The first Naval Reserve in Newfoundland was established in 1900 and was called the Royal Naval Reserve (Newfoundland). It was a branch of the Imperial Force and was established more for the purpose of training sailors for the Royal Navy rather than training them for the defense of Newfoundland. In 1900 the British Admiralty decided to use a British naval ship for training in St. John’s and by 1902 the old wooden cruiser H.M.S. Calypso was fitted out to accommodate 300 men to train. Recruitment and training of the Reserve continued during the succeeding years, reservists being reguired to report on board the H.M.S. Calypso every year at a time of their choosing for 28 days of drill and training. The men were paid as able seamen during their training and received £6 a year as a retainer.
Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve by Fred Carter
The above photograph shows cousins Frank Green (on the left) and Benjamin Carter, both from Ship Island, in their Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve uniforms. Benjamin enlisted in the Reserve at age 20 on 10th November 1900, while Frank signed up on 30th January 1909, just before his 18th birthday. Both men were called up for service in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the First World War in September 1914 and joined nearly 500 of their Reserve comrades who transferred to the British Navy at that time. In fact, I was told by my father that a British warship was dispatched to Labrador where they actually gathered up many of the reservists while they were down there prosecuting the fishery. Greenspond and that area of Bonavista Bay were well represented in the British Navy in that world conflict.
Benjamin Carter was bom on Ship Island, Greenspond, on March 12, 1880, the son of James and Sarah Carter. Sarah was the daughter of Robert and Mary (Gill) Green of Pinchard’s Island. Robert was the son of Thomas and Mary Green of Ship Island. Frank Green was born February 7, 1891, the son of Peter and Delilah Green of Ship Island. Frank’s father died March 22, 1895 at the age of 49. Frank was then taken to live with his uncle and aunt, Sylvester and Mary Elizabeth Green, who reared him. Ben Carter in 1904 married Elsie Clara Sheppard of Catalina. They were the parents of seven children, one of whom Harry, the author of Newfoundland Stories and Ballads, served overseas in the Second World War with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit.
Frank Green married Mary Carter, daughter of Peter and Caroline Carter of Ship Island on December 27, 1911; they had seven children. Their eldest daughter, Elsie Green was bom September 28, 1913 and became a teacher at Port Nelson in 1931. Elsie married Fred Phillipps. She was interviewed at her home in St. John’s on January 15, 1996 by Linda White; the details of that interview appeared in The Greenspond Letter, Volume 3, Number 1, and Volume 5, Number 1. Elsie died at the Agnes Pratt Home, St. John’s, on December 2, 2004. She had proven to be an important source of family history, as well as the history of the Greenspond area. Frank and Mary’s youngest son, Eric, born in Greenspond October 15, 1930, died at the Grace Hospital in St. John’s on June 3, 1939 due to a ruptured spleen after being struck by g car at the foot of Long’s Hill. The family was living on Pennywell Road in St. John’s at the time. Frank was listed as captain of the S.S. Cape Agulhas. Ben Carter was demobilized from the Royal Navy 3rd April 1919 having served on many ships in the Fleet without being wounded. In the March 1955 issue of the Newfoundland Quarterly, Robert Saunders, editor of the Greenspond Saga, wrote: “This I know personally, that at the coronation of King George V (1910) a son of Greenspond. Benjamin Carter, when in the Naval Reserve and later a veteran of World War I, was selected, with about twenty others from Newfoundland, to represent the Newfoundland Unit of this Reserve force in the great Coronation Parade in London. It was then that the great merchant family of Dominey (particularly Edgar) took great pride in trying out the old cannon.”
Benjamin Carter died January 12, 1971 at the age of 90; Elsie Clara died September 26, 1972 aged 85. They were buried together in the Anglican cemetery. Forest Road, St. John’s, along with their daughter Mary, who died February 14, 1937 at the age of 17. Harry Carter died in St. John’s in November 2005; he was 95 years old.
Frank Carter was demobilized from the Royal Navy on 31st March 1919 having suffered serious wounds during his war service. He died November 1, 1957 at sea out of Halifax while he was serving as captain of a dragger. In the Newfoundland Quarterly, spring issue 1961, Robert Saunders published the following report in his column, The Greenspond Saga:
“… the following data on a Greenspond veteran who passed away not too long ago. Captain Frank Green, veteran skipper dies at sea. Captain Frank L. Green of Halifax County, Nova Scotia, died at sea … a native of Greenspond, Newfoundland. Captain Green has been sailing for over fifty years, and for the most part of this time had been master of his ship, first at the Labrador Fishery and for the past twenty years as master of one of the trawlers fishing on the Grand Banks. He served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and served with the first group of naval recruits called at the outbreak of the war in August 1914. He was on a troop ship in the Dardanelles and was wounded while landing troops at Gallipoli. He was hospitalized at Alexandria, and later in England, before being invalided home. The ship on which he sailed for home was torpedoed in mid-Atlantic. After hours in the Atlantic he was taken back to England to wait another sailing. He reached here (Newfoundland) late in 1917 and was on sick leave until the spring of 1918. He was back on active duty patrolling the Atlantic when the Armistice was signed in November 1918.
The Greesnpond Saga – Robert Saunders
In a later issue of the Newfoundland Quarterly, winter 1964, Saunders said that Frank Green was buried in Nova Scotia and noted that he had retired a few months before his death, but returned to the sea for one trip to relieve.
The above accounts of just two of our veterans from the First World War give some idea of the dedication and allegiance shown by our brave men and women in past and present world conflicts. We shall always be grateful for their sacrifices on our behalf.