*The Halifax Explosion*

~Halifax was devastated on 6 December 1917 when two ships collided in the city's harbour, one of them a munitions ship loaded with explosives bound for the battlefields of the First World War.

The Norwegian vessel 'Imo', en route to New York to pick up relief supplies for the beleaguered population of war-torn Belgium collided—with deadly results—with the French munitions ship 'Mont Blanc', filled with tons of benzol, picric acid, TNT and gun cotton, which was sailing into Halifax Harbour to join a convoy across the Atlantic.

~1,952 people either died instantly or succumbed to their injuries; 9,000 others were wounded, including 300 who were blinded or partially blinded by flying glass.

The Naval Service of Canada's armoured cruiser, HMCS 'Niobe', was laid up in Halifax Harbour, moored 700 yards from the 'Mont Blanc', when this massive explosion occurred; 'Niobe' was extensively damaged and 16 of its naval crew perished.

Nova Scotia death-

21-year-old Alfred Bendell died on 6 Dec 1917 in Halifax, Halifax County;

Death record can be found in Registration Year: 1917 - Page: 59 - Number: 355.

Residing on North Albert Street in Halifax, he died of 'Shock, due to injuries in explosion'.

[Two half-sisters, 27-year-old Mary McLeese and 30-year-old Agnes McLeese, residing in the same household, also died of 'Shock, due to injuries in explosion'.]

Military Service-

Rank: Private

Service Number: 829

Force: Army

Unit: Canadian Militia

Division: 66th Regiment

Son of Frances Bendell of Longard Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and son of the late John Bendell [widow of William McLeese, Frances McLeese of Newfoundland married carpenter widowed John Bendell—born in Newfoundland on 9 Dec 1892 in Halifax; John Bendell died on 14 Oct 1916 in his home on North Albert Street in Halifax; Frances McLeese Bendell died in 1932].

Private John Alfred Bendell is commemorated on Page 199 of Canada's First World War Book of Remembrance.

He is also commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.