Responsibility for the area covered by the Carbonear District of the Methodist Church of Canada was transferred to the Carbonear Presbytery of the United Church of Canada in 1925. In 1962 the Presbyteries of St. John's and Carbonear were amalgamated to form Avalon Presbytery.
Ellen Carbery (1845-1915), businesswoman and poet, was born in Turk's Cove, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in 1845, the youngest daughter of Bridget (Power) and James Carbery. She died on 5 September 1915.
When her mother died in 1856, Carbery was sent to live with her father's cousins, William and Mary Talbot, of Harbour Grace, who had no children of their own. William Talbot had been a school teacher and a Liberal Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) between 1852-59. Carbery received her education in Harbour Grace at the school operated by the Presentation Sisters, graduating in 1863.
In 1865 Carbery moved to St. John's where she worked in the women's department of Peters, Badcock, Roche & Company, becoming an expert in women's clothing, millinery and accessories. On 27 April 1887, she opened her own store, the Ladies Emporium, located on the ground floor of the Atlantic Hotel on Duckworth Street.
At the time the major suppliers of women's clothes, hats and accessories to Newfoundland in the late 1880s were British wholesalers who distributed through general department stores. To acquire stock, male buyers were sent to England several times a year. Carbery broke with tradition by going to England herself to acquire her stock.
Carbery's Ladies Emporium was destroyed in the St. John's fire of 1892. She re-opened her business at 13 Queen Street. In 1901, she relocated to 199 Water Street where she remained for the rest of her business life.
On 15 July 1915, Carbery left St. John's for her summer buying trip. While in England she also visited Newfoundland soldiers. She left Liverpool aboard the Hesperian on 4 September 1915. Later that night the vessel was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine. The ship did not sink immediately, giving passengers time to get into lifeboats. Carbery made it into one of the lifeboats, but she died before daybreak from the effects of exhausion and shock.
Carbery was recognized for her talent as a poet and as a correspondent to various newspapers. Approximately 70 poems and 24 articles have been found in local publications.
Captain Francis Poole was born in West Hartlepool, Northern England, and went to sea during his teens as an apprentice on a merchant ship. In the First World War he served in the Royal Navy. Between wars he sailed mostly in the Far East. In World War II he transferred to the Canadian Navy and was stationed on the East Coast as a Lieutenant – Commander on destroyers and also did convey work. Captain Poole was the Harbour Master with the Federal Government at Goose Bay, Labrador, during the 1950’s and 1960’s after he had retired from the Canadian Pacific. He published articles about his experiences for marine and navy journals and for Them Days Magazine, and also wrote a large manuscript about his life at sea. May 11, 1996, Captain Poole celebrated his 100th birthday at the Veteran’s Hospital in the Ste. Anne de Bellevue near Montreal, Quebec.
Originally founded as The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada in 1902, the company became known as Canadian Marconi Company in 1925, then changed to BAE Systems Canada Inc. in 2000 and in April of 2001 it became CMC Electronics Inc.
Marconi, Guglielmo, for whom the Canadian Marconi Company was named, (1874-1937) was born in Bologna, Italy, to Giuseppe and Annie (Jameson) Marconi. He married Beatrice O'Brien and later Cristina Bezzi-Scali. Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909 as a result of experiments in wireless telegraphy begun in the 1890s and culminating in 1901 with the reception of the first transatlantic transmission at Signal Hill, St. John's. Marconi first decided to attempt two-way wireless communication across the Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. When the Poldhu antenna became damaged and the Cape Cod antenna was destroyed in a storm, Marconi changed his North American location to St. John's because of its closeness to the weakened Poldhu transmitter. On December 9,1901 Marconi began setting up a receiving station in an old military barracks on Signal Hill. On December 14, Marconi received the first transatlantic signal, the letter "S"(Morse code: ...) tapped out at his 25,000 Watt English station, a distance of 1,800 miles. Then, on January 18, 1903, he transmitted a 48-word message from Cape Cod to England, and promptly received a reply. It was the first two-way transoceanic communication, and the first wireless telegram between America and Europe, a distance of some 3,000 miles. Marconi's system was soon adopted by the British and Italian vies for ship-to-shore communications, and by 1907 had been so much improved that transatlantic wireless telegraph service was established for public use. Marconi accepted a Canadian government grant to build the transatlantic terminal at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Another station was built at Clifton, Ireland, and in October 1907 commercial transatlantic communication was begun. In 1905 Newfoundland received a wireless station installed by Marconi himself at Cape Race, then under Canadian jurisdiction. Marconi continued perfecting his inventions and developing new wireless technology such as the short-wave transmitter/receiver and navigational direction finding equipment, as well as doing preliminary work on radar. Marconi died in Italy on July 20, 1937.
Canadian Girls in Training (CGIT) was begun in 1915 in war-time Western Canada when young people were anxious to be of service to the war effort. Boys’ work had already been organized in the form of Trail Ranger and Tuxis groups, and girls wanted their own program.
The idea of CGIT was put forward by a group of Christian leaders - Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian, and by the YM/YWCA. These representatives wanted to create a Christian educational program that would meet the needs of girls 12-17 across Canada. The organization was copyrighted in 1919 and produced its own uniform and pin. The CGIT magazine - “The Torch” - was begun in 1924. The annual Christmas Vesper Service, which provides much of the funding for CGIT nationally was begun in 1940. In 1943 NGIT participated in this service for the first time.
In Newfoundland, the group was called Newfoundland Girls in Training, with the first group being formed in 1923. In 1949 the NGIT members became known as CGIT members.
Since 1947, CGIT had been one of the committees of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), Department of Christian Education. This brought about two benefits - the national CGIT Committee contributed and shared in the output and high quality of youth work resources, and CGIT received from the CCC the reminder of broader horizons. The CCC is a member of the World Council of Churches and this adds a further dimension to the scope of the program.
In 1973, streamlining of the national CGIT Committee took place - the 20 members now met biannually to discuss and shape CGIT policy. This Committee is composed of two representatives and one youth from each participating denomination - Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and United Church, in addition to each province or region sending a committee member. National executive members and national Executive Secretary sit on the Committee.
All provincial CGIT Committees, including Newfoundland, are answerable to the national committee and direct policies, that are national in scope, to the groups within their jurisdiction. They serve as a link between the national committee and groups within each province. This provincial committee also passes on suggestions and needs from the local groups to the national body. In some places where there is a large number of groups there may be a CGIT committee to oversee the work of these regional groups within the provinces; these regional committees are answerable to the provincial committee.
At all levels, there may be subcommittees of the regional, provincial, and national committees to deal with such topics as camp, leadership training, promotion, missionary education, and finance.
In 1941, the Government of Canada established an airbase in Labrador to protect North America from a German air attack via Greenland, which came under German control after Denmark capitulated during World War II. The Royal Canadian Air Force Station Goose Bay was so-names on April 1, 1942. Soon afterwards the United States Government began to install facilities at the base, and by 1943, it was the world’s largest airport. After the end of World War II, contingents of both the Canadian and the United States Air Forces remained at Goose Bay. The Americans operated their Strategic Air Command from the base until 1976. In 1981, the Department of National Defense operated a permanent air base at Goose Bay, and the Royal Air Force (U.K.), the United States and the West German Air Force all operated commands from Goose Bay as well. Later, agreements were made between the Canadian Government and the Governments of the Federal Republic of West Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Italy to conduct low-level flight training at Goose Bay.