Submitted by: Devonna Edwards

THE GREAT EXPLOSION OF DECEMBER 6, 1917

On that day Halifax’s Richmond area was blown to smithereens after two ships, The Imo and The Mont Blanc collided at the narrows of Halifax Harbour, approximately where the Halifax Shipyards and the Three Sister Towers (Nova Scotia Power Towers) in Dartmouth are located today. As a result of the Explosion nearly 2,000 people died that day and 9,000 were injured.

The collision caused the worse man-made disaster at that time

On that eventful day nine year old Annie Perry Campbell left her home on 93 Kenny Street heading to her fourth grade class at Richmond School, which was located just behind her home. Annie’s mother Isabella died in 1908 while giving birth to Annie and her twin sister Jean; her two other siblings were John and Doris. Annie and her siblings along with her father Robert all lived with the grandmother Isabel.  

Annie, along with her sisters Jean and Doris noticed a ship burning in the harbour and stopped to watch the fiery scene, when suddenly the French ship ‘Mont Blanc’ with its cargo of twenty-six hundred tons of picric acid, gun-cotton and T.N.T exploded. Annie, the beautiful blond haired child died instantly and her frozen body was found two days after the Explosion, buried in the snow. At first she was listed as an unidentified victim, but when identified she was buried next to her mother five days after the Explosion. She was buried quickly and without any ceremony at Fairview Lawn Cemetery on Windsor Street. Her three siblings somehow survived that day. Annie was one of four hundred and eighty two children under the age of fourteen that died on that horrible day.

The First Richmond School also called Roome Street School

 Annie was one of two children that were killed while being in or about the Richmond School, the other child was Merle Huggins, whose father was the principal of the school. Another eighty-two children from the school were not there, but were killed in their homes or on the street while watching the fire.

Richmond School was located in a straight line from the point at which the Mont-Blanc blew up and the two-story wooden structure was completely destroyed. Three hundred students would have been in class on December 6, but the hour for assembling had been changed for the winter, from nine to half past nine. The school had not opened yet and a few students had gathered in the school yard at the time of the Explosion. The janitor of the school was killed in the school yard, but two teachers inside the building escaped injury. A carpenter G.H. Libby was at work in the schools basement and was injured but survived.

As a result of the complete destruction of Richmond School, the Halifax Board of School Commissioners  asked the federal government for temporary use of three North Gottingen Street buildings, which were occupied by the Veterans Guard, for the purpose of temporary classrooms for Richmond pupils.

The Second Richmond School

The School was built on Devonshire Avenue, corner of Kenny Street in 1921. 

In the lobby of the second Richmond School is a Memorial Tablet listing all the Richmond School pupils who lost their lives in the Halifax Explosion of 1917. At the bottom of the Memorial Tablet is written:

To You from Falling Hands We Throw 

The Torch Be Yours to Hold It High

Since 1985 the building and grounds were leased to the Supreme Court Family Division. Today the Halifax Family Court still occupies the building of the former Richmond School. The Memorial Tablet from the Richmond School can still be seen in this building.

Ghostly Haunting

The Richmond area in the North End is especially haunted with the spirits of young children who died in the Halifax Explosion. The Halifax Family Court (former Richmond School) on Devonshire Avenue has many chilling ghostly encounters over the years. When the building was a school, staff said that they have seen the ghost of Annie and her classmates running down the halls or standing at the top of staircase. They have also heard voices singing Christmas carols, almost like they were practicing for their concert. The ghostly children also like to play tricks, such as turning lights on and off, or opening and closing doors. Mostly the activity happens at night or on the weekends when it is quiet. 

Photo of the Second Richmond School built in 1921.

The Spirit of Annie Campbell

Annie’s spirit is often seen inside and outside the school-court house building on Devonshire Avenue.

One teacher walked in the door of the second Richmond School and saw Anne sitting there, the teacher ran out of the school and would not return. On another occasion, workmen who were repairing the school’s roof had their equipment thrown around and dropped off the roof. Painters grumbled about   their paint cans always disappearing.

Annie’s ghost is often seen near the side steps of the Court House, close to where her grandmother had a lovely rose bush, possibly the site she died. 

Jim Simpson who was an animal biologist in Western Canada and later an associate researcher at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, had a keen interest in the Halifax Explosion and held walking tours of the Richmond district. He was haunted by the ghost of Annie Campbell which he seen quite often. He also experienced sheets being thrown off the bed and mysterious shoulder taps, but was reluctant to tell people because he said, that they would think him “crazy.” He said that he is a scientist who never had this happen to him in his whole life. There was no stone and no service for her at her burial site and Jim Simpson felt she should have a proper burial service and tomb stone. He arranged a service to honour Annie at her grave in Fairview Lawn Cemetery, with Rev. Sandra Cox of the United Memorial Church leading the ceremony and Jim saying a few words in her honour. He also organized the laying of a gravestone for her and he even got her white flowers for her grave, because he said that she always wore white. 

He was hoping that with this special service she would finally be at peace, but her spirit still lingers on.