Monday Monuments and Memorials – Royal Newfoundland Regiment memorials, Amiens, France

Plaque honouring Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Amiens Cathedral

Weeping Angel of Amiens, a popular postcard image in WW1

Plaque marking the Newfoundland flag in Amiens Cathedral

Yesterday, July 1, was Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador, a solemn day of remembrance of the single greatest disaster in Newfoundland history. At Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Regiment was virtually wiped out in half an hour on the first morning of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916. Of the 780 men who went forward, 233 were dead, 386 wounded and 91 reported missing (later assumed dead). While the casualty rate for many battalions was over 50%, for the Newfoundland Regiment it was 90%. All the officers were killed or wounded. On one of the bloodiest days of the war, only one other battalion had a higher casualty rate.

The City of Amiens was a key Allied base in WW1. Located just behind the lines, many soldiers visited the city. After the war, Notre-Dame d’Amiens Cathedral soon became a site of remembrance, with memorials from several Allied countries, battalions, communities and individuals.

An Interview with Linda J. Quiney, author of This Small Army of Women

Linda J. Quiney’s This Small Army of Women, tracing the Canadian and Newfoundland volunteer nurses in WW1, is part of a growing scholarship on the role of medical women in the war. (Readers will know this is a particular interest of mine.) Linda is a historian and retired lecturer and serves as an affiliate with the Consortium for Nursing History Inquiry at the University of British Columbia. She has kindly agreed to discuss her work today with Great War 100 Reads.

What first interested you in VADs from Canada and Newfoundland?

Linda J. Quiney: It was more of a happy accident than an intentional undertaking. I was considering a research topic on women in the Second World War when a colleague mentioned a photograph she had discovered while researching a First World War topic. The image depicted a woman wearing a St. John Ambulance VAD dress uniform, but offered no clue to her identity or what her uniform represented. I had read Testament of Youth years before, Vera Brittain’s romantic journal of her wartime experience as a British Red Cross VAD nurse, but I had no idea there had been a Canadian or Newfoundland equivalent under the auspices of St. John. The mystery led me to St. John Ambulance headquarters in Ottawa, but the preliminary research was limited. I was close to abandoning it until the “eureka” moment, when a box of random records unexpectedly revealed a list of more than 300 Canadian women who had been posted overseas as St. John Ambulance VAD nurses during the war.

It gradually became clear that the VAD program had been a unique undertaking, far different from any other form of Canadian women’s patriotic work. Most intriguing for me was that it was almost invisible within the larger historical record of the war, a history waiting to be written.

This Small Army of Women

Shown into his luxurious office, I asked whether he could hurry my departure. I was terrified when this great fat man, who seemed as old as the hills to me, pulled me down on his knee and began kissing me! As I was struggling to get away his secretary came in and showed no surprise whatever at the scene. Apparently there was nothing unusual in this situation! But this was my first experience with a licentious old man, I was overwhelmed! However, he did promise me this: Not another girl will leave Canada before you! And they didn’t. (This Small Army of Women, p 67)

Latest #metoo revelation of sexual harassment? No, a 1916 account of Canadian VAD Violet Wilson. 1916.

Over the years, sensational allegations rise and fade, rise and fade. But until everyone – men as well as women – recognizes sexual harassment and sexual assault as systemic problems of entitlement and power, the culture of acquiescence continues. It’s about time to say #metoo for change.

War-Torn Exchanges and Your Daughter Fanny

Continuing my explorations of women in the medical services, in War-Torn Exchanges: The Lives and Letters of Nursing Sisters Laura Holland and Mildred Forbes, and Your Daughter Fanny: The War Letters of Frances Cluett, VAD. Both books bring to life women’s war service close to the front.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Park, France

Newfoundland caribou facing the former foe with head thrown high in defiance

Caribou overlooks names of Newfoundlanders with no known grave

Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Park

Tread softly here! Go reverently and slow!

This past Saturday, July 1, marked the 150^th anniversary of Canada’s confederation, a day for the country to rejoice, reflect and reconcile. In Newfoundland and Labrador, it was also Memorial Day, a solemn day of remembrance of the single greatest disaster in Newfoundland history. At Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Regiment was virtually wiped out in half an hour on the first morning of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916. Of the 780 men who went forward, 233 were dead, 386 wounded and 91 reported missing (later assumed dead). While the casualty rate for many battalions was over 50%, for the Newfoundland Regiment it was 90%. All the officers were killed or wounded. On one of the bloodiest days of the war, only one other battalion had a higher casualty rate.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – National War Memorial, St John’s NL

National War Memorial in St John’s

Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve sailor holds a spyglass

Honouring Forestry Corps, Mercantile Marine and Royal Newfoundland Regiment

Memorial Day, July 1, is a solemn day of remembrance of the single greatest disaster in Newfoundland history. At Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Regiment was virtually wiped out in half an hour on the first morning of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916. Of the 780 men who went forward, 233 were dead, 386 wounded and 91 reported missing (later assumed dead). While the casualty rate for many battalions was over 50%, for the Newfoundland Regiment it was 90%. (Some reports say more went over the top, with a result of 85% casualties. But still …) All the officers were killed or wounded. On one of the bloodiest days of the war, only one other battalion had a higher casualty rate.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Thomas Ricketts, Victoria Cross, Croix de Guerre

Newfoundlanders remember their war hero, Tommy Ricketts

Each soldier tells a story.

Tommy Ricketts left his birthplace, an isolated fishing hamlet, to answer the clarion call of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in September 1916. He claimed to be 18 years old. He was 15.

Two years later, a seasoned soldier and still underage, Ricketts’ action in battle earned him the Victoria Cross. As described in the citation:

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Sergeants’ Memorial, St. John’s NL

Celtic Cross, Queen’s Rd at Cathedral St

Caribou symbol of Royal Newfoundland Regiment

WW1 plaque

This Celtic cross was erected at Queen’s Rd and Cathedral St (now in a traffic island) by the sergeants and warrant officers of the second battalion of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. The original monument marks WW1. Brass plaques were added to mark later wars. You can see a newer peacekeeping monument is in the background.

From The Fighting Newfoundlander, Gerald WL Nicholson (1964) ch XV: 

The earliest monument to be erected in St. John’s, other than tablets in the churches and schools, was the Sergeants’ Memorial, a fine Celtic cross of Scottish granite on the base of Newfoundland granite, standing on Queens Road at the foot of Garrison Hill. … The Memorial was unveiled by Sir Alexander Harris on July 1, 1921, and for the next two years it was the centre of the Commemoration Day ceremonies.

Monday Monuments and Memorials – Canadians awarded the Victoria Cross, Ottawa

Plaque prominently displayed on British High Commission

This plaque honours Canadians (including Newfoundlanders) awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War. It was unveiled by Princess Anne on 10 Nov 2014, on the wall of the British High Commission on Elgin Street in Ottawa.

According to a UK government press release:

Bronze plaques were commissioned to recognise 175 Victoria Cross winners in total from 11 countries. Canada has the highest number of overseas recipients with 70. Other countries for whom plaques have been commissioned are Australia (66 Victoria Cross winners), New Zealand (16), South Africa (14), India (6), USA (5), Pakistan (3), Nepal (2), Denmark (2), Belgium (1) and Ukraine (1).

In the UK, a commemorative paving stone will be laid to honour each person in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War – 469 in all. Ceremonies will take place in the birthplace or hometown of each recipient on the anniversary of their winning the VC. Paving stones for overseas-born recipients will be unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on 5 March 2015.

The Victoria Cross is the UK’s highest award for gallantry. It is given for most conspicuous bravery or a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy. Medals are made from cannons captured from the Russians during the Crimean War.

A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War

“Women were not bystanders in the Great War, quietly knitting for the duration: in a multitude of ways they were actively engaged in wartime society and deeply affected by the vagaries of war.” (p 2)

“The war, in short, affected many people who never wore a uniform.” (p 196)

A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War is a step toward reinserting women into the story. Editors Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw bring together twelve historians to explore how women fared in WW1. The title comes from a message from Queen Mary to the women of the British Empire in December 2018: “we have been united in all our work, whether or head or hands, in a real sisterhood of suffering and service during the war.”

The authors examine Canadian and Newfoundland women’s war experiences under four themes. Two chapters in Mobilizing Women focus respectively on Aboriginal women on the Six Nations Grand River Reserve and Newfoundland women in the Women’s Patriotic Association. Their shared experiences in rallying energies to raise funds and provide support and supplies for their troops were marked as well by class and ethnicity. The Six Nations women faced discrimination by the dominant culture. The WPA morphed into a group to push for women’s suffrage after the war. 

The chapters in Women’s Work? ask whether the expansion of women’s options in the paid workforce was transformative or temporary. New jobs for women were as likely to be seen to conform to conventional views of feminine as to be legitimate expanded roles. Propaganda of the day could exploit women’s mothering role or define women as soldiering, both in the name of patriotism and sacrifice. Either way, “home front” was coined to highlight the importance of women’s work to the war effort.

There were few chances for women to serve overseas. Professional nurses were part of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) or British nursing units. Some women were trained as practical nurses or aides through St. John’s Ambulance Associations and assigned to Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).

Family Matters and Creative Responses round off the themes of the essays.

An issue running through the book is the impact of women’s war work (paid and voluntary) on the fight for suffrage. Two laws adopted in 1917 enfranchised some women for federal elections. The Military Voters Act gave the vote to men and women (British subjects) in active military service. The Wartime Elections Act gave the vote to wives, widows, mothers, daughters and sisters (again British subjects) of soldiers serving overseas. At the same time, it disenfranchised “conscientious objectors, male and female members of pacifist religious groups like the Mennonites and Doukhobors, and all men and women born in enemy countries … who had been naturalized after 1902.” (p 16) The Act was a political manoeuvre to gain support for conscription.

I have, of course, vastly oversimplified the information and analysis presented in the book. It is well worth delving into the details to learn more about the ways that women’s experiences of the war were diverse and distinctive. It starts the conversation and opens the door for further research.