Knox Presbyterian and the Hebrew Synagogue.
Mayor Lewry read out the names of the dead, while so many people attended that they flowed into the basement and listened via loudspeaker.
As the services were held, trains travelled east and west carrying the victims’ bodies to their hometowns for burials; local authorities had stored the bodies in a makeshift morgue at the armouries until all could be identified.
Martha Hadwen’s funeral
More than 500 people attended Martha Hadwen’s funeral at the Alliance Tabernacle Church on April 12, 1954. She was cleaning the Gordon Hume home on April 8 when parts of the TCA plane struck the home and set it on fire, burning her alive.
Hadwen, 36, was the only resident killed in or from the mid-air collision.
Rev. A.H. Orthner, the church’s pastor, led the service, while the mayor and members of city council attended.
Lewry expressed sympathy to the bereaved family and asked the congregation to observe a minute of silence. Meanwhile, Orthner said the flowers came from city council and other community organizations, which showed that the family had many friends to whom they could call for help. He also said that the tragedy highlighted the uncertainties around death.
“Through death, there is hope because we can know God … ,” Orthner said. “The question is, have the doors of death been opened (and) is there a release from the chamber of death?”
The belief in life after death is universal, while death does not end it all, even though it is a baffling mystery, Orthner continued. Instead, “the gates of death have been opened by One (whom) death could not hold — Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead.”
The congregation later sang the hymn, “Abide with me,” which was Hadwen’s favourite, while a soloist sang “God understands.”
Military pilot’s funeral
The RCAF gave acting pilot officer Thomas Andrew Thorrat a full military funeral at St. Andrew’s United Church on Tuesday, April 13, five days after the Harvard trainer he was flying solo sliced through the passenger plane’s wing at 4,000 feet.
Rev. A.W. Martin officiated and was assisted by Flight Lt. K.M. Collison, the airbase padre. Thorrat’s parents and two sisters were unable to attend because they lived in Scotland, but his fiancée, Donna Brodie, was present, along with her parents; her father was an alderman.
Following the singing of two hymns and Psalm 23, Collison delivered a prayer while the choir — of which Thorrat had been a member — sang the Lord’s Prayer.
The minister spoke on the theme, “Blessed to the Lord is the death of his saints,” saying Thorrat came from Scotland and, with his rare gift of making friends, fell in love with Canada and Canada with him.
“He made friends so easily and was so high in esteem to his fellow cadets that they recently elected him commanding officer of the student body,” said Rev. Martin. “He was (also) an essential member of our choir and nothing can destroy the green place he holds in our hearts.”
Thorrat packed into his short 22 years a life of joy, gladness and friendship that others only experience during a long lifetime, while he would live forever in his friends’ hearts and forever with God, the minister added.
Six classmates were his pallbearers and honour guard, while other cadets also acted as guards. Moreover, the skirl of bagpipes, playing a death lament, led the procession to Rosedale Cemetery.
Afterward, the honour guard fired three volleys over the grave, then stood at attention while a bugler played the Last Post and Reveille. Thorrat’s service cap rested on top of a Union Jack that shrouded the casket while Collison delivered the last rites.
