Coffin, Dunbar have their place in history
Truro editor and doctor among the first to help following Halifax Explosion
When A.R. Coffin was contacted about heading into the disaster scene that was the Halifax Explosion, he didn’t hesitate.
The Canadian Press asked Coffin, editor and publisher of the Truro Daily News and Truro Weekly News at the time of the Halifax Explosion, to get a story out of Halifax, where wires were dead.
Even before he left town, the newspaper was getting a message out through a bulletin board reading:
MUNITIONS SHIP BLOWN UP IN HALIFAX
The city is covered in smoke, all telegraph and phone wires are wrecked, motor cars are rushing to the city from outside points for information and to furnish aid as necessary.”
Coffin later wrote in a letter: “Within an hour this writer was on the road for Halifax with the best taxi in town, the chauffeur carrying a machinist with him. Roads were in worst possible condition, having been guttered badly before freezing and in places covered with ice and snow.
“In spite of the roads we made the trip in three hours. You would know that in the lightly-loaded car we didn’t spend much time on the seat. At Bedford (10 miles from Halifax) we made all arrangements for telegraph and telephone at any time during the night on our return. Help offered to the Halifax papers whose publishing was halted by the damage. Offered they could use printing press in Truro.”
When he headed back to Truro he carried not only news, but a carload of injured people.
William Dunbar, mayor Truro at the time, as well as a doctor, arranged for a special train carrying doctors — including himself — nurses, firefighters and equipment to go to Halifax. It arrived shortly after noon.
Around 3:30 p.m. the first trainload of injured arrived in Truro, where emergency medical centres had been set up.
Help from Boston, which is widely recognized for its assistance, arrived two days later.
A.R. Coffin first began working at the Truro Daily News as a reporter, in 1894. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1946 and remained as editor-in-chief at the paper until 1956.
He later served as mayor of Truro (1920) and was the first vice-president of the Rotary Club of Truro (1926). He died in Truro April 21, 1962.