Steele, Owen

• Main Author: Riggs, Bertram G., 1954-
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1994
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ead/id/113

This diary contains the experiences and attitudes of a Newfoundland soldier in World War I. It consists of diary entries and excerpts from letters that he wrote home to his family. Owen W. Steele joined the Newfoundland Regiment on September 13, 1914, only weeks after the war began. His diary entries begin on - October 3, 1914 while he is in a regimental training camp at Pleasantville, near St. John's. It ends with an entry on June 30, 1916, the night before the Battle of the - Somme (Beaumont Hamel) in which Steele took part. It is a first-hand account of the life of a soldier, one which provides valuable personal insight into the tragedies - and the triumphs, the living and the dying, and the force of character needed to survive on the battlefields of Europe in World War I.