The Coat of Arms

Below is The Bishop Feild Coat of Arms which has been associated with the school since its inception in 1844.
Notice the cross in the lower section. It divides that section into four areas. In the upper left as if looking at it is the lamb bearing the flag. This represents St. John. In the lower left is a sheaf of corn representing the Feild family. This sheaf of corn is prominent on the coast of arms of the Feild family. In the upper right is the lion rampant which represents the Jones family. In the lower right hand corner is a fore and aft schooner which represents the fishing industry of the then country of Newfoundland. Notice the rose just below the bishop's mitre and the thistle and the shamrock. These represent the three countries of the British Isles; Ireland, Scotland and England. The mitre, itself, is symbolic of the church. In the riband below is our motto-Non Moritur Cujus Fama Vivit" which in English means, They are not dead whose fame lives after them.

BEAUMONT HAMEL TOUR

Hello Boys,

Our tour to Beaumont Hamel (BH) is nearing its final stages. Old boys and significant others are signing up to go over to France from May 17-25. The highlight of the tour will be the installation and dedication of the Gerry Squires painting to commemorate those boys who died at that battle. There is still some room on the bus so please get in contact with me as soon as possible. My email is at the end of this blog.

The tour will begin in Paris and then move to many of the sites where Newfoundlanders fought during WWI. Beaumont Hamel will be our focus as there is a museum there that displays artifacts of our boys who made the supreme sacrifice there.

In an earlier blog I posted the complete itinerary so just look at the left navigation area and click on the tour title.

I sometimes wonder if doing this kind of thing is important in peoples' lives. It is important to remember those who have laid down their most precious gift, their life, so that others might live in freedom and peace. But as we go about our daily lives we do not think of those who made this sacrifice. Thus it is important that we focus on it at least once in a while through the year.

As I have been working in our archive during the past three years you come to realize that these boys were as we are now. You can see them in various sports pictures at the college. You imagine you know them. You know that they did the same things as we do today, eat breakfast, dress for school, miss homework, upset their parents and teachers and generally behave as boys do although at a different time.

Then came the time when many of them decided to go to war, a war that many at the time thought would be over in a month or so. We know it wasn't and many of them died well into the conflict. Many looked upon it as a grand adventure and could not wait to get into the thick of things. Many lied about their age although would they not have had to produce a birth certificate at enlistment? That's the story though. They badly wanted to have an adventure and war was their ticket to that excitement.

Now we remember their sacrifice and in May we will remember the sacrifice of a special few-Old Feildians. There were seven or eight killed outright at Beaumont Hamel on that fateful day, July 1, 1916 and about 55 others during the war itself. Almost 300 Old Feildians fought in that war. Of that number about sixty were killed. That's 1 in 5 who went over did not come back. If you include all those who went over from Newfoundland it is easy to see that for such a small place we made a significant contribution.

I suppose when you go to war you must think that there is a possibility of being killed albeit an adventurous time. But in the face of that many of our boys left hearth and home to fight in foreign climes.

And so we remember them. We must continue to remember even though the event is long ago. We must pass on to the next generation the importance of remembering. We must never forget them.

Beaumont Hamel Tour

Hello Boys,





This week saw the finishing touches to our Beaumont Hamel Tour which will take place from May 17 to May 25. If you have read the earlier blogs you will know that our small committee commissioned Gerry Squires and Boyd Chubbs to develop an idea that we could use as a memorial to all OLD FEILDIANS who died at The Battle of Beaumont Hamel and also those who were killed during WWI. Close to 300 Feildians enlisted in the early days of the war. Many of them came from C Company of The C.L.B. Of those 300 there were close to 67 who did not come home and of that 67 there were 7 who died at The Battle of Beaumont Hamel.
Several of the enlistees were masters at the college when war broke out in 1914 and I am thinking of A.E. Barnard for example.

An old boy who enlisted at the beginning of the war was 2nd. Lt.Robert Bruce Reid. He was 21 and was the son of Sir William Duff and Lady Reid of "Bartra", Circular Road, St. John's. His body rests in Memorial Park very close to Beaumont Hamel.

Here is the itinery for the tour.



Dear Old Feildians and Friends of the school,

At long last we have the information finalized, to the extent possible, for the trip to Beaumont Hamel to bring the painting that is to be dedicated and mounted in the museum there in memory of all the Old Feildians that died in World War 1.

As you are aware a beautiful painting has been completed by two of Newfoundland’s best artists, Gerry Squires and Boyd Chubbs, and it will be delivered by us to Beaumont Hamel on behalf of all Old Feildians both past and present.

The trip will include more than just the dedication at Beaumont Hamel, although that is our main purpose. It will include over two full days to see Paris, as well as a five day tour of the Normandy and Somme Valley. Two days will be in traveling to and from Paris, a total of nine days.

The dates are: Leaving St. John’s on Saturday afternoon May 17th, and returning on the evening of Sunday May 25th.

The tour is limited to 50 people, 25 couples, which is restricted by both the tour bus capacity and the number of hotel rooms we have been able to have held for us in Paris.
It is therefore most important that anyone interested in participating in the tour respond by January 31st., as we will be using a first come basis for our bookings.
A credit card will be required at the time of booking from which the required deposit can be taken by our travel consultant.


The costs outlined below are now approximately two to three weeks old and may vary slightly when the actual bookings are made. We expect however, that any difference in the price will be slight.
The total price shown is based on double occupancy in all hotel accommodations but prices are on a per person basis.

AIR FARE: Air Canada ……………………… $1,146.15 including taxes
( St. John’s to Paris – via Toronto – return )

HOTEL in PARIS: Hotel Alexander http://www.hotelalexanderparis.com
Three nights ( night of arrival on May 18th and …,
May 23rd, and 24th, prior to our return )
Cost is 173 Euro/n or approximately $260.00 C$ which is $130/p/n
Cost for the three nights in Paris is $390.00 per person.

FIVE DAY BUS TOUR:
* Includes four nights in a Holiday Inn 3 star hotel in both Amiens and Caen.
Dinner on three of the four nights. Breakfast each morning.
All site entrance fees … and a bilingual guide.
Cost is $ 995.00 per person.

The total of the above, which are the major expenses, is $ 2531.15

Notes:
1. A deposit of $1500.00 will be required at the time of booking or no later than January 31st. Balance within 60 days.
2. You must obtain your own travel and medical insurance. This may be already covered on your credit card if used to pay for your flight.
3. An up to date PASSPORT.
4. Make allowances for contingencies, personal and unforeseen expenses.
5. It should also be noted that the dates of the flights to and from Paris is flexible and that they can be earlier or later to suit individual schedules. The only fixed dates and times will be the beginning and end on the bus tour itself. Anyone interested in making special arrangements need only contact our travel consultant.
6. Finally, please be advised that the airline and bus tour operator requires a minimum number of people for us to get the prices that were quoted, so your earliest response is required for us to maintain these rates.

To book on this tour you are requested to call Holly Rideout at 687-3892 and have your credit card number to give her. Any specific questions can be sent to her e-mail address which is holly-rideout@coldwellbanker.ca



On behalf of Old Feildians we are Dick Cook, Peter Chalker and Bill Rompkey.

A Bishop Feild College Staff

Sometime last year Ms. Lenora Stanford(Music) came to The Archive to see me and she had a packet of materials with her that she wished to donate to our Archive. Amongst that material was an excellent photograph of the staff as I remember them when I graduated in 1962. Also there were many black and whites of Speech Night Plays that she and her choirs and classes had staged for the annual prize giving. I was delighted to receive them on behalf of The Archive and have most of them on the Flickr site.

While she was there with me we had a chat about how she came to teach at Bishop Feild seeing that she was from Wales and her story was quite interesting.

In the photograph in the back row is Mr. Ish Humber. I can remember him teaching us about perspective and vanishing points, making a good plan and executing it. The manual training room was always a mysterious place with that smell of sanded wood and spinning augers and the like. I made a cutlery drawer for my mother which is still in the family. It took me a year from conception to finished product but I learned a great deal from him about woodworking. Why the board of the day allowed that facility to be dismantled still rankles me.

In the front row is our headmaster Mr. Anderson. Behind his back we called him 'Bull' because of his booming voice which rang through the corridors and bounced off the marble floors of the building. I always felt a shudder of fear when I heard that thunderous voice boom through the hallways of the school. He was a tall man and as we stood to attention every morning for assembly he would come striding up the middle aisle, cloak sleeves billowing out until he reached the stage and stood in front of the lectern which always had the hymn number on the front. You could hear a pin drop.

This photograph was taken in 1965 three years after I had graduated so I did not know all of the teachers there. The lady to Mrs. Penney's left and the lady to Ms. Halfyard's left are unknown to me. Probably one of you boys may know them. Who is the lady standing next to the crew-cut Mr. Cooze? Speaking of Ms. Halfyard, when I was at Feild, Ms. Halfyard taught Grade VI and a tough disciplinarian she was. While reading she would walk up and down the aisles of desks with an eighteen inch long Confederation Life ruler in her right hand and woe to the lad who was not sitting erect with legs out of the aisle. That ruler would fall with lightning speed on the offender's leg. Although strict, in hind-sight, to me she was a wonderful teacher. She was tough and fair. Later on when she retired and became seriously ill I had the good fortune to sit with her during her last days which she faced with the same strength of character that was the backbone of her teaching.

Boys can you remember any events or stories from your time at Feild?