Showing 1086 results

Dr. Jan Snellen (1925-2000), physician and researcher, was born in 1925 in the Netherlands, and obtained his medical degree from the University of Leiden in 1954. In 1966, he earned a doctorate in physiology from the University of Nijmegen, Holland. Following work in Holland and South Africa, he joined the medical school of Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1970. Over the years, he held joint appointments in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics. He retired from full-time work with the medical school in 1990 but continued on a part-time basis until 31 August, 1997.

Dr. Jan Snellen, a world-recognized authority in the area of human thermo dynamics, supervised one of the very few specialized total body calorimeters in the world. Following Dr. Snellen's retirement, the calorimeter, a cylindrical room with an adjustable inside temperature, was relocated to the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine in North York, Ontario. Much of Dr. Snellen's research, which was supported by the Canadian Department of Defence, concentrated on the study of whole body heat exchange with the environment. Throughout his years at Memorial, Snellen became known as a teacher, friend, mentor and role model for many of Memorial's medical students and faculty.

Dr. Jan Snellen passed away on 26 July 2000 at St. Clare's Hospital in St. John's. He left to mourn: in Canada, his wife Lydia Snellen-de-Bruyn, daughter Anna, sons Jan Bart and Christian and grandchildren Fatima Joy, Marc, Robert and Sandy; in England, his sister Minnie with Piet v.d. Loon; in the Netherlands, his sister-in-law Nell Snellen and brother-in-law Gerrit Jan with Jopie de Bruyn.

The barque Snow Queen (O.N. 64900) was built in Maitland, Nova Scotia and registered in 1872. Shareholders included Thomas Kenny, Halifax merchant (24 shares); George Frieze, Maitland merchant (8 shares); Thomas Roy, Maitland merchant (12 shares); Alexander Roy, Maitland shipbuilder (12 shares); John Roy, Maitland farmer and planter (4 shares); and Hiram Grant, Maitland shipbuilder (4 shares). In 1891 the barque was sold to buyers in Sweden.

S.O. Steele & Sons Ltd., a Newfoundland family business, was established by Samuel Owen Steele in 1899 at 100 Water Street, St. John's. Steele emigrated from England to Newfoundland in the 1880s, and established a furniture and dry goods business in St. John's.

In 1886, Steele married Sarah Harris, niece and adopted daughter of James Hunt Martin and his wife Hannah (Tucker) Martin, both proprietors in their own right. James Martin, an English immigrant who had arrived in Newfoundland in the first half of the nineteenth century, had established a hardware store on Water Street. Hannah Martin opened a china shop circa 1848. The china shop was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1892, but Hannah rebuilt it in 1894. Their children having died young, James and Hannah adopted Sarah Harris. After Hannah died intestate in 1899, Sarah inherited the china shop, thus making way for S.O. Steele & Sons Ltd. Hannah had operated the shop as a part-time concern but S.O. Steele expanded it into a full-time business by developing a wholesale trade, importing china from Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Europe, and later, Japan. Local firms, Ayre and Knowling, provided competition in the first decade of the twentieth century.

S.O. Steele's two eldest children, Owen William and James Robert, joined the family business. When war broke out in 1914, both sons enlisted in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Owen Steele was killed at Beaumont Hamel, but James Robert survived, returning to resume his position in the family business. Sarah and S.O. Steele retired to Paignton, Devon, England in the early 1920s, passing the firm to sons, James Robert and Victor.

The firm survived the depression of the 1930s and, like many others, thrived during World War II, with increased business stemming from the establishment of military bases in Newfoundland and the great influx of foreign military personnel to St. John's. In the 1940s, James Harris Steele, the second son of James Robert, entered the business, to work along with his father and uncle.

By the late 1960s, however, large chain stores were supplanting outport merchants, S.O. Steele's chief wholesale customers. Despite the decline, S.O Steele & Sons Ltd. survived by developing a strong retail trade to complement the wholesale business. This shift prompted the firm to import more expensive china which was of less value to the outport market.

James Robert Steele died in 1970, and Victor retired in 1976, leaving James to operate the business alone. When James retired in 1989, Victor's widow and son decided to close the business.The building at 100 Water Street was purchased by Breakwater Books who have restored and refurbished the century- old property.

The Society of United Fishermen (S.U.F) was established in 1873 by the Rev. George Gardener, then Rector of Heart’s Content. In 1862, this gentlemen founded a Fisherman’s Society to provide for sickness and for a payment to widows of members a sum of money on the death of their husbands. This Society built the first Fishermen’s Hall in Heart’s Content. The men met only once a year for reports, accounts, and procession to church. The business throughout the year was managed by the officers. In 1873, in response to an expressed desire to enlarge its operations, the society voluntarily dissolved and reorganized “upon an entirely new and more effective basis” under its present name.

A committee of twelve Brethren of the above Lodge was appointed to draft a Constitution and prepare rituals for the New Order. Scilly Cove, Hant’s Harbour, Bay Roberts and St. John’s were soon called into existence and in less than three years from the dissolution of the old society, the new one had lodges in thirty-five places in the island.

The Grand Lodge was moved to St. John’s in 1881. The certificates which have been very much admired for the emblems, appropriate to a fisherman’s calling, were designed by Mr. Woodcock, a member of the Grand Lodge and were executed by Oppenheim, of London.

“The Order has for its objects the welfare of fishermen, the inculcation of temperance and morality, the preservation of peace and harmony, obedience to the laws and the lawfully constituted authorities and the development of the fisheries. It is also a mutual benefit Society, in which all paying members receive aid in time of sickness and other calamity.”

The Society of United Fishermen came into being at Trinity in 1875. Its first President and Secretary were, respectively, the Rev. H. Dunfield and J. B. O’Donell, schoolmaster. The S.U.F. had its first meeting at Brooking’s Old Bell House which stood on the site of the present Parish Hall. The lodge name was St. Paul’s No. 49 and it was closed in 1976.

The Sons of Temperance was one of a number of like-minded fraternal and social organizations given to curbing the consumption of alcoholic liquors especially by the breadwinners of families.

There existed a Grand Division, perhaps headquartered in St. John’s.

The Sons of Temperance was active in St. John’s in the latter part of the eighteenth century. During a celebration of the Total Abstinence and Benefit Society at St John’s (1880 -1), the officers of the Sons of Temperance were on the stage and the Sons of Temperance was listed as being “the oldest temperance organization in the city”.

The Sons of Temperance flag was white with a red, white, and blue triangle in the middle of which was a red star.

The South Head Lighthouse located on the southern entrance to the Bay of Islands is located on the west coast of Newfoundland near the town of Lark Harbour. Bay of Islands is an extensive inlet on the west coast of Newfoundland and is so named for the numerous islands located near its entrance. Situated at the head of the inlet and at the mouth of the Humber River is Corner Brook, now the second largest city in Newfoundland and home to Corner Brook Pulp & Paper Mill, a major employer for the region that was commenced operation in 1925. To help shipping reach the paper mill, a square wooden structure topped by an open wooden framework that supported an acetylene gas lantern was established on a stone cliff at South Head in 1925 at the southern entrance to the Bay of Islands. This tower was 6.1 metres (20 feet) tall while the light had a focal plane of 35.4 metres (116 feet). The tower was painted white, the lantern was painted red, and the characteristic of the light was fifteen white flashes per minute.

A fog alarm, housed in a one-storey structure, was also established in 1925 and sounded one 2.5-second blast in each minute. A one-storey dwelling was provided for the keeper.

Newfoundland became the tenth province in Canada in 1949, and over the next few years a “comprehensive scheme for modernization in conformity with the higher standard in the rest of Canada” was carried out in Newfoundland. As part of this modernization effort, a 10.7-metre concrete lighthouse, a double dwelling, and a storage building were constructed at South Head, and a new diaphone fog alarm was installed in the fog alarm building, which had been built in 1950.

The dwelling at South Head was intentionally burned in 1989, leaving just the octagonal concrete tower standing. The concrete octagonal tower was demolished in 2010 and replaced by a cylindrical, red and white striped, fiberglass tower that supports a solar-powered light

Mary Meager Southcott (1862-1943), nurse, educator, hospital administrator, social reformer and photographer, was born 21 September 1862 in St. John's, Newfoundland. She was the daughter of Pamela and John Southcott, the latter a prominent St. John's architect and builder. Southcott died in St. John's on 29 October 1943.

Southcott was educated at the Church of England's Girl's School in St. John's, and in 1899, at the age of 36, she began training as a nurse at the London Hospital Training School. In March 1901, following the completion of her training, she enrolled in a midwifery course at the Maternity and District Nurses Home, Plaistow. She returned to Newfoundland in June 1901 and in March 1903 she was appointed Superintendent of Nursing at the General Hospital. Southcott founded the General Hospital School of Nursing, based on the Nightingale model, and supervised the training of over 50 nurses between 1903 and 1915.

Because of conflicts with the medical superintendent, Southcott resigned in 1916 and opened a private hospital on King's Bridge Road in St. John's, which focussed on maternity cases and the care of women and children. She also administered a temporary military hospital at Donovan's, which she later organized and ran a military convalescent hospital, Waterford Hall. Between 1921and 1925, Southcott provided training to 60 women in midwifery. She aided in the establishment of a nursing training school at the Salvation Army Grace Maternal Hospital (1929).

In 1913 Southcott was instrumental in founding the Graduate Nurses Association (1913-1949), the predecessor of the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador. She was vice-president of the Newfoundland Midwifery Board (est. 1921) and President of the Child Welfare Association (est. 1921). She was active in the Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA), the Girl Guides, the Girl's Friendly Society, the women's suffrage movement and the League of Women Voters.

Southcott was a keen photographer and artist. In 1915 she published a booklet Some Newfoundland Wild Flowers, which contained brief descriptions of local fauna. She was a member of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist congregation.

The 1969 report of the provincial Special Commission on Sports and Youth Activities recommended that a sport development and advisory council be established to advise and assist the provincial government in determining policies as they related to amateur sport and youth programmes throughout the province. This body would act as a liaison between the various individual sport organizations and between those organizations and the provincial government. It would also organize Newfoundland and Labrador's participation in national and inter-provincial competitions and provide research, registration, statistical and fundraising services. Sport Newfoundland and Labrador was established in 1972 in response to the commission's report. Beginning as the Newfoundland Amateur Sports Federation, the organization changed its name to Sport Newfoundland and Labrador in 1990.

According to its current (1999) mission statement, Sport Newfoundland and Labrador "develops and promotes amateur sport in partnership with its affiliated Provincial Sports Organizations". Sport Newfoundland and Labrador provides programmes and information to over forty individual sport organizations and represents the interests of its members in dealings with various levels of government as well as with the media. It administers annual awards for male and female junior and senior Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Team of the Year and Sports Executive of the Year: it is also responsible for the Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1943 the British Government commenced a military operation in the Antarctic called Operation Tabarin, a joint initiative by the Colonial Office and the Admiralty. Its objectives were to deter anchorages by enemy ships, counter encroachments by Argentina and Chile, and strengthen Britain's claim to the Falkland Islands Dependencies through physical occupation. Robert Carl Sheppard, Newfoundland master mariner, was requested by the British Admiralty to command a top-secret mission to the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic to guarantee the establishment and maintenance of reconnaissance and meteorological stations.

The captain, R.C. Sheppard, was a war veteran and skilled seaman. He had enlisted in the First Newfoundland Regiment (later the Royal Newfoundland Regiment) as a 17 year-old seaman on 11 September 1914, thus becoming one of Colony's famous "Blue Puttees." Following service at Gallipoli, he was wounded at Beaumont Hamel on 1 July 1916 and discharged as medically unfit in March 1917. Following his discharge, Sheppard worked as a lighthouse keeper at Fort Amherst and subsequently as a captain of square riggers. During World War II, following the collapse of France, Sheppard safely brought a convoy of confiscated French vessels across the Atlantic.

The SS Eagle departed from St. John's on October 1944 on its 8000-mile voyage to Antarctica. The immediate objectives were to relieve the British party at Deception Island, to construct shelters on Coronation Island, and to transport men from Port Lockroy to Hope Bay, Graham Land. The crew of the SS Eagle consisted of twenty-eight Newfoundland seamen, including radio operator Harold Squires who later wrote an account of the expedition (SS Eagle: the secret mission, 1944-1945). The crew returned home in August 1945. After the termination of the war, Operation Tabarin became Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey and later,the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The following year, the Newfoundland crew under Captain Sheppard was dispatched to bring the British expedition back from Port Hope. They left in November 1945 aboard the MV Trepassey, a ship constructed at the Clarenville Shipyard, Newfoundland. They picked up replacement scientists for the Falklands Islands Dependency Survey at Montevideo, delivered supplies and mail to several Antarctica stations at Deception Island and vicinity, and left for St. John’s in March 1946. This was the last trip by the MV Trepassey under the command of R.C. Sheppard, who was subsequently awarded the MBE (Medal of the British Empire) for his wartime services.