War Memorials: Keeping the Memory Alive

One of the most impressive monuments to be found on the Burin Peninsula stands on a grassy plot of land that separates College Street from Main Street in Grand Bank. The bronze soldier and the epitaph are dedicated to the memory of Grand Bank men who made the supreme sacrifice in World War One. The names of the war victims are written on the bronze tablets, and those of the WWII are on tablets in the Memorial Library. this is the story of the war memorials and the names engraved on them.

Prior to the Great War, Newfoundland had not been extensively involved in war except for the several battles between the French and English fought on Newfoundland soil centuries before. There had been an Imperial Garrison in St. John's, but it was withdrawn in 1870 and thereafter, as it had done for centuries, the Royal Navy kept a watchful eye upon the island's defence. When war broke out in 1914, the only military establishment in Newfoundland consisted of a naval reserve made up of fishermen who had received four weeks of training each year. They responded to the call to a man.

At the same time, the British Government accepted the undertaking of the Newfoundland Government to recruit and maintain an infantry regiment for overseas service. In all, more than six thousand young men were accepted while another two thousand enlisted for naval service. Both forces served with great gallantry and suffered heavy casualties. The Newfoundland Regiment distinguished itself at Gallipoli and served with epic heroism in France where twenty per cent of all who served were lost in action or died of wounds. Of the seventy-eight Grand Bank men who went overseas to serve, fourteen (or nineteen percent) were killed. In the 1920s, War Memorials, dedicated by a proud and sorrowful people to the enduring memory of slain Newfoundlanders, were erected in many Newfoundland towns such as Carbonear, Fortune, St. John's, and Harbour Grace.

The campaign to erect a war memorial in Grand Bank was spearheaded by the Loyal Orange Association. On December 17, 1918, a little over a month after the war ended, the following men served on a committee to obtain a monument for the war dead: Joseph Hiscock, Joseph Evans,(Jr.), Joshua Belbin, Bert Riggs, J.M. Howell, and Henry Lee. Before the committee's work was finished Henry Lee was drowned on the Jean & Mary on December 5, 1921.

By 1923, basic groundwork was finished. A telegram sent on March 23 of that year to Charles Forward, who at the time was in Toronto, stated: Memorial committee want you to look up bronze soldier statue that can be erected in local concrete base. Statue of Newfoundland Infantry Man and life size. Also bronze tablet to set in front concrete base to subscribe names of dead. Have manufacturers send diagram designs, statue and tablet with prices not to exceed two thousand dollars.

Several days later the committee decided to order the monument. J.G. Tickell and Sons on King Street in Toronto sent the statue to North Sydney on August 14, 1923, in care of Salter and Sons. The schooner Millie Louise brought the statue from North Sydney to Grand Bank. G.& A. Buffett donated the land on which the monument first stood, a little to the northwest of the present day Memorial Library. The concrete base was made by a local carpenter and lodge member, William Courtney. By 1924 the war memorial was ready for unveiling. Sir Richard Squires, a former Prime Minister of Newfoundland, had unveiled other monuments throughout the country, but he was unavailable. Although the exact day and details are not recorded, it is likely J.B. Patten and/or the resident magistrate did the unveiling. The bronze statue was valued at $1,750.00 and the tablets two hundred dollars which was within the budget. Up to 1954 sisters of the LOBA looked after the monument. Since that time, maintainence has been done by the Royal Canadian Legion or the Grand Bank Town Council.

Photo of monument

Grand Bank War Memorial. On January 23, 1995 the flags flew at half-staff to mark the passing of Frances (Drake) Breon. She was one of two Grand Bank women who had served in the Armed Forces (Air Force) in World War II; the other was Olive Warren. Courtesy Rosalind Downey

Fourteen names are inscribed on the war memorial tablets:

George M. Clarke, Corporal in the Newfoundland Regiment and son of merchant Lionel B. and Sarah Clarke. George was killed in the trenches in France April 18, 1918, and buried in Neuve-Eglise. He was twenty.

Andrew Douglas, Newfoundland Regiment. This name is inscribed in error and should read Aaron (Andrew was his father's name). Aaron Keeping Douglas, age twenty-four, lived on Brunette Island and came to Grand Bank to enlist. Hostilities in Europe where Aaron served had ended, but on September 29, 1918, an errant or discarded shell in or near a mess hall exploded killing him and several others. He is buried at Kieberg Ridge.

In January 1919, when the Grand Bank Orange Lodge solicited funds to erect the monument, they canvassed Douglas' hometown of Brunette, as well as Grand Beach, the hometown of Albert Follett.

Albert Follett, Newfoundland Regiment, was born in 1896 at Grand Beach, enlisted in Grand Bank and died in Europe April 14, 1917. He is buried at Monchey-le Preux. Albert had six brothers: William T., Garfield, George, who became a well-known fishing captain in Grand Bank, Edward "Ned", lost on the John McRea in December 1917, Charles, lost on the Jean and Mary in December 1921, and Walter, lost on the General Plumer in March 1930.

George Forsey, Canadian Service, son of Joshua and Hester Forsey.

Charles F. Hickman, Canadian Service, son of James and Harriet Hickman. Charles died at Vimy Ridge on April 12, 1917, while bringing in a wounded comrade to hospital services. Age twenty-three.

Wilson J. Hickman, Canadian Service, brother of Ralph Hickman who once resided on Church Street.

Edward Nicholle, born in 1892, received his early education at the Methodist Academy and was a salesman by profession. He enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at the outbreak of hostilities, rose to the rank of Company Quarter Master Sergeant and was mentioned with distinction in Field Marshall Earl Haig's despatches from the front lines. Nicholle was killed in action at Broembeek, Belgium on October 10, 1917. He was a member of Grand Bank Masonic Lodge.

Reuben Osborne, Newfoundland Regiment, brother of blacksmith Wilson Osborne. Osborne was thirteen years old when he and his parents came to live in Grand Bank from Hoop Cove, Fortune Bay in 1911. He was killed in action on September 28, 1918; age twenty.

Eli Patten, Canadian Service, Corporal in the 102nd Battalion, became the first Grand Bank causality of the Great War. Older brother of Grace (Patten) Sparkes, Eli was born in 1893. He finished school in the Methodist Academy, completed a business course in a Toronto college and worked in the Maple Leaf Milling Company as an accountant. He enlisted in 1915, rose to Corporal, but in late August 1916, while on a reconnaissance mission, he was hit by a sniper's bullet and died September 1st. He was 23.

When word of his death reached the Patten home in Grand Bank, younger members of his family pulled down blinds to show their grief. Eli's father, John B. Patten, asked to have them put back up saying that it was dark enough around the home already.

Evan W. Pugh, Canadian Service, 85th Battalion. Pugh enlisted October 2, 1917, and was killed August 22, 1918. For many years his stone, purchased by grandparents John and Matilda Matthews, was attached to a wall in the Grand Bank Salvation Army Citadel until it was relocated several years ago to the S.A. Cemetery.

Lyman Stoodley, private in the Newfoundland Regiment. Stoodley was killed in France on August 18, 1917, age twenty. A memorial stone dedicated to him is mounted in the vestibule next to the choir room in the Grand Bank United Church.

Joseph Thorne, Newfoundland Regiment, number 3149, was a private who died on December 19, 1917, age nineteen.

Robert Wooden age twenty-one, Canadian Service, was killed while driving a tank at Bramshott, England, on October 28, 1918, just two weeks before the war ended. His brother George, also a soldier in the Great War, survived to return home, but died in the 1918-1919 Spanish influenza epidemic that followed the war.

Benjamin Woundy, at age twenty-three and a cadet in the Royal Air Force, Woundy died overseas November 29, 1918, from the Spanish influenza epidemic. He was the son of James and Elizabeth (Lawrence) Woundy.

World War II

An equal number of names, fourteen, as on the war memorial are inscribed on bronze tablets in the Grand Bank Memorial Library:

Bertram Baker, Newfoundland Regiment. On the night of December 12, 1942, Private Bert Baker, identification number 955, was in the Knights of Columbus Hostel in St. John's. The hostel's auditorium was full of servicemen and civilians attending a Barn Dance when a fire broke out. Ninety-nine people were burned to death or killed. Baker was one of the victims.

William Barnes, Merchant Navy, unmarried brother of Jacob, George and Samuel Barnes. According to most sources he left home, joined a ship, probably in a convoy, and was lost at sea. The date and circumstances are obscure.

James Brown, Merchant Navy. Brown was born in Baine Harbour, Placentia Bay, but lived in Grand Bank practically all his life. When he married a girl from Little Bay East, he moved there. In 1943, James Brown was employed on a foreign-going steamer running from Barbados to Newfoundland. Brown and a companion were standing on the stern of the ship when both were washed overboard. Their caps were seen floating on the water, but both men disappeared. He was survived by three children; now living in Ontario. His wife had predeceased him.

John Edwin Cornish, Royal Artillery. He saw his final action in the battle of Monte Casino in the Italian campaign. When an enemy mortar hit his artillery piece, Cornish was struck with debris and shrapnel. He died instantly. Edwin Street on Grand Bank's Riverside East is named for Gunner Edwin Cornish.

Thomas E. Evans, Merchant Navy. After his schooner Alhambia sank on a transatlantic voyage, Captain Tom Evans signed on the British merchant ship, Claudius Magus. He died a natural death on December 5, 1942 and was buried in Blyth, England, on the shores of the North Sea near North Shields. He was thirty-seven and was survived by his wife and four children -- Janet, Thomas, Margaret, and John. Evans had been a veteran seaman and captain all his life sailing on the R.L. Borden and had been shipmates with Captain Charles Anstey.

Albert Follett, Sergeant Royal Air Force. Albert enlisted at Halifax in 1942, trained in Quebec as an aircraft tail gunner and crossed overseas on the Queen Mary in August. On November 7, 1943, while returning to home base in England after a sortie with German aircraft, his plane was shot down. He is interred at Oxford, England. Age twenty. His uncle, Albert Follett, had lost his life in World War One.

Reginald Grandy, Royal Navy, was born in Garnish on July 22, 1919, but resided in Grand Bank. A leading seaman, No. V349, Grandy was reported missing when the destroyer HMCS St. Croix was torpedoed by an enemy U-boat on September 20, 1943. Son of Mr. Hubert and Edith Grandy. Age twenty-four.

Cecil Hardiman, Merchant Navy. On Wednesday, May 19, 1943, Cecil Hardiman, Grand Bank; and four men from Belleoram, mate Arthur Holmans; his twenty-year-old son Alexander; John Hillier and Clarence Mullins and five other seamen were forced from the Canadian barquentine Angelus by a German sub. Angelus, bringing supplies from the West Indies to Canada, was sunk; the ten crew put into a lifeboat. In the five day row to land, only two men survived, Arthur Holmans and Walter Boudreau of New Brunswick. Hardiman died, probably of exposure, on May 23. He was twenty-five.

Hubert Hawse, Royal Navy, son of Elias Hawse. Hawse's ship, probably the King George V, was torpedoed in the Atlantic and he died in action. His body was recovered and is buried in Halifax. At that time it was considered too expensive to ship his body home.

George Lambert, Newfoundland Regiment. Private Lambert, number 995, also died in the 1942 K of C Hostel fire with his friend Bert Baker (above). There was no satisfactory explanation to the cause of the fire although German sabotage was widely speculated. As well as military personnel, several civilians perished in the fire including two women from Grand Bank -- Emma Hickman and Rose Thorne.

Edward Lee, Merchant Navy, age forty, was an able seaman on the British steamship T.J. Williams when she was torpedoed September 19, 1941. He and thirty-nine other crew left Sydney, Nova Scotia, in convoy to England when a U-boat torpedoed the Williams. The ship was abandoned and Edward Lee and James Monster of Fortune were two of the seventeen who lost their lives. Lee left a wife and three children, Emma, Henry and six-month-old Eli.

Leslie Rogers, Merchant Navy. On September 6, 1942, enemy U-boat 514, intercepted the Grand Bank schooner Helen Forsey between Bermuda and Newfoundland. As the Germans shelled the unarmed vessel two men, Arthur Bond of Frenchman's Cove and Leslie Rogers of Grand Bank, were struck by shrapnel or debris and died on the deck of the Helen Forsey. Rogers was seventeen. Captain John Ralph and his remaining crew, Jacob Penwell, William Keating, and Thomas Bolt, all of Grand Bank, escaped and rowed to Bermuda.

Henry (Harry) Thornhill, Merchant Navy, was asked to navigate a Portuguese vessel, Catalina, from Fortune to St. John's. There Catalina would pick up her sick captain, but Harry Thornhill and the Portuguese steamer never made it. According to enemy records examined after the war, a German sub intercepted the vessel, which was sailing in enemy waters and carrying goods from an enemy nation. Catalina went down with no survivors.

During the first World War Thornhill spent two years in Portugal as a fish purchasing agent. He spoke Portuguese fluently, and when schooners from Portugal came to Grand Bank, he often invited the crew to his home. At the time of his death at age fifty-six, he owned and ran a small business on Hickman Street. Thornhill was a veteran of the sea and had captained fishing vessels such as Christie and Eleanor, a one hundred forty-three ton banking schooner owned by William Forsey, and the schooner Dorothy P. Sarty of Fortune. (See picture in Chapter 3 Story 10)

Carl R. Tibbo, A flight Sergeant in the Royal Air Force, son of George Tibbo and Jennie (Bell) Tibbo, was killed in action 1944.

Around 1949, Grand Bank formed Branch Twenty-Four of the Royal Canadian Legion. First meetings were held in a school and later in the basement of the library. In time the legionnaires purchased an old salt store, pulled it to Evans Street and through volunteer labour transformed it into the town's legion hall.

Photo of Legion Executive, 1949

First members and executive, in the photo are: (front row l-r) George Bungay, George Riggs, Curtis Forsey, visiting official Lieutenant Governor Sir Leonard Outerbridge, Newton Blagdon, John Ben Anstey, and Thomas Burfitt; (back row l-r) Rudell Nurse, George Brown, Gordon Weymouth, Samuel Anstey, George Nurse, and Max Matthews. All were veterans of World War One or Two. Photo courtesy of RCL and Rosalind Downey.