Here is the story of Jock Hume's sister, Catherine (Kate). I find it sad, really; I have tried to piece together the entire story but because of varying accounts it is somewhat difficult.
Here goes:
Kate Hume—named after her maternal grandmother—was born on June 28 1897, the youngest daughter of Andrew and Grace Hume. She had three older siblings; Nellie, John (Jock), and Grace, and one younger brother, Andrew (Andy). She resided in Scotland, having been born at 4 Springbank, Dumfries. Kate, like much of her family, played a musical instrument, her instrument of choice being piano. Her father, it was said, had high hopes for her and that he believed she was very talented musically.
When Kate was eight years old, her mother, Grace Law Hume, died of cancer (in 1906). Kate was extremely upset (she had been very close to her mother) and moreso when her father married the following year to a family friend named Alice Alston. Kate felt as though Alice was trying to take the place of her mother. As a child, Kate was very headstrong, and none of her sisters got on with their stepmother. Kate's older sister Grace moved out around 1908 and Nellie began to work in a glove mill.
Kate was very close to her older brother Jock (she was later to become close to her older sister, Grace). He was seven years older than she, and their father would later relate that they were so close that they behaved more like good friends than siblings. Both were talented where music was concerned. Kate was always cheerful when her older brother returned from the long voyages he spent on board liners, playing along with the ship's band.
Tragically, in April of 1912, Jock left for the White Star liner Titanic. The ship sank, killing 1500 people due to lack of lifeboats. Jock Hume died in the sinking; his family recieved confirmation on shortly thereafter.
Kate had adored her brother and his death hit her the hardest of the entire Hume family. She was also still dealing with her mother's death from 1906. At 14 Kate also wanted much more independence and liked going out at night. Her father said she often was childish and excitable, but that she was intelligent and musically talented. As time passed Kate became more disobedient, and her stepmother Alice took to using a riding crop to discipline her, on one occasion using a stick and cutting Kate's face.
On August 7th, 1914 (when Kate was seventeen), Alice had an argument with Kate whilst Andrew was away on business. Kate decided that she no longer wished to live with her parents and went to live with her friend Robina McMinn and Robina's mother, Agnes McMinn. Kate had not told her father or stepmother where she was going, and Andrew did not speak to her for a month.
On September 11, 1914, Kate returned to the McMinns' home early from her workplace in tears. She told Mrs McMinn, "Grace is dead!" and Kate showed her two letters that a woman named J. M Mullard had supposedly given her. The first was supposedly written by Grace as she died and it read:
6th Sept
Dear Kate,
This is to say Good bye. Have not long to live. Hospital has been set on fire. Germans cruel. a man here has had head cut off. and my right breast taken away
Give my love to
Good bye
Grac x
The other was supposedly from J.M Mullard. It said:
To Miss Hume –
I have been asked by your sister, Miss Grace Hume, to hand the enclosed letter to you. My name is nurse Mullard, and I was with your sister when she died. Our camp hospital at Vilvorde was burnt to the ground and out of 1,517 men and 23 nurses only 19 nurses were saved, but 149 men managed to get away.
Grace requested me to tell you that her last thoughts were of Andrew [Kate's brother] and you, and that you are not to worry over her. She would be going to meet her Jock. These were her last words. She endured great agony in her last hours.
One of the soldiers (our men) caught two German soldiers in the act of cutting off her left breast, her right one having already been cut off. They were killed instantly by our soldiers. Grace managed to scrawl this enclosed note before I found her, but we all say that your sister was a heroine.
She was out on the fields looking for wounded soldiers and on one occasion when bringing in a wounded soldier a German attacked her. She threw the soldier’s gun at him and shot him with her rifle. Of course all nurses here are armed.
I have just received word this moment to pack for Scotland. Will try to get this handed to you as there is no post from here, and we are making the best of a broken-down wagon truck for a shelter. Will give you fuller details when I see you. We are all quite safe now as there have been reinforcements.”
While Mrs McMinn tried to calm Kate down, Kate explained that Nurse Mullard had come to her workplace and given her the letters. Kate's employer, James Campbell, was the first to hear of Grace's murder, and he thought there was something strange about the fact that the letter that both notes were written on seemed like the paper in his office. However, he dismissed the thought, and Kate returned to the McMinns' home to give the news that her sister was dead.
Due to the nature of the letters' content, the story rapidly spread. Once Andrew Hume, Grace's father, had heard the news, he wrote to the War Office to ask for details. He tried to get a local newspaper to stop publication because he doubted the truthfullness of the story, but the editor was convinced that the first was genuine but that the longer one from Nurse Mullard might've been written by 'an excitable person'.
Meanwhile, back at the McMinns' home, Mrs McMinn and her daughter attempted to console Kate, but every time that they tried to leave Kate alone, she would resume crying. On September 14 a reporter wanted to interview Kate, but Mrs McMinn told him that Kate was not feeling well. Robina went to Kate and told her about the reporter. Kate responded by telling Robina to give the letters to the reporter, but to ensure that they would be given back to her. Robina did so and the letters were published.
On September 16 1914 Kate's sister Grace, over in Huddersfield, England, heard of her own murder and sent a telegram to her father that she was safe. She also wrote a letter to him, explaining that she had no idea as to who could've made up the story. When Kate was told that her sister was safe, she said, "Well, I'd like to think it is true, but I cannot believe it." Kate said that she thought that the letter Grace had written to her father was faked. She added a detailed description of the woman that visited her.
Once the police were satisfied that Grace was alive, they suspected that either a woman actually had visited Kate and told her the story, or that Kate had made the whole thing up. Kate, probably under pressure, confessed to writing the story. The authorities were reluctant to charge Kate with anything because she had not had any criminal intent. But others pointed out that she had broken a certain law by writing about the war which required her to undergo a military trial. The military did not want to deal with a seventeen year old girl who had made up a silly story, so instead, on September 29 of that year, the police arrested Kate and took her to Calton Jail in Edinburgh. She was charged with forgery and would face a two-day criminal trial.
Calton Jail where Kate was imprisoned
On December 26 1914, Kate's defence counsel John Wilson visited her for the first time. He attempted to have Kate released on bail for health and compassion reasons, but the prison refused; they said she showed 'criminal tendencies'.
Kate's trial began on December 27 1914. When the charges were read out, Kate, wearing a blue coat, black fur necklet, and black hat, was said to have been perfectly calm. She said that she was, 'Not Guilty' because that at the time that she had faked the letters, her mind was too unbalanced to know that she was committing a crime.
Her parents, Andrew and Alice attended the first day of Kate's trial, and John Wilson cross-examined them. Alice only said she had to 'check [Kate] for being a bit careless', and that Kate 'resented' Alice's form of discipline. Alice added that 'Kate was a bit headstrong' and how their 'relations became a bit strained'. Following Kate's beating back in 1913, she had told a man named Robert Beattie about it, and she asked if the police would take it up. He told her the police didn't like to deal with family problems. Mr. Beattie was later present at Kate's trial to back up Kate's claims.
The trial of Kate Hume (Kate is on the far left)
Kate, who was described by one newspaper as being 'a girl of prepossessing appearance', had grown half an inch whilst in prison (she was 5'7 by the time of her trial). She answered questions at her trial and was said to have been totally composed and calm. She did, however, break down crying on several occasions, one of them being when the subject of her brother Jock and the Titanic was brought up. Photos were published in newspapers of Kate crying, with a handkerchief to her face. She described how she felt miserable living at her father and stepmother's house: 'Long before I left my father's house...I had headaches and could not sleep, and [I] gave way to crying when [I was] left alone.' She also said: 'I often went to bed crying', and that she was depressed. Kate had told doctors that examined her on Christmas Eve that she had frequent headaches, insomnia, and that she had dreamed of her brother, Jock. Psychiatrists theorized Kate had been rendered emotionally unstable or was suffering from adolecsent hysteria. In total, 22 witnesses were questioned, all of whom stated that Kate was intelligent and did not seem to be mentally affected.
Kate was found guilty with a recommendation to leniency. She broke down when she was told she was free and 'wept convulsively' according to one newspaper, and was led away by a woman warder. The gallery in the courtroom during the trial was full, and there were crowds outside who cheered upon hearing Kate was to be released.
After her release Kate went into domestic work. She met a man named Thomas Terbit while she worked as a domestic servant and they married in 1919. The couple had five children, and Kate named one John Law Hume Terbit. She died in 1947 at the age of 50 from lung disease.
In all honesty I feel nothing but sadness for Kate. Imagine going through everything she did; losing the people whom she cared about, going into depression, running away from home. There is no wonder why she would have made up that story, an unanswered cry for help. Whether Kate was emotionally unstable can be disputed but I do believe she was depressed and that she deserves some form of sympathy. Poor girl.
Sources:
The band that played on by Steve Turner
And the Band Played on by Christopher Ward
RMS TITANIC: The first violin by Yvonne Hume
The man who sold Nelson's Column; and other Scottish Frauds and Hoaxes by Dane Love
Sites:
encyclopedia titanica
ancestry.com
dgstandard.co.uk
