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GLOUCESTER COUNTY

Commodore George Walker's Nipisiquit Establishment 1768-1777
Youghall, near Bathurst

During the 18th century, Commodore Walker was one of the most successful and respected of the British privateers, fighting against both the French and Spanish in the many wars of the period. At the end of the Seven Year's War, Walker opted to find another line of employment and turned to trading and fishing. In 1768, with financial backing from London, he set up the first land based British trading and fishing operation in the Bay of Chaleur. To protect his extensive holdings, he fortified his Nipisiguit post and built a gun battery; however, this eventually proved no match for the Rebel privateers who swarmed into the Bay of Chaleur at the start of the American Revolutionary War. In 1777 the Rebels plundered and completely destroyed Walker's establishment. He died shortly after and it was never rebuilt. It is a designated provincial historic site and is marked by a plaque.

 

General William Carr, Viscount Beresford (1764 - 1854)
Beresford, New Brunswick

The Village of Beresford is named for Irish born British soldier William Carr, the illegitimate son of the 1st Marquess of Waterford. He was commissioned into the British Army in 1785, and commanded the 88th Regiment of Foot. He came to prominence during the Peninsula War while serving under the Duke of Wellington. He was an excellent administer and in 1809 was selected as a the Marshal of the Portuguese Army, in order to reorganize and revitalize it as an effective fighting force. He won a major victory at the Battle of Albuera.

 

Inkerman
Highway #113, Village of Inkerman

The Village of Inkerman was named for a battle of the Crimean War. When the territorial integrity of Turkey was threatened by Russia, both Great Britain and France honoured their obligations to Turkey by declaring war on Russia. The objective was to destroy the Russian naval base of Sebastopol in Crimea on the Black Sea. The Battle of Inkerman was the last of three field battles which preceded the Siege of Sebastopol. The battle was fought on 5 November 1854 with a full scale Russian attack upon the British lines, resulting in 2,357 British, 939 French and 11,800 Russian casualties. Although it was a major Russian defeat, the courage of the Russian soldiers convinced the Allies not to attempt a quick assault on Sebastopol, but to undertake a formal and protracted siege.

 

American Civil War Veterans

Cemetery near the Anglian Church, Clifton, Highway #11

A grave marker in the cemetery notes that “Boyle D. Hill died on 28 May 1868 from disease contacted in the army. Age 40 years, 3 months”. When Hill enlisted on 8 August 1862 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, he was married and his occupation was shoemaker. Private Hill served in the Union Army with Company “H” of the 35th Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry. His health was broken while being held prisoner in a Charleston prison. His brother Thomas was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Why Hill is buried in Clifton is unclear, since he was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1828, married Mary Eddy in Massachusetts in 1849, and his widow remained in the USA after his death. The connection appears to be his sister Susan, who married William Eddy of Clifton. At least three other men from the region served in the American Civil War, three McKernan brothers from Black Rock and a Pat Grant from West Bathurst.

 

Spanish American War Veteran

South Bathurst Roman Catholic Cemetery, King Avenue, Bathurst

A small white grave marker off one of the main roadways in the cemetery notes that Joseph J. Doucette served in the Spanish American War with Company “I” of First Regiment of Maine Infantry. He was born 7 March 1866 and died 8 July 1954.  Joseph was the son of Acadien James B. Doucette, shoemaker, and his Irish wife Mary. The family was originally from Bathurst, but later moved to Tignish, PEI.

 

Corporal Herman James Good, Victoria Cross

St Albans Cemetery, East Bathurst, Bridge Street, en route to Salmon Beach

New Brunswick born Herman Good and his brother Ernest, from South Bathurst, enlisted in the Canadian Army in the autumn of 1915. They saw extensive service with the 13th (Black Watch) Battalion. Ernest Good was killed on 4 September 1916 near Pozieres Wood and has no known grave; his name appears on the Vimy Ridge Memorial. Corporal Herman Good during the Battle of Amiens at Hangard Wood on August 8th 1918, won the Victoria Cross for courageously disposing of three German machine-guns and their crews, and then, with the assistance of three comrades, assaulting and capturing a German battery of 5.9 inch guns and their entire crews. Corporal Good received a hero’s welcome home when he returned to Bathurst on 22 April 1919. Good, a modest man, resumed his life as a woodsman and farmer. Later he became a Game Warden. His grave in St Albans Cemetery, in addition to a family stone, has a veteran’s marker with the Victoria Cross emblazoned on it; the only one in New Brunswick and only one of five in Canada. At the cemetery entrance along the Salmon Beach Road is a cairn with a plaque outlining how Corporal Good won his Victoria Cross.

 

War Museum, Corporal Herman J. Good VC Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion,

#575 St Peter Avenue, Bathurst

Herman Good laid the cornerstone for Branch Number 18 of the Royal Canadian Legion in the 1960s.  A couple of years later, it was named for this Bathurst native son. A museum is located in the Legion building and contains artifacts from the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Gulf War, and has a First World War Trench Exhibit.

 

Artillery and Air Weapons Range
Tracadie

A firing range associated with CFB Chatham.

 

Crash of an American Flying Fortress

Rough Waters, near Bathurst

On 22 June 1942, an American Boeing Flying Fortress from Presque Isle, Maine, made a forced landing at Rough Waters. All crew members survived. Temporary repairs were made to the aircraft and it flew back to the USA.

 

Crash of RCAF Anson Trainer

Nepisiguit River at Bathurst


During the night of 10 May 1943, a RCAF twin engine Anson Trainer from Number 10 Observer School at Chatham, crashed in the ice-clogged Nepisiguit River near the Bathurst Mill, due to bad weather and heavy fog. With considerable difficulty, three crew members made it to shore, but a fourth member drowned. Eventually, the wreaked aircraft was pulled from the river and shipped back to Chatham by barge.

 

U Boat Activity in World War Two
Pointe de Maisonette, Bay of Chaleur


A plan was developed to rescue German prisoners of war being held in Camp #30 in Bowmanville, Ontario. The idea was for a group of prisoners, mainly U-boat officers, to tunnel out of the camp in autumn of 1943, and then make their way to the Bay of Chaleur, where they would to be picked up by a waiting German U-boat. In late August 1943, U-536 was despatched to Canadian waters, with orders to rendezvous with escaped German POWs at Pointe de Maisonette on 26 September. Canadian Naval Intelligence learned of the rescue plan and attempted to entrap the U-boat. A control post was set up in the Maisonette lighthouse to control the blockading ships from the Royal Canadian Navy, and shore parties patrolled along the coast.  Although the mass escape from Bowmanville camp was apprehended, one German prisoner, U-boat ace Wolfgang Heyda, did manage to escape and, incredibly, made the rendezvous as planned. Heyda was recaptured on 28 September 28; however, the U-boat escaped.

 

World War Two Guns

Community Park, Grande-Anse, Highway #11

Located in the Community Park in Grand-Anse between Highway #11 and the Bay of Chaleur are two Second World War guns on display. One is a navel gun with turret and the other an army anti-craft gun.

 

The Stonehaven Field of Honour

Wesley Cemetery, Stonehaven, Highway #11

Standing at the corner of the cemetery near the front of the church is a Field of Honour with seventeen white crosses, which are regularly decorated with Canadian Flags. Each cross bears the name of a serviceman from the community who died in either the First or the Second World wars, along with his date of death and wherehe is buried. Poignantly, the war dead from this small New Brunswick community lie in far distant lands such as France, Belgium, Holland, Tunis, and Iceland.

 

North Shore Regiment Memorial

Coronation Park, corner of St Andrew and Douglas Streets, Bathurst

A memorial made of three black marble panels facing the Roman Catholic Cathedral commemorates the Second World War dead of the North Shore Regiment, a locally raised unit. This Regiment landed at Normandy on D Day and fought to the end of the North West European Campaign. It is sobering to note that the number of dead listed from this single Second World War Canadian infantry regiment is 375.


The Colonel Clinton Cecil Lloyd Gammon ED CD Armoury
Big River Road, Bathurst

This modern amoury was opened on 17 September 1997 and is home to the Second Battalion of the Royal New Brunswick Regiment. By the entrance is the regimental crest of RNBR. By the entrance is a universal carrier built in 1944 painted in the colours of the Tactical Headquarters of the North Shore Regiment of World War Two fame.

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