Mr Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison

 

Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison was born in Chesterville, Ontario, Canada on 9 December 1881, the son of Jesse Rose Allison and Pheobe Johnston.  He had three siblings: Margaret born on 9 April 1876, George born on 16 October, 1879 and William "percy" born on 21 March 1887.

Slender and saturnine, with a good head for figures he was imbued with the Protestant work ethic. Nicknamed "Hud", he worked for a time as a clerk in Chester Casselman's General Store in Chesterville, but at the age of 19, his uncle, George "Frank" Johnston, hired him to head the junior division of the brokerage firm in Montreal he had started with John Wilson McConnell, who would later buy the Montreal Star newspaper. The three men were members of Montreal's so called "Methodist Mafia", upstarts in Canadian financial circles. Allison was sent to Buffalo to learn shorthand, worked as an insurance agent for his uncle at Sun Life and New York Life, then was sent to Winnipeg where he opened an office.

During his two years in Winnipeg he lived in a house at the corner of Westminster Avenue. and Sherbrook Street. where he got to know Mark Fortune and Thomson Beattie .

During one of his frequent train trips back to Montreal he met Bess Waldo Daniels , the young but matronly daughter of an Irish American factory clerk, origionally from Massachusetts. They were married against her parents wishes in Milwaukee on his 26th birthday, just after she turned 21.

The Allisons were devout Methodists - they taught Sunday school, Bible Classes, and Hudson often served as a lay preacher. Their daughter, Helen Loraine was born 5 June 1909, and their son, Hudson Trevor , 7 May 1911. The same year they began the Allison Stock Farm near Winchester, Ontario, and built a new house in Westmount, Quebec.

Mr. Allison was on the board of the British Lumber Corporation, and sailed to England for a directors' meeting. While there, they had Trevor baptized at Epworth in the church where Methodist Founder John Wesley had preached. They took a side trip to the Scottish Highlands where Hudson bought two dozen Clydesdales and Hackney Stallions and mares for the stock farm. At the same time, they picked up furniture and recruited household staff for their two residences - George Swane was hired as a chauffeur, Mildred Brown as a cook, Alice Cleaver as a nursemaid for Trevor and Sarah Daniels as a Lady's maid for Bess.

Like many others, the Allisons had altered travel plans to sail back with old friends on Titanic . They paid £151 16s for three cabins on the Upper Deck C-22/24/26. (ticket number113781). Mr and Mrs Allison were in one suite, Sarah Daniels and Loraine in another and Alice Cleaver and Trevor in the third. The other household servants travelled second class .

On the last night of their lives, Hudson and Bess Allison sat down to dinner with Major Peuchen and Harry Molson , and Bess brought Loraine briefly into the Jacobean dining room so she could see how pretty it was.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Alice Cleaver took Trevor and left with him in lifeboat 11 . Bess Allison was put in a boat with Loraine, but refused to leave the ship without her baby. She dragged Loraine out of the boat and started searching for Alice and Trevor.

"Mrs Allison could have gotten away in perfect safety," Major Arthur Peuchen told the Montreal Daily Star "But somebody told her Mr Allison was in a boat being lowered on the opposite side of the deck, and with her little daughter she rushed away from the boat. Apparently she reached the other side to find that Mr Allison was not there. Meanwhile our boat had put off."

Bess, Hudson and Loraine perished in the disaster. Only Hudson Allison's body was recovered: #135.

NO. 135. - MALE. CLOTHING - Leather coat; blue suit; grey silk muffler. EFFECTS - Keys; letters; photos; stock book; three pocket diaries; one C. P. Railway ticket book; two pocket books; card case; $143.00 in notes; chain with insurance medals; £15 in gold; $100.00 Thomas Cook & Sons travellers' cheque; £35 in notes; gold cuff links; diamond solitaire ring; gold stud; knife; silver tie clip; $4.40 in odd coins; traveller's ticket. FIRST CLASS. NAME - H. J. ALLISON.

Mr Allison's body was buried in the Allison family plot in Maple Ridge cemetery near Winchester, Ont.

Funeral services for the Allison family were held at the Douglas Methodist Church in Montreal on Sunday April 21. "The pew in which Mr and Mrs Allison had attended the service of the church so often was draped in black and purple, and in the centre was a huge floral offering from the members of the congregation among whom the young couple were highly esteemed."

One month after the funeral, Hud's brother Percy recieved an unexpected delivery: the horses that Allison had shipped by tramp steamer from Scotland had arrived safely.

Hudson Allison left no will, so his brothers Percy and George were left to fight over the estate.

References and Sources
White Star Line (1912.) Record of Bodies and Effects (Passengers and Crew S.S. "Titanic") Recovered by Cable Steamer "MacKay Bennett" Including Bodies Buried at Sea and Bodies Delivered at Morgue in Halifax , N.S. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S., Manuscript Group 100, Vol. 229, No. 3d, Accession 1976-191, 76 pp., unpaged.(#135 )
Don Lynch & Ken Marschall (1992) Titanic: An Illustrated History . London, Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0 340 56271 4
Alan Hustak (1999) Titanic: The Canadian Story . Véhicule Press. ISBN 1 55065 113 7
Contract Ticket List , White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
Marriages, births, deaths and injuries that have occurred on board during the voyage (PRO London, BT 100/259-260)
Montreal Daily Star, 20 April 1912

Credits
John Clifford, USA
George Behe, USA
Michael A. Findlay, USA
Phillip Gowan, USA
Alan Hustak, Canada
Hermann Söldner, Germany
Len Wilkins, Canada

     

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Summary
Born: Friday 9th December 1881
Age: 30 years 4 months and 6 days.
Marital Status: Married.
Last Residence: in Montreal Québéc Canada
Occupation: Businessman
1st Class passenger
First Embarked: Southampton on Wednesday 10th April 1912
Ticket No. 113781 , £151 16s
Cabin No. C22/26
Died in the sinking.
Body recovered by: Mackay-Bennett (No. 135)
Buried: Maple Ridge Cemetery Chesterville Ontario Canada

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)
Mrs Bessie Waldo Allison
Miss Helen Loraine Allison
Master Hudson Trevor Allison
Miss Alice Catherine Cleaver
Miss Sarah Daniels

Travelling Companions
.htmlMiss Amelia Mary "Mildred" Brown Employee (Cook)
.htmlMr George Swane Employee (Chauffeur)

Related Images

Other Information
Ship Manifest
1911 Census - Allison Family

Grave or Memorial
The Allison grave in Maple Ridge Cemetery, Chesterville, Ontario
Grave of Hudson J. C. Allison

Related Pages