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)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

 

Bell Island ferries collide

ARCHIVAL MOMENT

November 10, 1940

Bell Island Tragedy, November 10, 1940

On Sunday, November 17, 1940  Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche of St. John’s, accompanied by Rev. R. McDermott Murphy, visited the Parish of Portugal Cove for the administration of the sacrament of Confirmation. By the express wish of the Archbishop, all signs of greeting and rejoicing, usually associated with visits of this kind, were omitted, because of the many families in the settlement who lost relatives and friends in the disaster of November 10th.

Addressing the  parish priest of Holy Rosary Church in Portugal Cove  Archbishop Roche said:

“after the dreadful tragedy which had occurred so near them a week ago, he felt that at the earliest possible moment he would like to tender the heartfelt sympathy of the Church to those who had been bereaved by this terrible disaster.’

There were many sad homes in that section of Conception Bay, many who were mourning their friends and loved ones who had been taken from them with such tragic and appalling suddenness.  The Archbishop said

“To one and all, deepest and most heart-felt sympathy went out.”

The tragedy was the collision of the M.Y.W. Garland, and the little Golden Dawn. Two ferries that were serving the Bell Island. 26 souls who had sailed on the ferry the Garland from Portugal Cove were drowned.

There were only four survivors.  The four survivors were Norman Ash, owner of the Garland, Harbour Grace, Gerald Tucker of St. Philips and two brothers, John and James Quilty of St. Thomas’.

Do you know where I could locate the names of the 26 that died?

Recommended Archival Collection:  At the Rooms Provincial Archives explore GN 13: Dept. of Justice (1934-1949). Drowning Tragedy, Bell Island Tickle: motor boats “Golden Dawn” and “Garland”: 10 Nov. 1940 Description number file 10 Box number Box 215

Recommended Reading: THE MINERS OF WABANA by Gail Weir,St. John’s (Nfld.), Breakwater Press, 1989. (Canada’s Atlantic Folklore and Folklife series).

“Unite the old world and the new”

Subscribers to the St. John’s newspaper, The Courier on  (November 8, 1850) read about the feasibility of an underwater electric cable running from Ireland to Newfoundland. The letter to the Editor read:

“I hope the day is not far distant when St. John’s will be the first link in the electric chain which will unite the Old World and the New.”

Previous to this proposal all discussion about this new form of communication “telegraphic communication” had suggested Halifax as the terminus.

The writer of the letter Bishop John Thomas Mullock, the Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland in making the proposal was the first to suggest Newfoundland as the terminus rather that Nova Scotia. Mullock wrote:

“Now would it not be well to call the attention of England and America to the extraordinary capabilities of St. John’s, as the nearest telegraphic point? It is an Atlantic port, lying, I may say, in the track of the ocean steamers, and by establishing it as the American telegraphic station, news could be communicated to the whole American continent forty-eight hours, at least, sooner than by any other route.”

Prior to penning the letter Mullock had done his home work. Critics had for example argued that an underwater electric cable would not be safe from icebergs. Mullock had read extensively on the subject collecting a number of books on the electric telegraph. He also subscribed to a number of geological publications and collected geological maps and surveys. Based on his research he argued in the letter that the electric cable will be perfectly safe from icebergs. These book and maps now form part of the collection in the Basilica Museum Library in St. John’s.

In 1854, Frederick Gisborne secured financial backers, including American capitalist Cyrus Field and British telegraph engineer, John Brett. The New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company was incorporated in 1854; the Newfoundland legislature granted the company exclusive rights to the submarine telegraph for 50 years and a government subsidy. The company successfully installed the transatlantic cable between Heart’s Content and Ireland (1866); and Heart’s Content and Valentia (Ireland) (1873-1874).

Recommended Archival Collection: Take some time to explore MG 570 at the Rooms Provincial Archives. MG 570 are the records of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company (Harbour Grace) fonds. The collection consists of letter books received, outgoing correspondence, general orders, rules, and regulations and service messages sent and received.

Recommended Book: Atlantic Sentinel by D.R. Tarrant, Fkanker Press. Atlantic Sentinel is illustrated with sixty vintage photographs and maps. The illustrations range from sketches of the early transatlantic attempts in the 1850s and 1860s to photographs of cable station staff in the twentieth century

Recommended Reading: Frederic Gisborne, Cyrus Field and the Atlantic Cable of 1858  By Ted Rowe Newfoundland Quarterly: Fall 2008, Volume 101 Number 2 .

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Social media and Archival gems, Thank You

Web usersDuring the month of October there were 36,219 visitors to the website  www.archivalmoments.ca that is an average of 1,168 visitors per day. If you were one of the visitors “Thank You”, I hope that you enjoyed your visit and that you will encourage others to VISIT and SHARE archivalmoments.ca.

Please join us at The Rooms as we explore:

Social Media and Archival Gems

Location: The Rooms Theatre

Date: November 5, 2015

Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm

For years, Larry Dohey has delved deep into archives. You will be amazed at some of the things he’s uncovered—but what can be done with such a wealth of material? Find out how Larry has used social media to showcase his findings for a wide audience. – See more at: https://www.therooms.ca/programs-events/for-adults/coffee-culture/social-media-and-archival-gems#sthash.K5tR5Squ.dpuf

First World War Speakers Series

RecruitingDr. Dean F. Oliver: I See Horror. What Do You See?

Location: The Rooms Theatre

Date: November 4

Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Cost: $15 (10% discount for members)

Join Dr. Dean F. Oliver, Director of Research, Canadian Museum of History as he compares actual war to remembered war, lived experience to imagined pasts. It is a dialogue as politically charged and personally traumatic now as it was in 1914, when the first mother read the first son’s carefully evasive letter, or the first censor made the first disaster the first victory. Think about war: what do you see?

Dr. Dean F. Oliver is a Newfoundlander by birth, and Director of Research at the Canadian Museum of History. Formerly (2003-2013) the Director of Research and Exhibitions at the Canadian War Museum, he has taught history, political science and international security, and was founding editor of the monograph series, Studies in Canadian Military History. The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History (with J.L. Granatstein), published in 2010, won the annual Charles P. Stacey Prize for the best work of military history published in Canada.

Award-winning directed exhibitions have included Canvas of War, Afghanistan, and 1812.

In 2010, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands knighted Dr. Oliver in the Order of Orange-Nassau in honour of his “contributions to society.”

His most recent article, “The July Drive”, on Newfoundland and Labrador’s memory of the First World War, appeared in Canada’s Great War Album, edited by Mark Reid (2014).

He is currently curating an exhibition on Newfoundland at war, and another on Canada in world affairs since 1945. His next publication, “Canada in the Great War,” will appear this fall as part of a European online interactive encyclopedia.

For more information call: 757-8090.

I will sing you home

Archivists are called on to work on projects that are often profoundly emotional.

Blue Puttees F 25 -20We have at The Rooms Provincial Archives thousands of stories about the young men and women that served in the First World War. We have thousands of stories about their loved ones who were at home on the ‘home front’.

Archivists at The Rooms Provincial Archives were called on to work on this multimedia project, to help tell one of our many stories.

Take five minutes; look at what archivists can do working with curators, artists and musicians. We have many stories in our archives that have not been told. Archivists want to tell these and other stories.

Watch and listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JeuCgA0rFI