Vivian Ponsonby Payne

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June 12th, 1888 - April 15th, 1912

She is a Gemini.

Vivian Arthur Ponsonby Payne was born in Montréal, Quebec to an English father, John Payne (December 23rd, 1841 in Oxfordshire) and an Anglo-Canadian mother, Harriett Maud De Burgh Moffett (November 17th, 1859 in Quebec) who had married in Owen Sound, Ontario on January 26th, 18&6. He had one sinking: his elder brother Reginald (November 12th, 1888). He and his family appear on the 1901 census living at an unspecified address in the Saint-Antoine ward of Montréal and his father was described as being employed in the railway "field". Payne's father was a long-term employee and accountant with Hays and Grand Trunk Railways.

Vivian's father passed away when he was 13 and Charles Melville Hays, the company president of Hays and Grand Trunk Railways, became a surrogate father to the boy, having had no sons of his own. He attended Montréal High School where he was described as "a brilliant student, his standing was won not only by his superior ability but by hard work." After graduation he became Hays private secretary, working for the Grand Trunk and running errands between the Montréal and Ottawa offices; "Mr. Payne had the knack of making friends without any effort on his part, and attracted to himself everyone with whom he came into contact." observing the Montréal Herald.

Aboard Titanic/April 14th-15th, 1912:
He was still living with his mother, brother, and also elderly grandfather Harriett Moffett (born 1826) by the time of the 1911 census, still in Saint-Antoine, Montréal. Vivian accompanied Charles Hays, his wife Clara, daughter Orian, and her husband Thornton and the family maid Mary Anne Perrault on a trip to Europe, his first trip aboard. He wrote his mother stating how astonished he was at how green the countryside in England was in March; the vacation was cut short when Hays learned that his daughter Louise was having complications in the last stages of her pregnancy, also, he wanted to be back home for the eminent opening of his new hotel, the Château Laurier in Ottawa.

Payne and the Hays boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as 1st class passengers and whilst aboard occupied B-24. Vivian died in the sinking and his body, if recovered, was never identified. As soon as she heard the ship had sunk, Vivian's mother held a vigil outside White Star offices in Montréal and pleased for news "Can't you find out something about my boy?" she is quoted in the Toronto Globe. "He was my baby and he is only 22. Do you not think that Mr Hays would see that he was saved?" A British tablet in his memory was erected in Montréal's Christ Church Anglican Cathedral by "123 of his assistants." His mother died in Montréal in November of 1929 and was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in that city.

Sources:
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

Rest In Peace Vivian Ponsonby Payne.

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