Ever since the founding of the city of Halifax back in the year 1749 there has always existed a form of the Halifax Citadel all the way up at the top of Citadel Hill. It was considered one of the most pivotal defence points of the entire city as not only was it the highest vantage point for the entirety of the city of Halifax but was meant to be used as a pivotal fort for the protection of the city from a land-based attack where you could put a bunch of other fortifications within the small islands that litter Halifax’s harbor closer down to the shoreline to deal with any potential ship combat it may see. While most of this combat was expected to happen by sea, the citadel also played a pivotal role in protecting from the landside to not only make its defence systems as flashy and impressive as possible but also make sure that enemies would see these fortifications and how impenetrable they were and not even try to attack any of them in the first place. In fact, going all the way back from its first iteration in 1749 and past its final or fourth iteration, which finished construction in the year 1856, it had served that purpose. Despite the fact that it never saw any combat along with all of Halifax’s other fortifications in this way it still does serve its purpose of being an impenetrable military fortress.
However, that’s not to say that over the course of Halifax’s lifetime the citadel hasn’t gone without its fair share of fatalities. There are ghost stories going all the way back from the founding of this city’s history all the way up to the fourth version of the citadel, even going up into the modern day and if I were to sit here and talk about every single story that’s ever occurred at the Citadel, I’d be here for more space than what my device would even allow me to record.
Instead, I’ll talk about the story that has, for lack of a better term, haunted (no pun intended) the Citadel for the longest period of time going all the way back from the year 1900 all the way up to this day. Ever since the early 1970s and going all the way up to modern day there have been a group of security guards called the commissionaires who roam around the fort at all hours of the day and make sure there are no miscreants trying to make their way in, no vandalization is happening or any theft, intruders, anything of that sort. The commissionaires tend to be the people who see the most paranormal things happen at the citadel.
There is a set of happenings that occurs mostly on the second floor of the Citadel’s Cavalier Building, a building that was meant as the main form of barracks for rank-and-file infantry at this time. Since the Fort was decommissioned at the end of the Second World War, it has been used as an army museum that would talk about Canadian history going all the way back from independence in 1867 up to even modern day efforts including the peacekeeping efforts that were done in Afghanistan in the early to mid 2000s. It’s at the army museum where these strange set of occurrences happen the most often. They start off with things like flickering lights in the entrance to the army museum; a rocking chair which they sit on during the regular day as they talk to visitors rocks back and forth with seemingly no momentum to keep it forward; maybe walk in to do your rounds late at night and there is a strong overwhelming scent of an old floral perfume that seems to have no source but as soon as you walk through the hallway that leads to the second room it seems to cut off entirely. However, the thing that seems to happen most up there seems to be an apparition of sorts: the figure of a lady in a long dress described in a variety of different colours, whether they be black, white, blue, green, brown; every colour under the sun. Sometimes she appears roaming the hallways and disappears as soon as you shine a light on her; sometimes she exists up in the third floor of the cavalier building above the army museum or you see a light flicker and her figure stands staring down at you from the main level to only have that light flicker and just as fast she seemingly disappears without a trace or maybe she slowly descends one of the staircases as soon as you exit and as soon as you try to follow her she doesn’t leave even a trace of her existence there. In fact, these sets of occurrences, most of which seem to be feminine in some sort of nature, these happened so often that the commissionaires who have been working at the Citadel have given this apparition a nickname; they nicknamed her the Grey Lady.
Now if that were all I had on the Grey Lady I wouldn’t be spending the time to talk about it now, but a few years ago (I want to say it was a little over 5 or so), there was a Parks Canada researcher who does a lot of digging through historic archives and finding historic information that we can tell at our site, who was browsing a public birth and death record archive going from the late 1800s all the way up to about the end of the First World War. When he comes upon a record that kind of catches his eye a bit, for a few different reasons. First off, this is the record of a man who (these were all Halifax birth and death records, so they were all guys that were here) unlike the rest of these records which all happen to be civilian this was one of a guy within the artillery, pretty close to the time period of the late 1860s early 1870s that’s represented at the Citadel. On top of that he’s also a quite high-ranking member within the British artillery so that’s another good sign. The thing that seems to catch him the most however, is not only did it state that he had died up at the Halifax Citadel, but it also turns out that the very room that this man had died in was directly underneath the offices of the guy that was digging through these records in the first place. Although this wasn’t really his main objective it ticked too many green boxes to leave unchecked and as a result this took him down a rabbit hole which not only exposed a story which was long forgotten by most members of the public, but had also given a lot of foresight to his story that was considered to be the most popular amongst the Citadel’s ghost tours. Foresight that would not only lead us to believe nowadays that this Grey Lady entity who has been seen at least for the past 50 years if not longer, is not only real but we also have a name and a face that we can put to her. We believe her name to be miss Cassie Allen, but to talk more about the Grey Lady, Miss Allen, we have to talk about the man whose death had sparked the investigation that led to these breakthroughs in the first place, his name being battery Sergeant Major George Edwards.
It was the night of November 13th 1900, where over at the sergeants’ mess, a building that was situated in the back right corner of the Citadel and was just a few dozen feet off to the right side of the main barracks where all these guys had stayed, there was a dinner happening, one that had steak and potatoes and seasonal vegetables and the whole nine yards; wine too, don’t forget about that. One of the regimental sergeant majors of the infantry regiment that was stationed there for the time proceeds to rise from his chair and toast his glass to get people’s attention and he exclaims that Sergeant Major Edwards, who is sitting not three chairs off to his right, was bound to be married the next morning and officially become a husband. Something that you know would arise at the very least a polite form of applause from the people around them if not full-blown congratulations of sorts. But instead of receiving any praise, the guys who are at the table around him they just kind of start pointing and relentlessly laughing at this poor guy; not the kind of reaction you’d expect from a wedding announcement. In fact, it even gets so bad that the guy who’s sitting to Edwards’ right at the table who is also kind of pointing and laughing at him, he’s in for quite the surprise. Edwards who just been quietly sitting there trying to enjoy his food quickly springs up out of his chair, winds up his fist and full force, sucker punches the guy beside him and picks him up by the collar with one hand and starts to absolutely wail on this poor guy for at least a good 10 seconds before they end up getting broken up. Through some miracle after this fight gets broken up, Edwards is not charged with any crime despite the fact that he’s beaten that poor guy black and blue. He didn’t even get any chance to fight back, and the dinner is cancelled and everyone goes back to their quarters. It’s about time to get some rest anyways. Then comes the morning of November 14th, 1900. For this time your wake up for a soldier was at 6:00 in the morning and as soon as they got up they had to tidy up their benches and their tables and their beds, get everything organized, polish all of their leathers, shine all of their brass accoutrements and be spic and span for a 6:30 inspection. It was about 6:15 when there are a bunch of guys on the first floor of the cavalier building who were shining and getting all their stuff ready when, all of a sudden, in one of the rooms above them, it seems like it comes from the top left room, they hear an ear-shattering thud which surprisingly doesn’t really set off a whole lot of people. It’s hard to say whether it’s because they’re used to being in an environment where they’re hearing gunshots and training all the time or, you know maybe, they just assumed it was some guy who was trying to put a table together and had it all collapse on the floor. It’s hard to say but they more or less ignore this loud thud coming from above them and they continue to get ready for their inspection.
At 9:30 in the morning we’re down at a building called Trinity Church which unfortunately no longer exists today but was only about a 12- maybe 15-minute walk away from the Citadel. There was a bride sitting outside the doors, impatiently checking her father’s pocket watch where members of her family had also gathered around, all impatiently stomping their feet as the wedding was supposed to start at 9:00 and the groom is already half an hour late to his own wedding. The bride-to-be, who is miss Cassie Allen, gets so impatient that she sends for her cab driver to head up to the top of Citadel Hill, drag her husband out by force if necessary, and bring him down so they can finally get this wedding started. Of course he does so without any hesitation; it’s already a bit embarrassing that the man who was supposed to ferry you and your husband off to a fantastically executed wedding now has to go out of his way to do this for you. No one is in a particularly good mood and it’s not going to get any better until Sergeant Major Edwards shows up to that altar and they can finally get started. The sentry who is stationed out front of the Halifax Citadel meant to watch for any trespassers making their way in describes seeing a beautiful chariot of white making its way up along the perimeter road of the Citadel with silver and white tinsel lining its outside and two white ribbons streaming along its back. The carriage is being hauled by two beautiful horses with brown manes and brown coats with little white spots sprinkled around here and there. It comes up the hill with blinding speed then comes to a screeching halt. And not with a second to spare, the cab driver hops out, sprints over to that sentry and he goes “Good sir, could you please watch over my horses? I must fetch a man who is dreadfully late to his own wedding.”
The sentry replies, “you’re not looking for Edwards, are you?”
“Why yes, I am! Does there seem to be a problem with that?”
“I’m sorry to say sir, but I don’t think you’re going to be needed here anymore.”
“What? Why is that? Can’t you at least give me an explanation?”
“Well sir, I’m sorry to say that Edwards will not be coming out as he was unfortunately found dead this morning.”
The sentry proceeds to explain to the cab driver that once inspections had started at 6:30 in the morning, in the overflow married quarters which was the top left room of the second floor of the cavalier building, which now is the entrance to the citadel’s army museum, the inspecting party had found the door barricaded from the inside by tables and chairs and benches and beds and after getting through with quite a lot of physical force, they found all the way at the backside of the room just beside the fireplace, Sergeant Major Edwards slumped over with his artillery service carbine still smoking at his side; the smell of gunpowder still fresh in the air, where he had put a bullet straight through his head and his taken his own life, just hours before his wedding was supposed to start.
It’s after learning this unfortunate news that the cab driver understands that he has a responsibility to head back down to Trinity Church and tell the unfortunate wedding party what has become of the supposed-to-be groom. He does it with full force, just as fast as he came up that hill, he goes all the way back down to Trinity Church, not even sparing a second.
To rub salt into this proverbial wound, as soon as the poor cab driver gets down there, what is everyone outside of Trinity Church do but start clapping. I mean, why wouldn’t they? You just saw the cab driver arriving back quickly; the natural assumption is that he’s just arrived with Edwards in tow after dragging him out for being late and they can finally get started with this wedding that they were supposed to do. However, when the cab driver steps out alone, the crowd draws silent. He walks up to miss Allen and she quietly exclaims “Good sir, where is my husband?” At that point the cab driver takes a deep breath and says “I don’t know how to tell you this Miss Allen, but your husband Edwards was found dead in quarters this morning. You are not going to be married and there is no longer going to be any ceremony.” Poor Miss Allen, upon hearing this starts to laugh thinking that this might just be some sort of sick joke being played on her and at any second Edwards is going to step out of that carriage and they can move on with all these shenanigans and finally get married. But nothing happens and it’s less than a few minutes after this realization that Miss Allen, in the deepest reaches of her soul, goes from quiet to sobbing to complete hysterics. In fact by the time it’s over, members of her family have to restrain her by the arms and legs as she’s kicking and screaming and wailing for her husband who is never going to show up at the altar. She’s loaded back into that carriage and driven all the way back to the Allen family estate. The last nail in this coffin comes from her walking through the main entrance and into the dining room where the family maid was working tirelessly all morning to provide a fantastic breakfast for two for the wedding party that unfortunately didn’t get partaken by anyone that day, along with two white roses that sat in a vase in the centre of that table that also eventually wilted away.
And so, the big question comes from something like this: why did Edwards do it? Why did he take his own life especially in the fashion that he did? It’s supposed to be an important landmark in his life so why would he do something like this? After his death there is of course an investigation done into the circumstances surrounding it where quite a few interesting tidbits are found. Naturally they find out about the big dinner fight that happened the previous night, but on top of that they also heard of a recounting from a funeral shop owner down on Lower Water Street who testified that Edwards had walked into his parlor about a week and a half before his death and opened up a coffin of his own volition, lied in it himself and proceeded to turn his head and ask if he looked good in this one. After getting out and then leaving the shop without another word which was quite strange but not something to really mention to the authorities.
However, they find out an even more interesting detail about Edwards during their investigation. You see, regiments move around for this time period, especially every three to five years, so they’re never in one place for too long. It just so happens that before Edwards’s regiment was stationed in Halifax, it spent about four years down in Bermuda and according to other members of his regiment who spent quite a bit of time with him, they stated that while Edwards was in Bermuda he had already married someone! He had a Bermudan wife who was not able to come along with the regiment due to space constraints when they were leaving and as a result, Edwards’s Bermudan wife had to stay over there as he traveled to Halifax. Less than a year after arriving in the city he received a letter that his Bermudan wife had “been admitted to a mental ward and passed away under mysterious circumstances”. With that the question comes: was it out of guilt maybe for his previous wife? Was it out of shame or fear of his secret being exposed to his new wife by other members of his regiment?
It’s hard to say at this point as we can’t get into Edwards’s head anymore. We’ll never find out exactly what he was thinking in that moment. The only other bits that we do have is that to this day, Edwards is buried over at Fort Massey cemetery, just at the top of the crest of the hill on Queen Street in Halifax, stating specifically his date of death as November 14th, 1900, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Poor Miss Allen proceeded to live a full life after this incident. She passes away several decades later from old age, but she never ends up marrying again.
The last question I’ll leave you with about the Grey Lady is: who do you think the Grey Lady really is? Is it the spirit of Miss Cassie Allen who listlessly wanders the halls of the building where her husband had taken his own life and is unable to move on even centuries later; still wanders despite never being able to see him again, or is the Grey Lady the spirit of Edwards’s Bermudan wife, perhaps filled with anger, betrayal, maybe even hatred at him for what happened with her being left in Bermuda. Who knows, maybe she had some sort of influence to drive Edwards to his own suicide almost like a form of postmortem revenge. What do you think?
Context: This story was told to me by B.E.W, a Military Interpreter at the Halifax Citadel Canadian National Historic Site. It is commonly recounted to visiting tourists during ghost tours at the site. It tells the story of a lady in grey who has been seen on multiple occasions since 1900 at the Citadel’s Cavalier House. She is believed to be either the abandoned first wife of Sergeant Major George Edwards, or the fiancée he left at the altar in 1842 as he died by suicide the evening before his second wedding.
Analysis from storyteller: B.E.W. says that he first learned of these stories around 5 years ago when he began working at the fortress and enjoys them the most because they are “not tall tales; there are multiple varied accounts of them happening and they even have some authentic documentation to back them up”. Also, he says that “these are the stories that the people on my tours are always most intrigued by”.
Analysis from myself: This is an interesting part of the history of the city I was born in and a place that I have visited many times. I assumed there were hauntings but not with such specific documentation of historical accuracy. It brings the past to life and makes me appreciate the history of my hometown. It makes me think about ghosts having unfinished business with the living.