"Daisy"

Today, February 25 being the anniversary of the funeral of my great Aunt , Margaret (Daisy) Nevard, seemed like a good time to add a photo and a few details on her.
Born Margaret Montagu Winstanley in December , 1873 in Milbrook, England. Always known as "Daisy" she had some training and worked as a nurse in England before coming to Canada in 1909 to marry Arthur Nevard and live in the newly constructed log house on his homestead in Saskatchewan which they named "Winstanley Grove". Her medical training was quite useful out on the prairies, miles from a doctor. She often perfomed the duties of a mid-wife, travelling with a horse and buggy and favourite dog "Pants" .
Daisy and Arthur ran a boarding house/hospital for a time in a Regina home at 2081 Ottawa Street from about 1914 to the end of WWI, then returning to the farm .
Daisy died relatively young at 59 years of age from an apparent stroke. Buried at Lipton cemetery, 76 years ago today.

Letter from Arthur to brother Horace

Letter written by Arthur Nevard to brother Horace about Feb. 10 of 1916.
Letter completed by Daisy Nevard.
2081 Ottawa St.
Regina, Sask.

Dear Horrie

I received your letter this morning alright. I am glad you received the JBs alright. I sent them instead of a letter
as I have been busy since the beginning of December getting ready for moving and since we have been in here
I have been busy fixing up the house but we have got it comfortable now. We have one patient in the house. She
has been in for two weeks and is going out on Sat. She comes from Pense, the first baby. She is doing well now
but has been a hard case. Cissy Southward from Cupar is here too. She is taking her normal class. She will be
here about another month. We have another lady from Cupar for a week or so. There is another one coming in any
day now.
I think it will pay alright when the warmer weather comes as the coal bill is high now the winter being such a cold
one and the house a larger one too. 12 rooms and bathroom. We had to spend quite a bit of money for new floor
cloth, bed, etc. but you see Daisy has been helping me pay off the farm debts so I could not very well refuse.
Besides she thinks she can make more money here than going out and nothing venture, nothing have.
The 68th are recruited up to full strength now I guess and may be going any time now. There is another regiment
being formed now, or will be in a week or so. The 195th I think it is. They wiill begin to recruit as soon as they can
find quarters for the men. The Lieut Col. is here now.
We have lots of snow this winter here. It is drifting quite a bit and makes a lot of work for the street cleaning dept.
and the street railway to keep the tracks clear.
I had my notice from the city and sent in my application but don't know the result yet and I would not care if it
was the end of March as it would be easier getting another job but they are not so plentiful now. I think several
have left the city hall. They are sick of it as this is the 3rd time at any rate that the civic staff have been considered
for cutting down and in fact even since the war started the council has been trying to cut wages and do away with
all the help they can but it should not be necessary to do it every new council that comes into power as it only
shows that the heads of departments and the commisions don't know their business in my estimation.
The Rev. Earp is at Winnipeg taking an officer's course. He is trying to go with the 68th to the front as Army Chaplain.
I think he has made up his mind anyhow to go to the front one way or another. I have not seen any Lipton fellows
here although there may be some. Grace Church congregration is made up chiefly of women. There are about 70
men gone in the Army. J. Took is teaming coal for Whitmore now. Joe and T. Borden are down on the farm at
Mclean. They are finding out they have a pretty tough proposition I believe and Joe is not happy at all. He would
sooner be in the Army he told me. Frank Borden's wife was not cut out for a farmer's wife and they have found it
out to their cost. They have not said it in so many words but that is the conclusion I draw by putting 2 and 2 together.
I hope you will get along alright with the broncho busting. I guess you won't do much til the snow goes by the look
of things.
As usual A is in a hurry and asks me to finish this off. We are doing alright, not making big profits yet out
of our new venture but just paying our expenses. As you know expenses at this time of year are great.
My love to Mary. I thought she owed me a letter but it seems its the other way. Jenny Dobson, Mrs.
Brinkworth's sister is dead and buried last week. We have a Mrs. Holland of Cupar here, a notorious woman
from Cupar. Her husbands in jail for bigamy, a lady from Pense, and Cis Southward who is studying
for Normal. She is a nice girl.
A says let the others look at this letter. He he's no time for writing to all. We hope to see you down here one
of these days. The folk are about the same. They came in to our place after Church on Sunday evening.
Mr. Earp is going as chaplain of the 68th. We will miss him.
Much love to you all, especially Mary and Dick. Hope all are well.

Daisy

January 15, 1942

January 15 and it is 67 years since the funeral for Alf Goff. This photo was taken the morning
of the funeral. It shows Alf in the coffin , a plain pine box resting on trestles outside the
door of his log cabin. Through the open door can be seen the wood stove with the kettle still
resting as he left it only a few days earlier.
By the angle of the sun it must have been around 10 o'clock in the morning and they would
likely have soon set out on the journey to Lipton for the funeral that afternoon. A long 12
miles by horse and sleigh with plenty of time to think. January, traditionally the coldest
and most depressing time of the winter. It must have been a sad time for my grandfather
and the rest of the family, losing the oldest member of the trio that had emigrated here
from Dorset, England back in the spring of 1903.

Back In Dorset For Next Christmas

Those were the words that my Grandfather's cousin, Jack Goff said around the time of his first Christmas in Canada in 1903. Out here on the homestead in the district of Assiniboia that would later become the province of Saskatchewan it was a pretty harsh change from a winter in the south part of England. Jack along with his cousins, Tom and Alf Goff had just arrived on the homestead in May of 1903. Homesteads were cheap, 160 acres of land for $10 but a man had to work for it. They had to build a place to live, good enough to survive a Canadian winter, break a few acres of land. Plus buy some horses or oxen to pull the breaking plough. The closest settlement was Fort Qu'appelle some 20 miles south which was a long journey in the days before roads.After spending their first few months in a tent they managed to construct a 10x12 foot log cabin in which to live which was a big improvement over the tent. Still, it must have been a real eye-opener when the snow came and the temperature dropped to the -20s for long periods. It was likely during a spell of that weather that Jack made the statement that he would be back in Dorset for next Christmas. He never did make it back to Dorset though. As they made progress on the farm he may have come to accept the extreme weather conditions as normal. Or it may have just been lack of funds to make a return trip to England that kept him here. He farmed the land for another 40 years before retiring to town. Here's a picture of the little homestead shack as it stood in 2003, a hundred years old.

The Littlest Immigrant

The youngest of my ancestors to leave England for Canada was my mother's cousin, Ernest William Nevard, or as everyone knew him, "Bill". Born in 1902, he was only 4 years oldwhen he boarded the ship with his mother to sail to Canada and join his father, Ernest, who had come to Saskatchewan to homestead in 1903. Bill had very little formal education learning all the basics from his parents. He was a voracious reader and prolific writer writing many short stories and works of fiction on whatever scrap paper was available at the time. He also loved to draw and left many pages of his own unique type of art. Bill began helping out on the homestead as soon as he was able to and went on to farm the land himself until 1948. He loved his horses that he farmed with and they all had names. When farming became more mechanized and tractors were taking over from horses, this must have helped him decide to leave farming and seek other employment. Bill worked at the Fort Qu'appelle t.b. sanatorium for the next 20 years until he retired. He enjoyed his retirement, gardening re-building the old farm homestead house and spending part of the summers there. He died at age 73 doing a job that he enjoyed, cutting firewood on the farm on a sunny morning in November of 1975.

A Century Apart

100 years apart, approximately. Thats about how much time is between these two photos.The home of my mother's uncle Arthur Nevard. I took the lower, colour photo today, November 27, 2008. The early black and white was taken in the early days of the 1900s, not long after the house had been built judging by the bare, unplastered poplar logs. Since there were no churches nearby, an Anglican service had been held in Arthur's homeon the day this photo was taken. It must have been a full house with all those people packed into the little log cabin. Today only a depression in the ground marks where the cellar was. The rusty kitchen stove beside the remnants of the brick chimney, the collapsed log walls laying nearby. 97 years ago today my grandparents were married in that little log house.

Memories of WWII

At Bognor Regis

Les Goff’s WW II Memories
July 6, 1944, 2nd Canadian Anti Tank Regiment of the 2nd infantry division left Tilbury Docks at London, England bound for France. We arrived on a beach near the town of Bayeux, Normandy where we were able to disembark without having to wade or drive through water which we were grateful for. However our trucks and towers were water proofed up to a point, possibly 3 or 4 feet of water. We arrived without incident
We had 17 pounder anti-tank guns which were towed by either Ford or Chevy towers carrying six to seven men. All kit, 40 rounds of 17 pounder ammo, five thousand rounds of 303, also each man carried a rifle. One bren machine gun per gun crew. A number of grenades , two mortars and various other pieces of equipment. So we were rather squeezed in. The ammo and packs were carried on the roof of the tower which was built for that purpose.
On going ashore there was plenty of evidence that there had been a lot of shelling. There were a lot of knocked out tanks and I regret to say that they were mostly Shermans which fell victim to the deadly German 88 mm. It was a very capable and versatile artillery gun which we would soon learn was better than anything we had and we better respect it. However the 17 pounder proved to be a good gun and came close to matching the 88's power.
We spent our first day and night somewhere in the vicinity between Bayeux and Caen, just out of range of the firing which we could hear. We were very concerned about where , when and what our next move would be. We did not have to wait long. Towards evening of the second day we were informed that we would be moving into position after dark taking over from the British 51 Division which was coming out for a rest. Our officer informed us it was pretty grim up there. That remark was very sobering. I realized later that he was not exaggerating. So, come darkness we started our move to the front. There are no lights, no cigarettes, just slowly moving with officer beside driver to show the route, a narrow dirt road. As much as I could see it was a fair amount of trees and hedges alongside the road. All went well for awhile when suddenly there was a burst of machine gun fire that sounded very close. We came to a very sudden stop. Our officer ordered everybody out. We piled out double quick, rifle in hand and hit the ditch. After laying there for 2 or 3 minutes all was quiet so Armstrong, our officer says quietly,"Unhook the gun, we have come too far, turn around and head back a ways.".........................