The Chair of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum says it was the reaction of his great-grandmother to a simple question that launched him on a lifelong passion and search for knowledge.

Frank Gogos became an expert on the Royal Newfoundland Regiment after asking his great- grandmother, a normally stoic woman, about his great- grandfather’s experiences in WWI.

For years a portrait of his great-grandfather, Corporal Joseph Babstock hung in her house. After the birth of his first child, he went to pay her a visit and he asked her “Grammy, did Joe ever talk about the war to you?” He says his great-grandmother, who was a formidable woman who seldom showed emotion, responded by crying. He came away determined to learn more about what happened to Joe Babstock in the war.

His great-grandfather survived the war, but Gogos came to learn that he suffered far more than anyone in his family knew.