Frances Cluett was born in Belleoram, Newfoundland, in 1883. At the age of thirty-three, she left her Fortune Bay home to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), an organization committed to assisting military personnel during World War I. She trained in London, England, for work in a military hospital and in 1917 was stationed at the 10th General Hospital in Rouen, France.
During her four years of service overseas, Nurse Cluett wrote many letters to home. Contained here are the war letters she sent to her mother in Newfoundland, telegrams describing the atrocities of war, the valiant deeds of comrades in arms, and the despair of young men dying on foreign shores.

Bill Rompkey was born in Belleoram, Fortune Bay, but he grew up in St. John’s where he later taught English before moving to Labrador in 1963. While a student at Memorial University, he joined the University Naval Training Divisions and later, as a commissioned officer, was stationed briefly at HMCS Cabot. In 1972, he was elected to the House of Commons where he served for twenty-three years before being appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1995. Throughout his parliamentary career, Senator Rompkey has been involved with issues of defence and security. He chaired the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs and in 1993 co-chaired the Special Joint Committee on Canada’s Defence Policy. Previously, he had served as vice-chair of the North Atlantic Assembly, the international body for NATO parliamentarians. He was an active member of the Naval Officers Association of Canada and the Crow’s Nest, and he has been honoured for his work with the Navy League of Canada. He was married to the former Carolyn Pike, and they had two children, Hilary and Peter. Bill Rompkey passed away on March 21, 2017 in Ottawa, ON.

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Bert Riggs, who was born in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, in 1954, holds a B.A. and a B.Ed. from Memorial University and a masters degree in information studies from the University of Toronto. He has been an archivist at Memorial University since 1989 and currently is head of the Archives and Manuscripts Division of the university’s Queen Elizabeth II Library. From 1997 to 2006, he wrote a weekly column for the St. John’s Telegram. He is a bencher with the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador and is chair of the board of the Resource Centre for the Arts, owners and operators of the LSPU Hall.

Bert Riggs' profile page