The post war story of Isabella and Gordon is proof of how war can ruin lives. Gordon Murray Beaton is still suffering from Shell Shock and the Trauma from whatever happened to him in the trenches in January 1916 at the beginning of the war. We don’t know all of what he might have witnessed on that day. We do know that whatever he saw , heard and felt that it stayed with him the rest of his life. Gordon goes missing in early March 1919. Isabella is beside herself with worry. She knows her husband is not well. She takes out an add in the Hamilton Spectator on March 6, 1919 asking the public to please look for him and look after him.
What happens after that we don’t know. We suspect he was not seen in Canada again But here is the crazy thing – he somehow ends up in Australia. And here is the really crazy thing – he enlists for WW2. Why in heavens name would he do that? He is 50 years old when he enlists in 1939. Well , maybe he knew what he was doing. He spends close to 5 years in the service , but in the 10 Garrison Battalion on Rottnest Island just off of Perth Australia. Sounds very similar to his posting in Bermuda. muda. And then more sadness for Isabella – in 1924 her young 6 year old daughter Lorraine passes away . We don’t know the cause. It could have been an accident. Or more likely some disease. The grief is overwhelming . How is she to cope? She has already lost her husband and now her daughter . From those romantic days in Bermuda when it looked like all her dreams were coming true – to now this – she is all alone with only her sister and brother in law to support her, if only their young son William didn’t remind Isabella so much of the child she has lost. Isabella passes away a in 1962 at age 72 – she is laid to rest in London’s Woodland Cemetery with her daughter Lorraine.
