Records of Vincent Carew

Vincent Carew was 23 when he enlisted with the First Newfoundland Regiment in October 1916. The five foot, six-and-a-half inch seaman was a father of two. Worried for her husband, Carew’s wife Bessie wrote the Governor of Newfoundland asking that as he had two small children at home, Vincent not be sent to the front. The Governor’s secretary wrote back to say, “His Excellency regrets to say that he is unable to take any action in the matter.” Carew was killed in action during the Battle of Ypres in Belgium in July the following year and buried at Bard College, about two miles from Ypres. The army drew from Carew’s pay account some funds to pay a number of his small bills incurred as part of his enlistment, such as for board with private keepers, and four years later, almost two years after the war had ended, the army paymaster sent the widow $181.33 as a Separation Allowance for the loss of her husband. Nearly a year after that, someone took pains to send Bessie Carew a photograph of Vincent’s grave in Belgium. Earlier, she had been sent Vincent’s Victory Medal and British War Medal. These records, and records of other Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldiers, are available for viewing on The Rooms’ website.