The news of the sinking
of the Titanic hit the city of Hamilton Ontario Canada in the same way it did
in most other cities in the world.
Shock and dismay were
the usual reactions to the headlines splashed across newspapers. In Hamilton
all three daily newspapers, The Spectator, the Herald and the Times, covered
the story in as much detail as they could.
At first, there was a
limited amount of information and many rumors. As the days passed, interest in
all things related to the Titanic did not wane, and the headlines on the front
pages of all three newspapers remained full of references to the disaster and
its aftermath.
In Hamilton , as in most
others communities in Canada, the United States and Europe, there was a burning
desire to know whether any local residents were on board the ill-fated ship,
and whether they were among the saved or among the lost.
Hamiltonians soon
learned that Dr. Alfred Pain, the 23 year old of locally prominent militia
member, Captain A. Pain, had been booked to sail on the famous White Star
liner.
The Hamilton Times of
April 15 1912 described the situation with the popular young Hamilton doctor as
was known when that edition of the newspaper went to press :
“Dr. Pain has been in
England for a year, taking a special course in one of the large hospitals.
Before going to the old country, the doctor was on the Hamilton Hospital house
surgeons’ staff for a year. Before sailing for home he wired to his father that
he would return on the Titanic. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Pain are very anxious
to hear from their son direct.”
Nothing was heard from
the handsome young man. His parents, his friends, indeed all the local community
held out hope at first, but soon enough that hope was replaced with bitter
disappointment and sorrow.
Dr. Pain’s body was
never recovered.
On April 19, 1912, at
ceremony held in Hamilton’s Armouries, Lieutenant-Col. S. C. Mewburn briefly
spoke to the troops gathered there about the Titanic disaster and the loss of
the son of one of the regiment’s best known and most popular officers.
The Times reporter
captured the essence of Mewburn’s brief address
as follows :
“The lieutenant-colonel
spoke in glowing terms of Captain A. Pain, father of the young physician, as an
enthusiast in military affairs, and that he had done more towards the
advancement of rifle shooting than any other man in the regiment.
“In the graphic and
thrilling stories by survivors of the Titanic wreck,”he said, “we hear a good
deal about this man and that man and how this woman was saved and the other
woman went down, but of the lonely Hamiltonian who was on board, we know
nothing more than he was not among the saved. Young Dr. Pain had no wife or
daughter to die for. He died for strangers. Young, with all the world and
bright prospects before him, it must have been hard for such as he to lay down
his life. Apparently unnoticed in the struggling, panic-stricken crowd, he
quietly gave up his life. What must have been his thoughts at the critical
moment when death stared him in the face! No doubt home and mother was the last
picture in his mind as the waters swallowed him up. That he died a hero’s death
is the grim satisfaction of those he left behind.”
A few days later, a
memorial service was held in St. John Presbyterian Sunday School. A talented
musician, Dr. Pain, during his collegiate school days, and afterwards, was a
member of the Sunday School Orchestra.
The memorial service
was on the Sunday afternoon. April 22, 1912. It was ended with all members of the
St. John Presbyterian Sunday School singing the following words together:
“Forever with the Lord!
Amen! So let it be!
Life from the dead is in that word,
‘Tis immortality.”
