The Frost Brothers

While checking the next name mentioned in the letters, I came across the sad story of the Frost brothers from Peterborough. Two brothers, both went across the see with the 93rd Battalion on July 15, 1916 on the S.S. Empress of Britain, which would have likely been the same ship that Vincent would have been carried over on.

S.S. Empress of Britain. Click picture for more information.

From what was said about the Frosts, or more specifically Thomas Frost, I knew that it would not be a cheerful story I would be telling in this post, but it was one that many Canadian families would have gone through during WWI. The short excerpt from the letter speaks for itself.

September 22, 1916:

"We had several cases and one death this morning. One of the Frosts. I think his first name is Thomas. He has a brother with us. The poor fellow, he had a hard time of it and his brother feels pretty bad."

As you can tell, the story for one of the Frosts during WWI ended before they even viewed a the Front Line or a German soldier. Though Arthur, the younger brother by almost 10 years of the fallen Thomas, lasted a couple years longer, and saw action throughout the war, his fate was ultimately the same. In Arthur's records, it seems that he was transferred to his new Battalion, the 1st, the same day that Thomas died, as stated in his record.

This is the first time I have really delved into the records of soldiers that were not officers, as most of the soldiers that are mentioned in Vincent's letters are higher up than the rank of Private, which both Frosts were. What I have found from this is that there is a lot less information within their records about their whereabouts and what they accomplished etc. As you will see in Arthur's record below, there are years between entries, where in the others I have looked at of Officers is updated quite regularly.

So, the sad story of of Frosts ends with one dying of a terrible disease shortly after arriving in England, and the other dying years letter with little to no information about what occurred to end the poor souls life. Their information is as follows: