Category Archives: Archival Moments

Did Labrador have the first Christmas tree In North America?

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives: A 59-19; Four Inuit children during Christmas event, Nain, Labrador.

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

The tradition of the Christmas tree has been firmly established in Newfoundland and Labrador since at least the 1846 and may have been part of the culture long before that.

The first documented Christmas tree in Canada was the tree set up by Baron Friederick von Riedesel in 1781 in Sorel, Quebec. The Baron, following the custom of his native Germany, cut down a balsam fir from the dense forest surrounding his home and decorated it with white candles.

The next recorded use of a Christmas tree in what is now Canada is debatable. Was it Labrador or Halifax?

In Halifax in 1846, William Pryor, a local merchant, cut down an evergreen and decorated it with glass ornaments imported from Germany to please his German wife.

Several American cities claim to have had the first Christmas tree in America. Bethlehem, PA appears to have had the first decorated Christmas tree in 1747 at the German Moravian Church settlement, however it was made by putting evergreen branches on a wooden pyramid! Windsor Locks, CT claims they have earliest date in 1777.

In Labrador a writer with the Scottish publication, Hogg’s Weekly Instructor in June 1847 reporting on the work of the Moravian Missionaries in Labrador wrote:

“One year some German friends, remembering the pleasure created in their own country with the illumination of Christmas trees sent several hundred little candles to Labrador. The missionaries distributed them to the children after fixing them in some of the small white radishes which they raise in their melancholy gardens.”

It is likely that the candles were placed in the radishes by the missionaries to mimic a Christmas tree.

Perhaps Labrador was the first?

The Moravian Missionaries have been firmly established in Labrador since 1771. It is likely that these missionaries carried with them their customs and traditions which would have included the decoration of the Christmas tree.

The article in Hogg’s Weekly Journal was printed in 1847 but clearly the writer is recalling an event that took place in the past.

Is it possible that the Christmas tree tradition in Labrador started with that first Christmas in 1771 – a full ten years before the claim by the town of Sorel, Quebec (1781) and six year before Windsor Locks, CT (1777). ?

On the island portion of the province it is likely that the custom of using Christmas Trees was influenced by Queen Victoria. The young queen had a tree set up 1848, in accordance with the German Christmas custom of her German born husband, Prince Albert. It was a tradition that was quickly adopted by her subjects!

Recommended Exhibit: At The Rooms take some time to see a number of Christmas themed trees that have been prepared by staff and visiting students. Some of the trees that are featured include:

Recommended Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lhQ_hBT7lA Tannenbaum is a Christmas carol of German origin. A Tannenbaum is a fir tree or Christmas tree.

The first Salvation Army kettle in Newfoundland

ARCHIVAL MOMENT : CHRISTMAS TRADITION

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives: A 51-65. Salvation Army Christmas 1906 in front of No. 1 Citadel on New Gower Street,St. John’s, the first occasion of Salvation Army using collecting kettles at St. John’s.

One of the enduring symbols of Christmas is the Salvation Army kettle. Salvationists and friends stand at strategic shopping locations inviting the public to drop a few coins in their “kettles” with the monies realized going to the poor.

The kettle first appeared on the streets of San Francisco, California, USA in 1891 brainchild of Captain Joseph McFee, the kettles were used in a campaign to raise funds for a shelter in the waterfront district.

He remembered, during his earlier days in Liverpool, England, seeing a large kettle where passengers of boats that docked nearby were able to toss coins to help the poor.

Captain McFee suspended a large cooking pot from a tripod and placed a sign above it that read: “Keep the pot boiling.” Shortly thereafter, Christmas kettles began appearing in communities across the United States and are now an indispensable part of the holiday season.

In Newfoundland the Salvation Army has been firmly established since the first meeting of the Army on September 3, 1885 at the Methodist Church in Portugal Cove.

In late January of 1886 a group of four female officers arrived in St. John’s, soon followed by a District Officer, Arthur Young. This initial group of Salvationists established the first corps in Newfoundland on Springdale Street in St. John’s. They held outdoor meetings at the Parade Ground, and marched with their followers through the streets making as much noise as possible. Within two months, the Salvation Army in St. John’s had 200 soldiers.

It was the Christmas of 1906 that the first kettle was introduced into Newfoundland. The kettle was suspended on a tripod in front of No. 1 Citadel on New Gower Street, St. John’s.

In Canada the Salvation Army collects approximately $15 -20 million in the nearly 2,000 kettles on street corners and at retail outlets. In Newfoundland the kettles raises approximately $200,000.

Recommended Archival Collection: At The Rooms Provincial Archives there is a small collection of photographs documenting the presence of the army in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Christmas cake lottery season”

Archival Moment

December 17, 1884

There was a time in St. John’s when most people preferred to take home their ‘Christmas Cake’ after rolling the dice?

A Christmas experience that was quite popular in St. John’s, Newfoundland from the 1860 – 1890’s was the annual Christmas Cake Lottery. The practice was in fact so popular that many people referred to the Christmas season as the “cake lottery season”.

On December 20, 1884, the St. John’s newspaper The Evening Telegram reported:

“The ‘cake lottery season’ has now attained its height, and the confectionary business is fairly blooming.”

The competition between the ‘cake bakers’ for the attention of the public was huge with bakers in St. John’s vying for the attention of the Christmas shoppers to purchase their “large and elegantly decorated stocks of delicious cakes.”

Time to get the Christmas Cake ready!!

A St. John’s business directory in 1884 reported that that there was approximately 90 bakers registered in St. John’s. Almost every street in the town had a registered baker. In addition to the independent neighborhood bakers most Confectionary Stores had on staff at least one baker and many with more to meet the baking demands of their customers.

The notion of the cake lottery was so ingrained that an exception was made in the governments law “The Act of Suppressing Lotteries, 1864”; that allowed the ‘cake lottery’ “lawful during seasonal general festivity to hold Cake, Bazaars and other lotteries.”

There were those that were suspect of how the lotteries operated. On December 17, 1885, edition of the St. John’s Evening Telegram cautioned:

“Now that the customary Christmas Cake Lotteries have again come around, and the luck ‘turn to die’ enables many a one to win a frosted cake, who would otherwise be without one, I hope that the proprietors of these enterprises will see to it that honest persons only, and competent to reckon, will be given charge of the tables.”

It appears that in previous years that the newspaper reporter had observed that there was some skullduggery. In fact he had observed:

“ an instance, last year, of collusion between a party in charge of cakes and a confederate, by which the winner was cheated out of his right. It was done by snatching up the dice quickly after the last throw, before those interested could see the number of dots, and the dealer declaring his friend to have thrown the highest number and giving him the prize.”

The popularity of the tradition of holding the cake lotteries remained very prevalent until 1892. In the Great Fire of 1892 many of the bakeries that had normally participated had been destroyed by the conflagration.

It was in 1895 that the cake lottery was gradually replaced by the notion of a cake raffle. The move saw patrons on designated nights buying raffle tickets rather than throwing the dice to win the Christmas cake.

The Old Port of St. John’s

Archival Moment

December 2015

A great Christmas present.

More than 500 years in the making, St. John’s has become one of the most beautiful and incredible oceanside cities in the world.

The traditional hub of St. John’s was always the downtown and nowhere was it more active than in the port. In 2015, the Port of St. John’s marked the 50th anniversary of its establishment as a federally incorporated port.

In the fifty years since the port’s incorporation under the National Harbours Board of Canada, the Port of St. John’s has undergone remarkable change.

The gradual decline of various fisheries around the island saw the replacement of annual traditions with new ones. For years the port had hosted the arrival and departure of the spring seal fishery, which brought men from all over the island to the harbour-front in hopes of securing a berth at sea. Fishermen from all over the world relied upon the Port of St. John’s as the only safe haven in the North Atlantic, and many foreign sailors became intimately acquainted with the people and geography of St. John’s. In particular, the annual visit of the Portuguese White Fleet helped strengthen a special cultural relationship that is still nurtured today.

Within the past three decades, the port has managed to reinvent itself as a major base for the oil industry, a remarkable transformation for a port that credited its existence to the salt fish trade for five centuries. Today, the Port of St. John’s has reinvented itself into more than just a shipping terminal supplying the entire island, but also as a major oil supply base in the north Atlantic.

Given that the first paved road across the island was not completed until 1965, this port served as the only transportation link to the outside world for many Newfoundlanders.

All of the digitized oral histories in the book have been donated to the Maritime History Archive (MHA). Pictured from left to right are Russ Carrigan, chairperson, board of directors, St. John’s Port Authority; Heather Wareham, archivist, MHA; Sean Hanrahan, president and CEO, SJPA; and Allan Byrne, editor, A Beautiful Sight.

To mark the 50^th Anniversary, the Port Authority has been looking back at their many accomplishments, tracing the changes that have taken place in this storied harbour. The result is a rich oral history project, edited by archivist Allan Byrne, now published as a collection of stories titled A Beautiful Sight: Stories from the Port of St. John’s. The thirteen informants interviewed range from politicians, port administrators and businessmen to fishermen, stevedores and harbour pilots.

The port of St. John’s is the birthplace of North America’s oldest and most beautiful city. It’s a great story.

Recommended Reading: A Beautiful Sight: Stories from the Port of St. John’s By: Allan Byrne,Flanker Press, St. John’s, NL September 2015

Recommended Web site: Please note that there are hundreds of incredible archival photographs of downtown St. John’s located at this site: http://www.abeautifulsight.ca/

St. John’s dressed for Christmas: Talking Shopping Downtown St. John’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnNQIJ4VUvI

“The Dancing Season in St. John’s”

Archival Moment

November 28, 1894

In late November of 1894 a young clerical student challenged the Editor of the local St. John’s newspaper the Evening Telegram to encourage a debate about the merits of dancing. The young clerical student wrote:

“I want to know whether it is right or wrong, and perhaps if a discussion on the subject were opened up, one would be better able to judge.”

A number of subscribers to the Evening Telegram took on the challenge and penned letters making their positions known and they had very definite opinions.

Elizabeth A. Nyle from her home on Freshwater Road, St. John’s was the first to enter the fray stating quiet categorically that she was quite opposed to dancing. She wrote:

“It (dancing) involves extravagance of dress, and too often a shocking indelicacy of dress likewise. It involves contacts and caresses of young men and women which stimulate sensual passions. It kindles salacious thoughts. An evening spent in that way is not a recreation, it is a “revealing,” and ministers to vanity, frivolity, jealously and fleshy lusts , which war against the soul.”

Other letters to the Editor supported the notion of dancing. One woman writing under the pen name Minerva (the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts) wrote:

“I should certainly say that there can be no possible harm in this innocent pastime, as dancing is one of the most pleasant ways of taking exercise. It suits all classes, old and young, the old folks almost becoming young again under its vigorous influence. … It certainly is the great key to social intercourse, unbending even the most rigid in their endeavor to keep up with the music.”

If you were to go out dancing in St. John’s in the 1890’s the two most popular dances were the ‘Valse” and the “Minuet.”

The “Valse” was a relatively new dance in St. John’s and in 1894 considered “the dance”, but it seems “very few people knew how to dance it well.” Today we know the “Valse” as the Waltz . When first introduced into the ballrooms of the world in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, it was met with outraged indignation, for it was the first dance where the couple danced in a modified Closed Position – with the man’s hand around the waist of the lady.

The “Minuet” was also very popular at the time it was described as “being very graceful and when seen from a distance looks very imposing.”

In November 1894 all of the “Assembly Halls” in St. John’s were actively advertising for the “dancing season.” The West End Amusement Club was offering “dancing assembly’ every Wednesday night. The British Hall offered “dancing assembly” every Thursday night.

In St. John’s, “Christmas dancing was the chief amusement ; in fact it is the “dancing season” when old and young alike join in the sport, making old Father Xmas glad he came once more.”

It is likely that Mrs. Elizabeth A. Nyle was not amused.

Recommended Archives: Memorial University of Newfoundland – Archives and Special Collections. In 1982, the Centre for Newfoundland Studies and the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA), together with members of the local performing arts community, launched a joint project to collect primary material dealing with the history of the performing arts (theatre, music and dance) in Newfoundland and Labrador. Archivist: Colleen Quigley.

The Long’s Hill Cemetery – A Silent City

The Long’s Hill Cemetery – A Silent City

Long’s Hill Cemtery, St. John’s (1810 – 1849)

In 1849 legislation was introduced in the Colony of Newfoundland closing all cemeteries in St. John’s, including the cemetery for the Roman Catholic’s on Long’s Hill that was opened in 1811. What happened to the Long’s Hill Cemetery? What was St. John’s like between 1810 -1849?

Larry Dohey, Manager of Collections and Projects at the Rooms Provincial Archives will discuss the history of the cemetery, using archival documents, in a presentation Tuesday, 24 November 2015 at 7:30pm

Location: Hampton Hall at the Marine Institute .

Please forward to family and friends who may be interested.

Newfoundland shoe factories tender for army and seal skin boots

Archival Moment

November 18, 1915

Advertisement: Evening Telegram, 1915

With the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Newfoundland business men began to look for commercial opportunities and one of the first prospects came in the form of an advertisement from the war office in England asking for tenders to supply winter boots for the soldiers at the front.

The managers of Newfoundland boot and shoe factories were quick to pull their samples and price lists of the top boots made in their factories.

The St. John’s businessmen reasoned:

“The boots turned out by our factories for fishermen and seamen have always given satisfaction and are absolutely impervious to water. Our factories should also be able to turn out an equally serviceable army boot and if the samples being sent … meet with approval at the war office it is likely that our manufacturers will be given a share of patronage.”

A contract no matter how small would have been a substantial business opportunity. It was not about to happen, the Newfoundland factories could not compete against the established factories in England. An estimated 50 million pairs of boots and shoes were made in Northhamponshire area of England during the war, not just for the British Army but also for France, Russia, Italy and other allies.

Factories had always employed women, mostly in the closing room for their stitching and sewing skills. But with many men leaving the factories to serve, women increasingly took on other roles within the factories.

Not as good as Newfoundland boots!!

The boots that were being distributed were not has functional as hoped. In 1915 it was realized that a fungal infection of the feet brought on by exposure to damp, cold conditions was proving to be a huge problem. Some 20,000 casualties resulting from ‘trench foot’ were reputed to have been suffered by the British Army during the close of 1914. The Newfoundland businessman having tried decided to try another business approach.

In Newfoundland, businessman, Mr. Edgar Bowring and Governor Walter Davidson were encouraging experimenting with seal skin boots as the official Army boot. Many of the young Newfoundland soldiers knew the value of the sealskin boots because of their experience wearing the sealskins while prosecuting the seal fishery back home.

On February 12, 1915, Sir Walter Davidson, Governor of Newfoundland wrote in his diary:

“Sir H. (Sir Henry Wilson, British Director of Military Operations) writes me that the War Office is experimenting with our sealskins for army boots and that Mr. Edgar Bowring is pushing our interests”

The experimenti was short lived, on February 28, 1915, Governor Davidson wrote in his diary:

“Sir H. writes that our seal leather is not in favour with the War Office expert for boots”

Young Newfoundland soldiers were not dissuaded, if they could not get the proper foot gear from the army they would get them from home. These young men from Newfoundland in the wet and damp trenches of Europe were quick to write home asking for their parents to send them seal skinned boots. These soldiers knew that they would be the most effective against trench foot. Local newspaper advertisements in St. John’s boasted:

“Nearly every day we sell at least one pair of Skin Boots to be sent to the trenches they are so much superior to all other kinds of footwear that the wearer of a pair is envied by all those who are not so fortunate. You may be wise to send your boy, a pair and be sure to get the best kind – sewn with sinew.”

Recommended Archival Collection: The Rooms Provincial Archives: MG 136.5 Governor Walter Davidson fonds (February 1-28, 1915)

Recommended Exhibit: Pleasantville: From Recreation to Military Installation. Level 2 Atrium Pleasantville before the First World War was the site of the St. John’s cricket grounds. With the declaration of war, Pleasantville quickly emerged as a tent city, the home of the storied “First 500”. It was here that the First Newfoundland Regiment recruits began preliminary military training during the months of September and October of 1914. This exhibition highlights some of the activities and training of the Blue Puttees up to their embarkation on the SS Florizel for overseas service.

Recommended Museum Exhibit: Flowers of Remembrance: Level 2 Museum Vitrine: A number of flowers are associated with the First World War by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, including the familiar forget-me-not and poppy. Such commemorative flowers and their role in the collective memory of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are profiled. Using artifacts and period imagery relating to The Great War commemoration, The Rooms staff explore the significant role these flowers played across the last century.

Newfoundland sealing vessel on Russian postage stamp?

Soviet postage stamp, 1977. Ice-breaker steamship “G. Sedov”. She was originally the Newfoundland sealing steamer Beothic.

Archival Moment

November 19, 1915

On November 20, 1915 The St. John’s newspaper The Evening Telegram reported:

“Another member of our steel sealing fleet the Beothic went out through the narrows last evening (November 19, 1915) never to return again. She proceeds via New York to Archangel, (Arkhangelsk) Russia. The purchase price of the ship was $210,000.”

The 240.4 foot Beothic was well known and loved in Newfoundland , built by D & W Henderson Limited Glasgow, Scotland and launched in 1909 she was the property of the Job Brothers of St. John’s.

Steel steamers were introduced to the seal fishery in 1906; by 1914, Newfoundland had “the finest fleet of Sealers and Ice-Breakers in the World.” The annual four to six-week hunt could not support such expensive steamers.

The original scale model (approximately 7 feet) of the Beothic that was built for the Job Family of St. John’s is held in a private collection.

With the outbreak of war in 1914 Russia was desperate for steel hull l ships to use as icebreakers to keep White Sea and other Russian ports open for munition ships from Britain. In addition to negotiating for the purchase of the Beothic the Russians were also negotiating with other merchant families in St. John’s for the purchase of other steel hull sealing vessels.

The first ships sold were Reid Newfoundland Company’s freight and passenger steamers Lintrose and Bruce, both of which had been employed on the run between North Sydney and Port aux Basques. By the spring of 1916, five other vessels had been sold to the Russian Admiralty: A.J. Harvey’s icebreakers Bellaventure, Bonaventure, and Adventure; and Baine Johnson’s he Clyde.

On arrival in Russia, the Newfoundland sealing steamer the Beothic was fitted with steam engines and was renamed after Russian Captain and Polar explorer Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov.

This icebreaker became famous as the first Soviet drifting ice station.

In the summer of 1937 the Beothic (renamed the Sedov) and the Bruce (renamed the Malygin) while researching the ice conditions, became trapped by sea ice and drifted helplessly.

Owing to persistent bad weather conditions, part of the stranded crew and some of the scientists could only be rescued in April 1938. The Sedov, had to be left to drift in the ice and was transformed into a scientific polar station.

The Sedov kept drifting northwards in the ice towards the Pole. The scientists aboard took astronomical measurements, made electromagnetic observations, as well as depth measurements by drilling the thick polar ice during their 812-day stay aboard the Sedov.

Eventually, in January 1940, she was rescued and brought into the harbour at Murmansk, Russia.

The former Newfoundland sealing vessel was immortalized by the Russian government in 1977 with the creation of a postage stamp to celebrate the work on the first scientific polar station.

The ship was scrapped at Hamburg, Germany in 1968.

The Newfoundland icebreaking steamer Bruce (Malygin) is also celebrated on a Russian postage stamp. She was the first Soviet tourist cruise to the Arctic but that is a story for another day.

Recommended Archival Collection: At the Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 44: The James St. Pierre Knight fonds. This photograph album documents a trip by James St. P. Knight as medical officer on board the Job Brothers sealing steamer Beothic under Master George Barbour. The album is comprised of 41 photographs (b&w) depicting the activities of the sealers on board the SS Beothic and at the ice fields in 1911. The album also includes Knight’s berth ticket to the sealing hunt.

Recommended Reading: Chafe, Levi George. Chafe’s Sealing Book: A History of the Newfoundland Sealfishery from the Earliest Available Records Down to and Including the Voyage of 1923. Ed. H. M. Mosdell. St. John’s: The Trade Printers and Publishers Ltd., 1923.

Recommended Reading: Mike O’Brien, “Producers versus Profiteers: The Politics of Class in Newfoundland during the First World War,” Acadiensis XXXX, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2011): 45-69.

NOTE: Not to be confused with The steamship “Beothic,” formerly named the “Lake Como”, built in Lorain, Ohio, USA in 1918 . The Neptune Steamship Co., Ltd. acquired the vessel and registered it at St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1925. The vessel was re-registered the following year to the Job’s Seal Fishery Co., Ltd., also of St. John’s. The vessel is also well known for its role in the rescue of survivors from the S.S. “Viking” which exploded off Horse Islands, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, March 16, 1931. The “Beothic” was first on the scene, and helped to transfer surviving crew members to other ships

A letter from London: Remembrance Day, 2015

Wandsworth Cemetery, London is home to the graves of 18 Newfoundlanders.

How children at an English elementary school came to care for 18 Newfoundland graves. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment plot sits near the heart of the Wandsworth cemetery in London, England, not far from the Australians and the New Zealanders. Seventeen young men and one woman from Newfoundland lie buried here.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/ted-blades-letter-from-london-1.3311124

A Soldiers’ Letter Home

Archival Moment

November 21, 1914

Photo Credit: The Rooms Provincial Archives Division A 58-152, For Victory

There was a tradition in the early days of the First World War that saw many of the letters that were written by young soldiers, to their loved ones, published in the local Newfoundland papers.

One of the first “Soldiers Letters”, written home, that was published, was dated November 1, 1914 from Private Frank Richardson, Regimental Number 66 to his parents, Mr. Thomas and Mrs. M. Richardson at 68 Bannerman Street St. John’s. The letter was published in the Evening Telegram on November 21, 1914. Private Frank Richardson was 19 years old.

Frank Richardson marched with 536 other men, on October 3, 1914 from the training camp at Pleasantville, St. John’s to board the SS Florizel, a steamer and sealing vessel that had been converted into a troopship. He with the others, that we now call the First 500 or Blue Puttees, was cheered on by a large gathering of citizens, including his parents. On 21 October the men of the Regiment arrived at Pond Farm Camp, England, there they spent seven muddy chilly weeks.

A reporter form the prestigious newspaper Time of London described Frank Richardson and his the Newfoundland Regiment as:

“A smart Newfoundland contingent which has recently come in has the name of the colony similarly on its shoulder-straps. The newcomers are usually distinguished from the Canadians by their blue puttees. The type of man is the same-sturdy, strong, and unassuming. They are a splendid body of men, and had a great welcome from their brothers-in-arms.” (The Times of London , November 5, 1914)

All of the “soldiers letters” are interesting in that they give a unique perspective into the daily life and routine of a young soldier.

Frank Richardson’s letter is typical in that it starts with a standard greeting, wishing his parents good health. He wrote:

“I write you hoping to find you as well in health and spirits as I am.” He continues “Father and mother don’t be downhearted. I am all right and hope that you are the same.”

Private Richardson was aware that his parents were extremely stressed because of rumors that his transport ship, the Florizel, that carried the First 500 from St. John’s to England had sunk. He wrote:

“You must have received a shock when you heard we were gone down. I mean the time the news spread down there that we were lost at sea, but we are not, the Germans will not put us down. There are better times coming.”

The letters tended to also make the promise of regular communication. The young soldier wrote:

“Last night we went over to the Y.M.C.A. It belongs to the Canadians. It is place for singing and dancing; you can buy what you like there, so I brought a book of writing paper with envelopes. I hope that you will soon write me.”

He continued:

“It takes a letter a long time to come from here, so don’t worry about not getting letters from me every week. I will make it a practice to write you every Sunday evening, and post it Monday, and you do the same father.”

A constant theme that can be found in the letters is the sense of urgency on the part of the young Newfoundland soldiers to be part of the war. All of these young soldiers wanted to be in the trenches fighting. Private Richardson wrote:

“I wish that we were the front. We are going to get our guns tomorrow’ we have the whole fit out now. All the boys are well and happy. Just now we received our guns and bayonets, some class of regiment now.”

The early letters were also very revealing about military location and military strategy. He wrote:

“The Turks have declared war on Russia. We may be going to Egypt, the Turks will try to get through there and we have to try and stop them. That is the talk that is going around there.”

Following the publication of the first batch of letters home in 1914 official censors and newspaper editors were careful to omit details about troop locations and morale.

Richardson concluded his first letter home with the line.

“So I close now in love. I am your loving son Frank.”

Frank Richardson did get his wish to get to the front. He saw action in Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915; he was wounded at Beaumont Hamel, France on July 1, 1916 requiring extended hospitalization. He was killed in action on August 16, 1917. It is not known if other letters that he wrote have survived.

National War Memorial: On Wednesday, 11 November 2015 at 10:55 a.m., the Honourable Frank F. Fagan, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador and Her Honour Patricia Fagan, will attend the Remembrance Day War Memorial Service at the National War Memorial where His Honour will lay the first wreath. Her Honour will lay a wreath on behalf of the Women’s Patriotic Association. Following the Service, His Honour will take the Salute in front of the Court House on Water Street.

Recommended Archival Collection: From your home visit the website, The Great War: http://www.therooms.ca/regiment/part1_entering_the_great_war.asp The site contains the military files of soldiers from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who served in the First World War,. These files are searchable by name or by community and will therefore provide invaluable information for all viewers, but will be of particular interest to those who are conducting either family or community research.

Recommended Exhibit: Pleasantville: From Recreation to Military Installation. Level 2 Atrium Pleasantville before the First World War was the site of the St. John’s cricket grounds. With the declaration of war, Pleasantville quickly emerged as a tent city, the home of the storied “First 500”. It was here that the First Newfoundland Regiment recruits began preliminary military training during the months of September and October of 1914. This exhibition highlights some of the activities and training of the Blue Puttees up to their embarkation on the SS Florizel for overseas service.

Recommended Museum Exhibit: Flowers of Remembrance: Level 2 Museum Vitrine: A number of flowers are associated with the First World War by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, including the familiar forget-me-not and poppy. Such commemorative flowers and their role in the collective memory of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are profiled. Using artifacts and period imagery relating to The Great War commemoration, The Rooms staff explore the significant role these flowers played across the last century

Recommended Song: Recruiting Sergeant (Newfoundland-Great Big Sea) Recorded by Great Big Sea, Warner Music. Listen: http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/04/recruit.htm