George William Frost A biographical sketch, pieced together by great-grandson, Les Frost of Ottawa, Ontario, and great-granddaughter, Marian (Frost) Nurse of Victoria, Canada.
George William Frost was Born August 29, 1872 at Newsham Station, Blyth, England, the son of Thomas and Mary Frost (nee Long). His father was railroad station master at Blyth, an important position enabling the family, consisting of wife Mary and two sons George and Thomas Jr who was two years younger, to enjoy a comfortable life.When George was twelve years of age in 1884, his mother died suddenly. Without telling him of her death, Thomas took his young son to the docks and signed him up as a cabin boy on one of the tall sailing ships just leaving port. George didn't return home to learn of his mothers death for years. Upon hearing of the loss of his mother and because of his shanghai to sea, he became estranged from his father. George forgave him later on, but it is not clear if they were ever again in touch. George maintained contact with friend Mary Davidson from Blyth and he and his family corresponded and visited with her family over the years. (Many years later George's grandson, Merle, married Mary's grandniece, Jeannie Ferrell, after meeting her while on leave in England during WW2. They are the parents of Les and Marian Frost)
In his job as a cabin boy one of George's duties was to entertain the Captain's guests while visiting different ports. He was ordered to climb to the top of the rigging and dive off. Once, to make his act more interesting, he dove straight down and swam under the ship, surfacing on the opposite side, enjoying a good laugh while everyone thought he had drowned. He was punished for his fun. George continued his life at sea, sailing on many ships, eventually acquiring the title of Master Mariner from Britain.
He was working as first mate for the Furniss Withy Steamship Lines, when he met Miss Mary Hannah Furniss, daughter of the shipping line owner. Mary was born November 15th, 1873. She was heading out for a holiday on one of her father's ships when she met George and they fell in love. Upon hearing of the liaison, her father forbade them to continue seeing each other, but they persisted and later married on March 21, 1896 in Newcastle England. The marriage resulted in her banishment from the family and her disinheritance.
George served as an Officer on the S.S. England and Second Mate on the S.S. Greenwood. Unfortunately we were unable to complete his total "record of employment". He sailed on many ships and had many other jobs in addition to his maritime career and we have yet to find documentation for all.
George and Mary's first son, Norman Thomas John was born November 3rd, 1896 at 28 Windsor Terrace, Westoe, Durham, England. Their second son, Leslie was also born in England in 1899, but was very frail and unfortunately survived only a short time. The tragic poem "A Broken Mother's Imputation" refers to his death.
George was a member of the London Volunteer Fire Department in 1898. That same year, he was parted from his beloved wife (the first of many separations) when he volunteered to fight for the Americans during the Spanish American War in Cuba at the battle of Santiago. Very little about this adventure has been uncovered. Although 220,000 troops participated, only localized records are available and there is no information about where or when George landed in America, let alone what regiment he may have joined.
Following the Spanish American War, George fought in the Boer War (1899-1902) with the Imperial Yeomanry #21283 and was wounded on May 29th, 1901 while fighting at Vlaxfontein with General Dixon's Forces. He returned to Newcastle for a few years, then 1904-5 found him at sea as an officer of the troopship, the S.S. England, during the Russo Japanese War.
Around 1905 George, Mary and their young son, Norman emigrated to Canada. The family moved to British Columbia and George returned to the sea. He was the first coastal Captain for Pacific Mills of Vancouver, a company based at the now defunct townsite of Ocean Falls. The boat he skippered has been identified for us from the accompanying old photos, by renowned expert in B.C.'s marine lore, Mr. Robert Spearing. This ship, the Robert Dunsmuir, nicknamed the "Dirty Bob", was built in the late 1800's. It's namesake was a very famous Scottish Industrialist who came to Victoria in 1851 as a coal miner for the HBC. After discovering a rich coal seam near Nanaimo, Dunsmuir established his own mine, built the E&N railroad that travels from Victoria to points up island and also became very wealthy in the process. He was involved in politics and was building Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria for his family at the time of his death in 1889. The boat was built originally as a side or paddle wheeler to ferry passengers back and forth from New Westminster to Nanaimo on coal mine business. It was later converted to propeller and in 1907 to a tug by a New Westminster shipyard. It was bought by Pacific Mills in 1910 and later scrapped in 1920. Mr. Spearing found another picture of it with a group of men on the bridge at it's investiture to the company and thinks one of them looks quite like George.
The family moved to the Kitimat area, where Mary was the first white woman and son Norman the first white child to be seen by native inhabitants who found the family very interesting. The couple loved B.C. living in many different communities and, planning one day to return and build a house when they could afford it, they bought a beautiful property in Pender Harbour.
Hearing of opportunities by way of the homesteader's act, they headed east in August 1912 and worked hard to build a cabin and barn, clear the land of trees, fence and plant crops in order to acquire title to a homestead in the Leslieville, Alberta area. They lived near a river that had a cable ferry which broke down during bad weather. Remembering that George had been a sailor, some of the local men went to him to ask if he could splice the broken cable. Fortunately, he could and completed the task, saving them many months without their ferry. It would have taken that long for a new cable to be shipped from Toronto.
George Frost was working on the homestead and painting houses in Leslieville, Alberta for the Brazeau Mines when WW1 broke out. He moved Mary and Norman to Red Deer temporarily and travelled to Calgary where he enlisted with the 103rd Calgary Rifles. George shipped out of Valcartier Quebec on the S.S. Scandanavian as Regimental # 20477 of the 10th Battalion.
The following info was provided by Russ Meades, currently Chief Warrant Officer, Regimental Sergeant-Major, The Calgary Highlanders. Formed in 1910 George's unit provided five of the eight companies comprising the 10th Bn. Canadian Expeditionary Force (the "Fighting Tenth"). Both the 103rd (Calgary) Rifles and the 10th Bn. CEF live on. Some time after returning to Canada from the Great War, the numbered wartime units were reorganized and the 10th Bn. became the 1st Bn. the Calgary Regiment (based in Mewata Armoury, finished for them in 1917). Then in 1924, the 1st Bn. the Calgary Regiment was re-designated as a Highland infantry regiment and renamed The Calgary Highlanders. The Calgary Highlanders went on to fight with distinction in WWII and has since provided many troops for U.N. operations around the world. The Regiment still resides in the Mewata Armoury, and though reduced in strength to around 200 soldiers, remains a viable and valued unit of the Canadian Forces Reserve.
George was promoted to Lance Corporal on Apr. 1, 1915 and was taken prisoner of war during the Battle of St. Julien that same month. On the 8th of July, 1915 he was in a prison camp at Meschede Germany. He also spent time in Friedberg and Giessen camps. The Germans assigned him to work in the coal mines, but he didn't want to do anything that would be of assistance to them. He and another prisoner painted faces on their hands and danced them around on the table at meals in order to make the guards think they were mad. As a result, his duties were changed to garbage detail. While a prisoner he aided a Captain Eric Walker in escaping with valuable papers to the allied lines. George was ordered to carry garbage out of the camp each day. The plan was to carry Walker out in a big box to the rubbish heap. As he and another prisoner carried the box out a guard followed them, which was not usually the practice. At this point other prisoners started a ruckus to distract the guard. George yelled and Walker took off managing to escape. (For this he was presented at Windsor Castle at the special investiture of King George on his release from POW camp.) As a result of the escape plot, his prisoner's uniform was marked in red paint with stripes and circles and his sentence was converted to life in prison. He was beaten across the back with a sword and was once thrown down some stone steps for not providing information about Canadian troops. His fingers were broken as was his shoulder and he had earlier been exposed to chlorine gas.
In very poor condition George was later exchanged in Interlaken, Switzerland about 28 Nov 1917, transferred to hospital in England and later honourably discharged as medically unfit. His release came about as a result of his wife Mary's family contacts. She was shown a picture of him by an exchanged prisoner who told her told that, as a result of his assisting another prisoner to escape, he was sentenced to life in prison by the Germans. Fearing for his life and health she appealed to US President Wilson to intercede for his release, but was told that since the US was an active participant in the war he could do nothing. She then wrote to King Alphonse of Spain, who personally ordered the Spanish ambassador in Berlin to plead his cause This appeal using her past family's name was the one and only time that she exercised this option, as her parents never accepted her new life or husband.
George was transferred from Geissen camp in Germany to Austaurehtation, Konstan in Nov 1917 and then interned at Murren, Switzerland Dec 1917. Having been freed from the Germans after suffering 3 years as POW he was returned to England almost a year later in Oct 1918 and was finally returned to Canada in Jan of 1919. While in Interlaken, Switzerland awaiting his homecoming, he managed to take a "holiday" of 17 hours and 45 minutes for which he was severely reprimanded as AWOL and was put on probation as a clerk.
George William Frost was discharged from the Canadian Army on Feb 28th, 1919 and returned to Alberta. Within a short time the family decided to return to B.C. and stayed in Vancouver and then back to the Sechelt area and his favourite Pender Harbour acreage. He later found work as caretaker of a salmon cannery during the off season at Nass River, B.C.
In the thirties, George and Mary heard of an opportunity to manage an auto camp (the forerunner of today's motel) so they moved to Oceanside, California, then on to another one in Willetts, California. It was a difficult time, the depression was on and money was slow to come in, so they finally decided to return to Canada and join son Norman's family in Winnipeg. When they were ready to leave, Mary had a bad feeling about going and asked to postpone their trip. Being anxious to leave, George persuaded her to set off and not long after, they had a car accident in which Mary was injured. She was hospitalized and never fully recovered from this and was an invalid for the rest of her days. To pay Mary's medical bills, they eventually spent all of their savings and had to sell their Pender Harbour retirement retreat in spite of the fact that son Norman had been paying the taxes for years hoping to keep it in the family. George often thought that Mary might be clairvoyant, since she had dreams that were often prophetic. She once told him that her uncle spoke to her in a dream and shortly afterwards, they received a letter from Australia informing them of his death on the same date that she had the dream. He always regretted ignoring her warnings about the trip...
George and Mary came back from California sometime between 1944 and 1945 to live with son Norman and his wife Flo and their daughters Lois and Judy on Grosvenor Avenue in Winnipeg. There were four children in all, but the two boys Merle and Norman Jr were old enough to enlist. WW2 was imminent and they were soon off to war. When the couple arrived in Winnipeg, Mary was ill and eventually died of pneumonia on the 27th of July, 1946. George stayed on with his son's family and moved with them to Vancouver in 1948.
It is believed that George's father, Thomas Frost, married a Mrs. Mary Bell a while after his first wife died. At the time he apparently was a reasonably wealthy property owner in London. Thomas died sometime after George arrived in Winnipeg. His new wife had him buried in a pauper's grave, somehow retrieved the sole copy of his will from the registrar, destroyed it, and took over the entire estate, cutting Thomas's previous family out. George received word of the situation by letter from long time friend Mary Davidson, and after much discussion with his son Norman, he decided he could not afford to return to England, hire a lawyer and try to establish his claim. We are not sure how much later, but the story continues: Mary's children from her previous marriage were present when somehow she was killed, falling down the stairs. They also buried her in a pauper's grave becoming heirs to the Frost estate.
George William Frost died February 26, 1953 and is buried in the Field of Honour, Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. Although George was born in England and emigrated to Canada, he was more than anything a global citizen who felt compelled to do his part to make the world a better place. He volunteered to participate in most of the conflicts going on during his lifetime, taking part in five different wars with little concern for his own well being. Even into his seventies, upon hearing of the need for navigators during WW2, he completed enlistment forms. He sent them in and waited anxiously, checking the post every day, until finally he resigned himself to the fact that "they didn't want an old man like me". (It would have been a simple courtesy for the recruiting office to have sent a response to his generous offer.) George Frost, his son Norman and his grandsons Merle and Norman Jr all volunteered to fight for their country, hoping to make a better life for their families and future generations and spare them the horrors of the battlefield.
Canadian Military records list the following information at time of discharge in 1919. Age: 46 years 5 months. Height: 5 feet 7 inches. Complexion: ruddy. Eyes: blue. Hair: light brown. Trade: Master Mariner. Distinguishing marks: tattoos - "True Love", "GWF" and "MRHC" on right arm, bust of a woman on left. Medals and Decorations: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal, and "Mentioned in Despatches".
George wrote poetry under the pen-name "Pat Riot" (patriot) and his own name as well. Although never published, he applied for and was granted a copyright for a book of his poetry entitled: "Poetical Soliloquies of a Prisoner of War" registered under Serial #24627, register of copyrights #5 in Jan 1932.
George William Frost's poetry reflects his values and his great love and respect for friends and family and his adopted country Canada. He was very disheartened by the conditions found by Canada's veterans returning from the First World War to a country soon to be ravaged by a deep depression. Jobs were scarce and men starved and struggled to get by. After the glory of a victory at war, their hopes for a better life were dashed and many of their spirits broken. This and his many varied life experiences were the fodder for George's poetry.
The earliest poems were written while on the homestead in Alberta, but he jotted down his thoughts throughout his imprisonment during WW1 and continued to write for the rest of his life. Stray Shots (in keeping with his military background) were random thoughts of his which we included throughout the book, where ever they seemed to fit. We hope that you enjoy reading this offering as much as we have enjoyed the challenges of putting it together with the expert help of our good friend and editor William Loeppky. We would like to thank our friends Keith and Marilyn Burkett for their help with research in Alberta, and also wish to mention that George's box of papers, photos and poetry was lovingly preserved by his grand-daughter Lois (Frost) Smith.
Including history and information of his Regiment,
The Calgary Highlanders Museum and Archives
