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). GWF's father was railroad station master at Blyth, an important postition 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 on 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 his father later on, but it is not clear if they were ever again in contact. George maintained contact with friend Mary Davidson from Blyth and he and his family corresponded and visited with her family throughout the years.
In his job as a cabin boy one duty 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. One time, 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 Furniss, daughter of the shipping line owner. Mary was born November 15th, 1873. She was heading out on a holiday on one of her fathers ships at the time and they fell in love. Upon hearing of the liason, 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 family and friends and her disinheritance.
George William Frost He served as an Officer on the crew of the S.S. England and Second Mate on the S.S. Greenwood, Registered in Newcastle from the 16 Jan 1897 - 22 Feb 1897.
George and Mary's first son, Norman Thomas John Frost was born November 3rd, 1896 at 28 Windsor Terrace, Westoe, Durham, England. Their second son, Leslie was 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 this event.
George was a member of the London Volunteer Fire Department in 1898. That same year, George was separated 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.
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 a seaman aboard a troopship during the Russo Japanese War.
In 1905 George, Mary and their young son, Norman emigrated to Canada. The family moved to British Columbia and lived in many places in that Province while George returned to the sea. He was the first coastal Captain for Pacific Mills of Vancouver, a company based at the now defunct Ocean Falls. The boat he skippered has been identified from the accompanying old photos as the Robert Dunsmuir by renowned expert in B.C.'s marine lore, Mr. Robert Spearing. It was built in the late 1800's and named for Robert Dunsmuir, a famous Scottish Industrialist who came to Victoria in 1851.
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 the native inhabitants who found them very interesting. The couple loved B.C. 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, 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 a broken cable. Fortunately, he could and did to save them many months without their ferry. It would have taken that long for the 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 to Red Deer temporarily and traveled to Calgary where he enlisted with the 103rd Regiment. He must have changed later as he went to war as a Lance-Corporal in 10th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, First World War Regimental # 20477.
He was taken prisoner of war during Battle of St. Julien in April 1915. On the 8th of July, 1915 he was a prisoner of war in Meschede Germany. He also spent time in Friedberg camp, Esson and Neschede. 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 Capt. Eric Walker in escaping with valuable papers to the allied lines. George was detailed 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 then yelled and Walker took off. (For this he was presented at Windsor Castle at the special investiture of King George on his release from POW camp.) As a result the escape plot, his prisoner's uniform was marked in red paint with stripes and circles. He was beaten across the back with a guard's sword and was later transferred to Constance, then on to another camp. He was once thrown down some stone steps by a guard for not providing information about Canadian troops. His fingers were broken as was his shoulder.
He was later exchanged in Interlaken, Switzerland about 28 Nov 1917. This came about as a result of his wife Mary's family contacts. She was shown a picture of him by an exchanged prisoner and was 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 health she appealed to US President Wilson to intercede on her behalf for his release. Wilson said that since the US was an active participant in the war he could do nothing. She then wrote to King Alphonso of Spain, who personally ordered the Spanish ambassador in Berlin to plead his cause. (It appears that her success was as a result of her paternal contacts and is the one and only time that she exercised this option.)
George William Frost was discharged from the Canadian Army on Feb 28th, 1919 and returned to Alberta in 1919. Within a short time the family decided to return to B.C. during the 1920's and stayed in Vancouver and then back to the Sechelt Peninsula area and his favourite Pender Harbour acreage. He also found work as caretaker of a salmon cannery at Nass River, BC during the off season.
In the thirties, George and Mary heard of an opportunity to manage an autocamp (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 really fully recovered from this and was an invalid for the rest of her days. To pay Mary's medical bills, they spent all of their savings and sold 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 Frost were old enough to enlist. WW2 was imminent and they were soon off to war. When the couple arrived Mary was very ill and eventually died of pneumonia on the 27th of July, 1946. George stayed on with the 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 somestime after George arrived in Winnipeg. His new wife had him buried in a paupers 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 and hire a lawyer to try and 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 and they buried her in a paupers grave and becoming sole heirs to the Frost fortune.
George William Frost died February 26, 1953 and is buried in the Field of Honour, Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. The family's address at the time was 946 Rochester Road.
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 volunteered and received papers to complete. 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 and common courtesy for the recruiting office to at least respond to his generous offer.)
He wrote poetry under the pen-name "Pat Riot" (patriot) and sometimes used his own name as well. George applied for and was granted a copyright for a book of his poetry. "Poetical Soliloquies of a Prisoner of War" registered under Serial #24627, in register of copyrights #5 on 28 January 1932.
His poetry reflects his values and his great respect for friends and family. 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 many varied life experiences were the fodder for George's poetry.
History and information of his Regiment,
The Galgary Highlanders Museum and Archives
