Patriotic Newfoundlanders

We were very, very patriotic, you know. Actually when I enlisted to come away there was three brothers from one home and that was, in different parts you had two or three boys, you know, from each one actually and most everybody that had somebody who was eligible. If they didn’t come to us, with us they were waiting to come to mainland Canada. So there was 96 of us from Newfoundland came away on the 11th of December. So we went to Harvey’s, I think it was Harvey’s Pier and we had to pass some sort of a test for your throat and mouth to see if you had I don’t know what, but we had doctor’s tests before that but this was before. And we went aboard a small motorboats because the ship you were going on was a stock and hardliner. That ship was actually too heavy, I suppose, to bring in there. I don’t know why. She was 38 thousand tonnes and we had to join motorboats and go out in the fresh water bay well outside of ours and grab some ropes and go up.

Mr. Austin describes the general feeling of patriotism in Newfoundland at the outbreak of war, and going to St. John’s to embark for England.

Stephen Austin

Stephen Austin, Sr. was born in Holyrood, Newfoundland on December 16, 1916. He was the second of four children and was raised on a family farm. His father was also a fisherman. In 1936 he started working as a truck driver. Mr. Austin went to England at the outbreak of war and worked in lumber crews. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force where he trained for a heavy engine mechanic. Mr. Austin served first in England, where he maintained the equipment which raised anti-bombardment balloons. After re-certification, his tour of duty took him to post D-Day Europe where he maintained military vehicles during the Allied advance on Germany. Mr. Austin married a Belgium national, and returned to Newfoundland where he worked as a mechanic. He later returned to France, working several years at the war memorial in Beaumont-Hamel.