Shivaun's Family Tree Website

 

Masts of HMS Warrior 1860

Henderson family

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 Part 3: Charles Henderson (1857 - 1940)

 

Marriage to Colina Campbell Riordan

Charles Henderson was the son of James Henderson and Maria Brookfield. He was born 05 June 1857 in Crowland. At some point in his twenties he moved to Toronto where he became a barrister. He married Colina Campbell Riordan (1858 - 1947) on 13 July 1887 in Port Hope, Durham County Ontario where Colina had been born. In the late 1880s, the family lived at 56 Gowan Avenue in East York, Toronto but by 1914 were in High Park Boulevard where they probably lived for the rest of their lives. They had two children, Charles Brookfield and Constance. They were able to employ a series of young domestic servants, three of whom rejoiced in the names Minnie Moorhead, Minnie McLean and Carrie Morrison. Charles Sr died 26 March 1940 and Colina 12 October 1947.

 

Charles Henderson

 

Brookfield Henderson

 

 

 Children of Charles and Colina

Charles Brookfield (1889 - 1940) was generally known as ‘Brookfield’ or 'Brook'. He was born 30 March 1889 and became a barrister like his father. In 1914, he filed a patent, number CA 156441, for a collar though nothing else is known of this enterprise. On 14 September 1915 he enlisted in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, having spent two months with the 48th Highlanders, a part-time militia infantry regiment based in Toronto. His rank was that of Lieutenant. It is not known where he saw action in World War I but he left Canada with the 92nd OS Battalion (Highlanders), and it is possible the battalion was broken up when it arrived in England and he joined another battalion. His attestation papers described him as 5’8”, dark hair, blue eyes, fair complexion and fit for service.

At the end of the war, he was one of the first to return, sailing from Liverpool, England in December 1918 aboard the recently built SS Minnedosa. He returned to his work as a barrister but made several trips back and forth across the Atlantic a decade later. In December 1929 he sailed first class from New York City to Southampton, England on the SS Olympic (sister ship of the Titanic). He presumably made his way to Bremen, Germany as he departed from there in late January 1930 on the SS Bremen. At some point in the next few years he was in Europe again and in April 1933 sailed from the Mediterranean (possibly Naples) on a yacht, the SS Cyprus, via Southampton to New York. With a crew of 32, he was the only passenger on board, apart from another man already described as a ‘sailor’. It is not known whether these voyages were for business or pleasure, though his address in London was listed as the ‘Canadian Bank of Commerce’.

Brookfield’s hobbies included skeet shooting and won at least one competition (the trophy still being in the family’s possession!). He never married and died 12 October 1940.

 

More information about Constance (1890 - 1973) appears in Part 4. [1]

Next: Constance Henderson

 


Footnotes

[1] Census of Canada 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, Ontario Canada Marriages 1857-1924, Canadian Passengers Lists 1865-1935, Border Crossings: Canada to US 1895-1956, Canadian Soldiers of World War I 1914-1918, Ontario Canada Births 1869-1909, UK Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960 (Ancestry.co.uk); Canadian Patents Database (http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/introduction.html); Soldiers of the First World War – CEF, Library and Archives Canada (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca); family tree provided by Phillip Leith; Passenger lists leaving UK 1890-1960 (www.findmypast.com)