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| Calgary Herald |
“Perhaps the saddest task the Fund officials at St. John had to perform was to arrange the burial of those who reached Canada only to die… Mrs. Gordon Holder fell the responsibility of breaking the news to relatives in England or consoling the husband who had arrived with his wife. Saddest of all was the task of comforting little children that were sometimes left motherless and whose fathers were still in Europe.”
While researching the war brides for the past 14 years, some of the most difficult cases to come across are the ones who died while on their journey to Canada. One such war bride was Rosa Bertha Lambert. She died shortly after arriving at Quebec in August 1919
Rosa Bertha Jadwega Falecka married Calgary soldier Arthur Robert Lambert (Regimental # 447116) of the 31st Battalion in the Parish church of Clapham in London on 22nd January 1919. During the war, Rosa had reportedly been traumatized by a bombing near her home in London. She likely suffered from a stress disorder after the incident.
She came to Canada on the ship Corsican in August 1919 but her health suffered further and she was admitted to the Jeffrey Hale Hospital in Quebec after the ship arrived at the port and suffered a fatal relapse. She was 35 years old. Her husband had her body shipped to Calgary for a funeral and she was buried in the Union Cemetery. Sadly, she never had the chance to make a new life for herself in Canada.
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| Corsican. Annette Fulford collection |
Note: The newspaper report above lists her name as Cissy Bishop. Her name was indeed Rosa Bertha Falecka, wife of Arthur Lambert of Calgary.
(c) Annette Fulford, September 2018
Sources:
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922. Database with images. FamilySearch.org http://FamilySearch.org: 27 August 2018. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Morris, Philip H. The Canadian Patriot Fund, a report of its activities from 1914-1919, 48.
Bombing Raid Shock Fatal to Mrs. Lambert. Calgary Daily Herald, August 26, 1919, 19.
