A local author is shedding light on the 500 or so foresters who went overseas during the First World War, about whom far less is known than their World War II counterparts.

Ursula Kelly says the story of Newfoundland and Labrador’s WWI foresters has been largely ignored and she decided to change that with “The Foresters’ Scribe: Remembering the Newfoundland Forestry Companies Through the First World War Letters of Quartermaster Sergeant John A. Barrett.”

She says until now, very little has been written about the efforts of those Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, which she calls a “fascinating and wonderful story of service that has really not been well told.”

Many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians today are familiar with the War Brides from England and Scotland who came home with their Newfoundland husbands after WWII and made a lasting contribution to the province. Kelly says while WWI foresters also married abroad, fewer stayed and settled here.

Being the eve of the Great Depression, Kelly says economics weren’t good in Newfoundland and many of the couples who came home after the Great War moved on to places like Sydney, Toronto, New York, and Boston.

The book is now available in stores through ISER Books.