LETITIA

 

Canadian Hospital Ship

 


 

Canadian Hospital Ship LETITIA

Library and Archives of Canada - R112-1952-7-E. Volume/box number: 30446.

Click on the above photo to view a larger image

 

Launched: 14 Oct 1924

Acquired by RN: 1939

Commissioned as: HMS LETITIA - Armed Merchant Cruiser

Transferred to Canadian Government

Commissioned as Hospital Ship LETITIA

Sold: 1946 to Ministry of Transport, renamed Empire Brent

Sold: to New Zealand, renamed Captain Cook

Fate: Broken up in 1960

 

Maiden voyage from Glasgow to Montreal on 24 Apr 1925. In 1939 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty and commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser. She later became a troopship and was extensively damaged in 1943 and was temporarily repaired in the USA In 1944 she was taken over by the Canadian Government and converted into a hospital ship She was sold in 1946 to the Ministry of Transport and renamed Empire Brent. While on route to Halifax in 1947, she collided with and sank the Stormont in the River Mersey. She returned to her home river Dec 1947, overhauled and refitted as a troopship for voyages to India and the Far East until 1949 In that year she began an emigration service to Australia until later in 1950 when she was laid up for about six months but returned to perform the same role, this time to New Zealand with the new name Captain Cook and her ownership eventually passed to the New Zealand government. She commenced sailings from Glasgow via Panama to Wellington on 05 Feb 1952. She arrived at Glasgow Feb 1960 on her last voyage, laid up at Falmouth and sold to British Iron and Steel Corporation taken to Inverkeithing for breaking by T W Ward Ltd.

 


 

Photos and Documents          Ship's company photos

 

Ship's Movements - LETITIA - 08 Apr 1942 - 04 Nov 1945

 

Crew List Jan 1945

 


 

     In memory of those who have crossed the bar    

They shall not be forgotten

 

 


 

Photos and Documents

 

 

Card from Canadian Hospital Ship LETITIA

 

Courtesy of Hugh Muir

 

Photos of the medical staff onboard the Hospital Ship LETITIA

 

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(WS01) Hospital ship LETITIA

 

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(WS18) Patients on LETITIA taking sun on aft deck  (WS17) Sgt Spanner and Maj Farrel, travelling medical personnel (X-ray)  (WS19) Part of LETITIA's staff - taken at Liverpool  (WS20) Repatriation centre at Marseilles - taken from LETITIA  (WS21) Helmsman on the bridge of LETITIA

 

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(WS22) Lt Col A.L. Cornish, of Victoria, BC, officer commanding Canada's new hospital ship LETITIA, is welcomed aboard by Captain J. Cook, of Glasgow, Scotland, skipper, in Montreal Harbour  (WS23) Captain Bailey, a fine old Scot with a great sense of humour  (WS25) Captain Bailey, Chief Officer Wilde, Chief Officer Stewart  (WS26) Taken in rough sea in winter time but ship is moving quite steadily  (WS27) Wesley Street, Sgt Halpenny  (WS28) Duffy, Brown, Wallace

 

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(WS29) Maj. Oliver,  Capt Lathram, Lt Col Duffy,  Capt Walker,  Lt Crowson,  Capt McCallum,  Lt Col Wallace,  Col Brown  (WS30) Brown, Wallace, McCallum, Crowson, Walker, Duffy, Latham  (WS31) Mrs. Poston (Red Cross), Capt Geo. K. Baillie, Mrs. Coste (Red Cross)  (WS32) Mrs. Poston (with Lt Col Wallace) in an attempt to look sweet  (WS33) McCallum, Ritchie, Palmer, Duncan

 

From the collection of Lt Col Stewart Wallace

 

Courtesy of John Wallace

 

T.S.S. LETITIA lapel pin

 

Private Harry Cunliffe Hirst of the Royal Canadian Regiment was seriously injured by a land mine during the battle to take the town of Rimini in Northern Italy during the fall of 1944. He was sent home on the TSS LETITIA in one of the first two voyages to Halifax. On the trip he bought souvenir pins from the gift shop on the ship. One for his mother and one for his fiancée.

 

From the collection of Harry Hirst

Courtesy of Richard Hirst

Dr. Walter Laurin Percival on his way from Canada to the UK as a passenger onboard the LETITIA

 

Click here to view the back of the photo

 

Courtesy of Marlee Percival Robinson

 

              

 

List of medical staff to crew LETITIA, dated Aug 1945, for a proposed voyage to the Pacific

 

Source: Library and Archives of Canada

 

Courtesy of Barry Miller

 

 

  

T.S.S. LETITIA postcard

 

This postcard is not dated and it is not known if it is pre or post Second World War

 

Courtesy of Malcolm Buc

 

 

  

 

Menu from LETITIA dated 01 Dec 1945 and calendar from LETITIA for Jan 1946

 

Courtesy of Hugh Muir

 

 

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