I’d like to thank Mark Ferguson, manager of Collections and Exhibitions at The Rooms, St John’s for guiding me to various archival sources. Special thanks to Michelle Bowes, who dug up excellent material on Thomas Ricketts and his family. Bert Riggs of Memorial University answered some specific questions. I appreciate the generous help from the staff at MUN’s Centre for Newfoundland Studies. Many thanks to Michael Renshaw and Julie Renshaw for their hospitality and conversation while in Auchonvillers. I’d like to thank the staff at the Imperial War Museum in London, the National Archives in Kew, and Helen Fraser at Sandringham Estate, Norfolk.
At Doubleday Canada, my thanks to my editor, Lynn Henry. And thank you to everyone within Random House of Canada who has been part of making this book, especially Brad Martin, Kristin Cochrane, Scott Sellers, Scott Richardson, Peter Phillips, Zoe Maslow, Susan Burns, and publicist Nicola Makoway.
I would also like to thank Christine Pountney for her many insightful comments.
Note that the names of many commissioned officers, commanders, and civic and political leaders have been shortened in my account to a single given name and surname. In the historical records many of the “other ranks” barely have a first and last name. I wanted, in the spirit of Kipling, to level the value in human life, to make no distinction of the kind that middle names, initials, and honorific titles tend to encourage.
The only name I have kept in its entirety is General Sir Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle. It is such a beautifully ludicrous name and I hope the reader understands something about the character of the person who bore it and the nation and family that bestowed it.