Fairview Lawn Cemetery

Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Fairview Cemetery

The cemetery in November 2015

Details
Established| 1893
Location|

North End, Halifax

Country| Canada
Coordinates| 44°39′40″N 63°37′19″W﻿ / ﻿44.661°N 63.622°W﻿ / 44.661; -63.622
Type| Public
Size| ?
No. of graves| ?

Fairview Cemetery is a cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is perhaps best known as the final resting place for over one hundred victims of the sinking of the Titanic. Officially known as Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the non-denominational cemetery is run by the Parks Department of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

## Location

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Fairview Lawn Cemetery is located in the North End of Halifax at the Northern End of Windsor Street. It is bordered by the Saint John Anglican cemetery on one side and the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery on another.

## History

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A blockhouse was built at the site in the 1750s to protect Halifax from attacks by the Mi'kmaq people. The land was subsequently developed as small farms. In 1893, the land was acquired by a private company, the Fairview Lawn Cemetery Limited, for a non-denominational cemetery because the Camp Hill Cemetery in the centre of the city was running out of room. The city of Halifax took over the cemetery in 1944.[1] Fairview contains a cross section of Halifax's 20th century residents including a Greek section and a Chinese section as well as a mass grave of victims from the Halifax Explosion and many other graves.

## Titanic victims

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Titanic victims sectionMarker of Unknown Child; positively identified as Sidney Goodwin

Fairview was selected by city coroner/registrar John Henry Barnstead as the site where the Titanic victims should be buried.[2]

One hundred and twenty-one victims of the RMS Titanic sinking are interred at Fairview, more than any other cemetery in the world. Most of them are memorialized with small gray granite markers with the name and date of death. Some families paid for larger markers with more inscriptions. The occupants of a third of the graves, however, have never been identified and their markers contain just the date of death and marker number. Surveyor E. W. Christie laid out three long lines of graves in gentle curves following the contours of the sloping site. By co-incidence, the curved shape suggests the outline of the bow of a ship.[3] A complete listing of those victims buried in Fairview can be found here.

One of the better-known Titanic markers is for an unidentified child victim, known for decades as The Unknown Child. No one claimed the body, so he was buried with funds provided by sailors of CS Mackay-Bennett, the cable ship that recovered his body. The marker bears the inscription 'Erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered after the disaster of the "Titanic" April 15, 1912'. In November 2002, the child was initially identified as 13-month-old Eino Viljami Panula of Finland. Eino, his mother, and four brothers all died in the Titanic disaster. After additional forensic testing, the unknown child was re-identified as 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin, an English child who perished with his entire family.[4]

A grave marked "J. Dawson" gained fame following the release of the 1997 film Titanic, since the name of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the film is Jack Dawson. Many filmgoers, moved by the story, left flowers and ticket stubs at Dawson's grave when the film was first released, and flowers continue to be left today. Film director James Cameron has said the character's name was not in fact inspired by the grave. More recent research has revealed that the grave actually belongs to Joseph Dawson, an Irishman who worked in Titanic's boiler room as a coal trimmer.[5]

The Fairview Titanic graves also include the burial place and marker of William Denton Cox, a heroic steward who died while escorting third class passengers to the lifeboats. Six of the previously unknown Titanic victims were identified in 1991 with the help of the Titanic International Society. Newly-inscribed headstones bearing their names were unveiled on September 23, 1991, at ceremonies attended by then-Halifax Mayor Ronald Wallace, Titanic survivor Louise Pope, and more than 50 members of the Society.[6]

Twenty-nine other Titanic victims are buried elsewhere in Halifax; nineteen in the Roman Catholic Mount Olivet Cemetery and ten in the Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery.

## War Graves

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The cemetery also contains 29 war graves of Commonwealth service personnel, 20 from World War I and 9 from World War II.[7]

## References

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1. ^ Ruffman, Alan Titanic Remembered: The Unsinkable ship and Halifax (1999) Halifax: Formac Publishing
2. ^ Titanic: The Aftermath, Discovery Channel
3. ^ Beed, Blair Titanic Victims in Halifax Graveyards (2001) Halifax: Dtours, page 89.
4. ^ "Canadians identify child aboard Titanic - USATODAY.com". www.usatoday.com.
5. ^ *"The Real Jack Dawson", Encyclopedia Titanica
6. ^ Hustak, Alan (September 22, 1991). "Six victims of Titanic identified — 80 years later". Montreal Gazette. p. 1. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
7. ^ [1] CWGC Cemetery Report.

## External links

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* Find a Grave Profile for Fairview Cemetery
* About Joseph Dawson

* v
* t
* e

Titanic

* First class facilities
* Second and Third class facilities
* Grand Staircase
* Animals aboard

Sinking|

* Iceberg that sank the Titanic
* Changes in safety practices
* Lifeboats
* Lifeboat No. 1
* British inquiry
* United States inquiry
* Wreck of the Titanic
* Legends and myths
* Conspiracy theories

Officers|

* Edward J. Smith (Captain)
* Henry Tingle Wilde (Chief Officer)
* William McMaster Murdoch (First Officer)
* Charles H. Lightoller (Second Officer)
* Herbert Pitman (Third Officer)
* Joseph G. Boxhall (Fourth Officer)
* Harold G. Lowe (Fifth Officer)
* James Paul Moody (Sixth Officer)
* Hugh McElroy (Chief Purser)
* Joseph Bell (Chief Engineer)

Crew members|

* Frederick Barrett
* Harold Bride
* William Denton Cox
* Sid Daniels
* Frank Oliver Evans
* Frederick Fleet
* Luigi Gatti
* Robert Hichens
* Violet Jessop
* Archie Jewell
* Charles Joughin
* Reginald Lee
* Evelyn Marsden
* William Mintram
* Jack Phillips
* Frank Winnold Prentice
* Arthur John Priest
* George Symons

Musicians|

* Wallace Hartley
* John Wesley Woodward

Passengers|

| Fatalities|

* Allison family
* Thomas Andrews
* John Jacob Astor IV
* David John Bowen
* Archibald Butt
* Thomas Byles
* Roderick Chisholm
* Walter Donald Douglas
* Annie Funk
* Jacques Futrelle
* Sidney Leslie Goodwin
* Benjamin Guggenheim
* John Harper
* Henry B. Harris
* Wallace Hartley
* Charles Melville Hays
* Ann Elizabeth Isham
* Edward Austin Kent
* Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche
* Francis Davis Millet
* Harry Markland Molson
* Clarence Moore
* Eino Viljami Panula
* W. T. Stead
* Ida Straus
* Isidor Straus
* John B. Thayer
* Frank M. Warren Sr.
* George D. Wick
* George Dunton Widener
* Harry Elkins Widener
* Duane Williams
* George Henry Wright

|

Survivors|

* Rhoda Abbott
* Trevor Allison
* Lillian Asplund
* Madeleine Astor
* Ruth Elizabeth Becker
* Lawrence Beesley
* Karl Behr
* Dickinson Bishop
* Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson
* Elsie Bowerman
* Francis Browne
* Margaret "Molly" Brown
* Helen Churchill Candee
* Charlotte Drake Cardeza
* Lucile Carter
* Gladys Cherry
* Millvina Dean
* Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon
* Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
* Dorothy Gibson
* Archibald Gracie IV
* Frank John William Goldsmith
* Edith Haisman
* Henry S. Harper
* Eva Hart
* Margaret Bechstein Hays
* Masabumi Hosono
* J. Bruce Ismay
* Eleanor Ileen Johnson
* Louise Kink
* Louise Laroche
* Margaret Mannion
* Michel Marcel Navratil
* Alfred Nourney
* Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
* Jane Quick
* Winnifred Quick
* Edith Rosenbaum
* Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes
* Emily Ryerson
* Agnes Sandström
* Beatrice Sandström
* Frederic Kimber Seward
* Eloise Hughes Smith
* Douglas Spedden
* Jack Thayer
* Marian Thayer
* Barbara West
* Ella Holmes White
* Eleanor Elkins Widener
* R. Norris Williams
* Marie Grice Young

Monuments
and memorials|

| Australia|

* Bandstand (Ballarat)

|

United Kingdom|

* Engine Room Heroes (Liverpool)
* Engineers (Southampton)
* Musicians (Southampton)
* Titanic (Belfast)
* Orchestra (Liverpool)

United States|

* Straus Park (New York City)
* Titanic (New York City)
* Titanic (Washington, D.C.)
* Butt–Millet Memorial Fountain (Washington, D.C.)

Popular culture
(cultural legacy)|

| Books|

* The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility (1898)
* A Night to Remember (1955)
* Polar the Titanic Bear (1995)

|

Films|

* Saved from the Titanic (1912)
* In Nacht und Eis (1912)
* La hantise (1912)
* Atlantic (1929)
* Atlantik (1929)
* Titanic (1943)
* Titanic (1953)
* A Night to Remember (1958)
* The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
* Raise the Titanic (1980)
* Secrets of the Titanic (1986)
* Titanica (1992)
* Titanic (1997)
* The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997)
* The Legend of the Titanic (1999)
* Titanic: The Legend Goes On (2000)
* The Boy Who Saw the Iceberg (2000)
* Ghosts of the Abyss (2003)
* Tentacolino (2004)
* Titanic II (2010)
* The Six (2021)
* Titanic 666 (2022)
* Unsinkable (2024)

Television|

* "A Night to Remember" (1956)
* S.O.S. Titanic (1979)
* Titanic: The Complete Story (1994)
* Titanic (1996 miniseries)
* No Greater Love (1996)
* "A Flight to Remember" (Futurama) (1999)
* "The Mutants Are Revolting" (Futurama) (2010)
* Titanic (2012 miniseries)
* Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012)
* Saving the Titanic (2012)
* Titanic: The Aftermath (2012)

Theater|

* The Berg (1929)
* The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960 musical)
* Titanic (1974)
* Titanic (1997 musical)

Music|

* "The Titanic (It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down)" (folk song)
* The Sinking of the Titanic (music composition)
* Titanic (soundtrack album)
* Back to Titanic (soundtrack album)
* "My Heart Will Go On" (song)
* "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (song)
* Titanique (musical parody)
* "Dance Band on the Titanic" (song)
* "Titanic" (song)
* Titanic Requiem (music composition)
* "Tempest" (song)
* Titanic Rising (album)

Video games|

* Search for the Titanic (1989)
* Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996)
* Titanic: Honor and Glory (TBA)

Museums
and exhibitions|

* SeaCity Museum (Southampton)
* Titanic Museum (Branson, Missouri)
* Titanic Museum (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee)
* Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (Halifax)
* Titanic Belfast

Places|

* Titanic (Canada)
* Titanic Canyon
* Titanic Quarter, Belfast
* Cape Race, Newfoundland
* Fairview Lawn Cemetery
* Mount Olivet Cemetery (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
* Arrol Gantry
* Titanic, Oklahoma

Related|

| Ships|

* RMS Baltic
* RMS Olympic
* HMHS Britannic
* SS Mount Temple
* RMS Carpathia
* SS Californian
* CS Mackay-Bennett
* SS Birma
* SS Frankfurt
* Replica Titanic
* Titanic II
* Romandisea Titanic

|

Law|

* RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act
* Agreement Concerning the Shipwrecked Vessel RMS Titanic

Others|

* White Star Line
* David Blair
* James Cameron
* Harold Cottam
* Herbert Haddock
* Stanley Lord
* Arthur Rostron
* Titanic Historical Society
* Titanic International Society
* Encyclopedia Titanica
* Halomonas titanicae
* Women and children first
* Robert Ballard
* La Circassienne au Bain
* Titan submersible
* implosion
* The Big Piece

* Category

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