The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
This week in Nova Scotia history: Jan. 18-24
Jan. 18, 1940 — The first war loan (later known as Victory Bonds) campaign was launched in January by the federal government to help finance the war effort and create a nest egg when soldiers returned to their families after the war. In effect, the loans were Canada saving bonds which could later be redeemed for cash. But there was considerable pressure to hold them untill their maturity date.
For example, the fourth victory loan “came in two groups: the long-term, matured May 1, 1957, paying interest at three per cent, “… in denominations of $50, $100, $500, $1,000, 5,000 and $25,000; … and the shortterm maturing Nov. 1, 1946, paid interest at 1¾ per cent ….”
Often huge parades, including all of the armed forces in Halifax, were a feature of each Victory Loan campaign. When the war was over in 1945, Canada owed little to foreign bondholders, having financed its war effort with a combination of taxation and the support of Victory Bonds purchased by its own citizens. (Source: Halifax at War by William D. Naftel, p.155) Jan. 19, 1862 — The Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science met for the first time in Halifax for scientific inquiry and sharing recent research. Considered a direct descendent of the Halifax Mechanics Institute (18311860) and the Halifax Literary and Scientific Society (18391862).
Jan. 20, 1971 — The Dominion Atlantic Railway (DAR) bridge across the Avon River at Windsor was taken down following the completion of a new Avon River Causeway.
Rail service between Halifax and Windsor had begun in 1858. By 1867-68, the Windsor and Annapolis Railway Company constructed a rail bridge over the Avon River. The first road bridge to be built across the river was a covered wooden toll bridge in 1837. It later burned down and by 1882 the first steel road bridge was built in 1882, running parallel to the rail bridge.
By 1968 the construction of a causeway to include both a highway and rail line across the Avon River at Windsor began. It was opened in the fall of 1970.
For more information on the history of the bridges over the Avon River at Windsor, see The ‘Cause’ in Causeway by the Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership, February 2008.
Jan. 21, 2008 — Former Mi’kmaq Chief of Pictou Landing (from 1967 to 1983), Raymond Francis, died (b. 1931). He was also Grand Council keptin since 1991. Besides being chief, he was also owner and operator of R.J. Francis and Sons Foundations for over 40 years and worked for many years as an Indigenous alcohol and drug counselor.
Francis was considered instrumental in attempting to resolve the environmental problems resulting from pollution in the Boat Harbour area of Pictou County which had been ongoing since the mid-1960s.
Jan. 22, 1944 — Under the direction of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission announced new rations in alcohol, which no doubt brought joy to the hearts of many a bootlegger. Purchasers were allowed a monthly ration of one quart of spirits, two quarts of imported or four quarts of domestic wine and 24 quarts of beer. (Source: Lunenburg Progressenterprise, February 2, 1944.) Jan. 23, 2015 — The Government of Canada signed a $2.3 billion procurement contract with Irving Shipbuilding of Halifax to build six Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) for the Royal Canadian Navy. Part of the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (now called the National Shipbuilding Strategy) the 2,000-member workforce started production on Sept. 3, 2015, with the launch of HMCS Harry Dewolf on Sept. 15, 2018 and delivered to the navy in July 2020.
The HMCS Margaret Brooke was launched on Nov. 10, 2019. The names of the ships to follow in order will be: Max Bernays, the William Hall, the Frédérick Rolette, and the Robert Hampton Gray. The budget for the project has now increased to $3.5 billion.
Over the next couple of decades, plans are also moving forward to construct two AOPS for the Canadian Coast Guard, and 15 Canadian Surface Combatant ships for the Royal Canadian Navy to replace the current surface fleets. (Photo: The future HMCS Harry Dewolf was launched to water in September 2018. Irving Shipbuilding Inc. 2018.)
Jan. 24, 1758 — During the early winter of 1758, the people of Halifax were coping with a smallpox epidemic.
It actually started in the early summer of 1757 when a fleet of over 20,000 British soldiers and seamen from the combined forces of Lord Loudon and Admiral Holburne arrived in Halifax in 21 ships of war and various transports for a planned attack on Fortress Louisbourg. At the time, the civilian population of the Halifax settlement was about 3,000.
Soon after the fleet had arrived, invasion plans were called off. It has been speculated one of the reasons was due to a rapidly spreading sickness throughout the fleet. For in July 1757, while the fleet waited in the harbour, Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence indicated to the Nova Scotia Council that Lord Loudon had reported to him that “a fever was beginning to spread amongst the troops ...”
The Halifax Hospital for Sick and Hurt Seamen, established in June 1750, located just south of the palisades beyond Horseman’s Fort (near current day Government House), was also beginning to fill up with the ill.
Later Admiral Holbourne would also write to his superiors on Aug. 4, 1757 from Halifax Harbour, “We had between 900 and 1,000 men put ashore to the hospital where I must leave 500 sick, besides 200 dead since we sailed [from Spithead on May 8].”
Soon the epidemic began to spread through the civilian population infecting many families through the fall and winter.
Another British invasion plan was set in motion, and by early May of 1758 more ships of war and transports arrived in Halifax. They brought not only men, but more sickness. In fact, two of Admiral Boscawen’s ships, the Devonshire and the Pembroke had to be left behind in Halifax due to the sickness on the ships. Later that June, a hospital to serve military personnel would be opened. (Source: Surgeons, Smallpox and the Poor A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 17491799, Alan Everett Marble. pp.52-58.)
Leo J. Deveau is a public historian, researcher, speaker and author of 400 Years in 365 Days — A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History (2017). His most recent book is Fideliter The Regimental History of The Princess Louise Fusiliers (2020). He can be reached at 400years@formac.ca.