Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Gallipoli

As I mentioned in a previous post, 25 April 2015 marks the 100^th Anniversary of the landing of Allied forces at Gallipoli, including forces from Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The only North American unit in the entire 8 month long campaign was the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (RNR) that landed later on 20 September 1915. However, today is not Memorial Day in the province.

Later in the war, the regiment was virtually wiped out on 1 Jul 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Since then July 1 has been Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador. Traditionally, remembrance ceremonies are held in the morning, and then the day gives way to celebrations for the nationwide holiday, Canada Day.

Britain entered World War I on 4 Aug 1914 and about 1000 men had enlisted for the Newfoundland Regiment by the end of September. They trained on the outskirts of St. John’s before shipping out for more training in England and Scotland where they became part of the 29^th Division of the British Army. (Newfoundland was a British Dominion and not part of Canada at the time.)

The British and French wanted to get supplies to their allies in Russia. Overland routes were blocked and getting past the German north coast in the Baltic was problematic. The third route was to get supplies through to the Russian Black Sea ports via the Dardenelles Strait controlled by the Ottoman Empire, allies of the Germans. The Gallipoli Peninsula is at the Mediterranean end of the north side of the Dardanelles.

Conditions on the battlefield were awful with both water shortages and weather to challenge the Allies. There was trench warfare here as well as Europe. The RNR are renowned for capturing Caribou Hill, which the Turks were using to snipe at the allied forces. No military breakthrough occurred so it was decided to withdraw.

While not arriving at Gallipoli at the beginning of the campaign, the Newfoundland Regiment provided necessary cover on the last day as troops pulled out, 9 Jan 1916. Thirty men had been killed or mortally wounded. Ten more had died of disease. In one of the worst winters in decades, the soldiers really suffered. One hundred fifty were treated for frostbite and exposure.

After a short rest period, the regiment would be assigned duty in France and suffer an immense loss. In all, 6200 men served in the RNR with 1300 dead – a very high price.

Sources: www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/fact_sheets/gallipoli

                www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/royal_newfoundland_regiment

Wisdom Wednesday: Canadian Museum of Immigration/Pier 21 - O/T

With Ellis Island closed because of damage from last fall’s storm Sandy, I headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to visit the immigration museum of our northern neighbors. Well more truthfully, I included the museum on my vacation in Atlantic Canada.

My husband was born in Calgary, Alberta so he was enthusiastic about this stop. His grandfather who arrived in Canada at Halifax in 1912 did not enter through the building at Pier 21 which houses this museum. It was not in use until 1928.  

A video of a train journey across Canada to Alberta with comments from people who had taken the trip was mentioned in some of the promotional material. In his family, that trek was taken by his parents and grandparents plus an assortment of other relatives. HOWEVER, the video has changed. Now there are four or five small booths where you can watch oral histories given by people who came in at Pier 21.  The new video was the highlight of our visit, powerfully showing the activities at the pier over its 43 years of use.

Between 1928 and 1971, Pier 21 was a landing point for more than a million immigrants arriving in Canada by ship. The brick immigration center on Pier 21 housed customs and immigration and also a nursery, hospital, dormitories, kitchen and dining hall, as well as a rail connection. There is a small model of the layout in one of the exhibits. In another exhibit, I found a picture of four ships on which members of his family arrived.

During World War II, Pier 21 also served a role for the Canadian Armed Forces as the departure and reentry point for more than half a million troops. After the war, refugees and war brides entered through this building.

Pier 21 is the only surviving immigration pier in Canada and was a historic site before being officially appointed the national Canadian Museum of Immigration in February 2011.

There is a free Scotiabank Family History Centre on the first floor of the museum. (The museum exhibits and multimedia presentation have an entrance fee.) A word about the Family History Center - there are a few computers with www.ancestry.ca. The staff seems very knowledgeable about finding passengers on ships. The person I worked with found a grandfather whose name was very misspelled, and it was fun to watch him use *** and other tricks to tease out the right record. I have to say this is probably not the place for serious research in the other areas of genealogy.

1055 Marginal Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4P6

(902) 425-7770 or toll free 1-855-526-4721
www.pier21.ca