Moxons in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Margaret meeting Penny and Len Moxon of Halifax

On Thursday 11^th June, our 8^th/28^th wedding anniversary coincided with our visit to Halifax – our only port visit on our transatlantic voyage on Queen Mary 2.

We had arranged some time ago – long before we left Sydney – to meet up with two members of the Moxon Society who migrated to Canada a long time ago for work opportunities for Len. He is a retired telecommunications engineer and his wife Penny is a retired early childhood and infants school teacher.  They'd worked in a number of Canadian cities, from Vancouver to Halifax over the decades but decided to retire in Halifax. We immediately established a rapport with them over coffee, finding them very interesting indeed. Like us, they have become very interested in community volunteer work in retirement.

Penny showing Margaret "her" Halifax

Len had really prepared for our visit – as much as he could since we did not know what accessible transport options there were for John in Halifax. There are “pink” buses which are “hop on hop off” with profits going to Breast Cancer but unfortunately the buses were very ancient and not at all wheelchair accessible. And the tour office on board the Queen Mary was not very helpful – they came back with a quote of $500 for three hours in an accessible cab. No way!

So in the end it was “shanks pony” for all of us and that worked out very well. Len and Penny met us before 10 am at the terminal and stayed with us till 4pm. We even walked up to the Citadel – quite a climb for me but John's new chair handled the steep hills with considerable ease.

Len and Penny were able to show us many historic and important buildings and explained much of the history. There are over 300 victims of the Titanic buried in Halifax – sadly the victims who could be found and not claimed by families to be buried elsewhere were transported to Halifax whilst the survivors were taken to New York.

Entrance to Museum with John and Len Moxon

We were particularly interested in viewing the Maritime Museum – not so much to see the Titanic exhibition, but rather to see an exhibition about the Halifax explosion of 6^th December , 1917.  

A dreadful tragedy

Well over 2000 people were killed and 9000 injured when the SS Mont-Blanc collided with the SS Imo, a Norwegian vessel and exploded in the bay. Nine of the deceased were named Moxon, all related. Len has researched and written a comprehensive article about the tragedy and the Moxon family in particular for the Moxon Magazine.

9-10 Moxons listed (one probably a duplicate)

The week before our visit, Len had arranged for the Museum to display the page listing the Moxon family and for the archivist to show us another extremely interesting exhibit relating to Richard Moxon – stored for nearly 60 years and now in the museum. Len's current project for the Moxon Society is to research and document the history of this exhibit. If you want to know more, you'll need to wait – I not going to steal Len's thunder.

After a picnic lunch – purchased at Pete's – on the waterfront, we visited the area which contained many old buildings.  This depiction of a hanging reminded us of the kind of punishment common in the 17th century.

After that, we decided to tackle the hill to the Citadel. The citadel, called Fort George after George 11 of England, established in 1749 as protection from the Indians and later the French. The British citizens of America were not considered a threat by the British at that stage. This was before the American Revolution of the 1770s.

Len, Penny and John contemplating climbing Citadel hill.

Len and Penny had visited plenty of times before, so they waited outside whilst John and I explored it. We did not go into the museum on site, but there was a lift to the top of the ramparts. Students dressed up as redcoats and period costume had been employed for the summer. One poor girl was being ordered to march all day by a young corporal.

It was all downhill back to the port to re-board the Queen Mary 2, thankfully. We had a wonderful day – Len and Penny certainly planned it well for us. I wonder if they had any influence on the weather, which was just beautiful as you can see from the photos.

Both of us got quite sunburnt, we hadn't worn our hats or sun screen.  Naughty us.