The Ground Beneath Them Was Dry

A bench in Calgary’s Union Cemetery stands over the unmarked graves of Charles Tawse and May Swindells, killed by lightning on April 29, 1915. The account reconstructs their deaths from weather records, newspapers, directories, cemetery plans and genealogical documents. After an unusually hot, dry day, a thunderstorm struck the city. The couple were walking arm in arm toward the home where May worked when lightning hit them; their bodies lay in the street through the night. A newspaper reported that the earth beneath them remained dry while rain soaked the surrounding ground, using that contrast to estimate the strike occurred before the rain began, around 9:30 p.m. Their injuries were severe, and the coroner reportedly declared death instantaneous and an inquest impossible.

The investigation also exposes how little the surviving record agrees on the dead. May appears under several versions of her surname, and reports give her age as anywhere from about 24 to 34. Genealogical records suggest she was Mary Swindells, born in England in 1880, who worked in the silk industry before emigrating and entering domestic service in Calgary; she may have understated her age. Charles’s name likewise varies across documents, and the surviving text begins to trace his background but breaks off before completing it. The essay dwells on the gaps and errors in these records, the coroner’s unexplained wording, and the ordinary civic choices that eventually placed a public bench above the couple’s graves.