A remarkable collection of Great War documents was created and preserved by Capt. C. Sydney Frost, M.C., Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

There are two collections:

Frost Field Messages, October 1916 to 1919: these are images of actual messages created by Capt Frost while in action. The original messages were created in two copies, the original message (which was subsequently dispatched to the recipient), and the carbon copy underneath, which Capt Frost retained in his Field Message Book. The original messages (to the recipients) survived WW1 and were later archived in the Imperial War Museum, but unfortunately disappeared in a bombing raid during the blitz in World War 2.

The carbon copies retained by Capt. Frost are displayed here, more or less in chronological order. The Message Books were presented by the Frost family to Archives and Special Collections, QE II Library, Memorial University. and the scanned digital images are presented here through their generosity.

Allowances must be made for the fact that these images are enhancements of the carbon copies, and some pages are more legible than others. Finally, some pages at the end of the collection are dated in 1940, when now-Major Frost was serving with the Saint John Fusiliers, helping train recruits in New Brunswick, Canada.

(Please note that no index is available, but the RAC is attempting to prepare one. Also, pages are being added progressively to this collection, starting 2014-09-30, so bear with us as new data is being added)

The Frost Field Messages have been sorted below in an attempt at chronological order, ranging from 1916 through to the final entries in his Messages dated while training Saint John NB Fusiliers in 1914. Not all images within each section are necessarily in strict chronological order.

Frost Messages 1916

Frost Messages 1918

Frost Messages 'Post-Armistice 1918-1919'

Frost Messages '1940 Saint John NB'

Frost Messages 'Post-Armistice Soldier Education'

Frost Scrapbooks Book 1 (remaining books not yet published - hopefully soon)

Frost Scrapbook Book 1

After WW1, Capt Frost prepared a huge collection of scrapbooks filled with all sorts of news clippings, photos, and documents relating to the Regiment. In all, his collection fills four scrapbooks, plus an index. He persevered in this activity almost to the end of his life. This collection was recently scanned by the Archives of the Queen Elizabeth Library, Memorial University, and a digital copy made available to us.

(It is important to note that the page numbers shown in the Frost Index do not correspond to the page numbers during the scanning process, so the page shown here has a number which is different than the index. This was due to the difficulty of including all the printed material in a single digital page).