1916-1918 Diary of Ella Rogers

From 26 September 1916 to 19 December 1918, Ella Rogers used a lined notebook measuring 22.5 x 18 centimetres as the fourth volume of her war diary written between the ages of sixteen to eighteen years old. The diary opens with a recruitment meeting at Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. The diary becomes the repository for the titles of songs performed, alongside her accounts of prayer meetings and trips to Moncton. In the fall 1917, she notes that women with brothers and husbands in the war were able to vote in the federal election which focuses on the contested issue of conscription. She also records the Halifax explosion caused by a munition steamer. By late September 1918, the diary begins to detail the first wave of the Spanish flu, a deadly pandemic. She reports the end of the war, noting also news of the Victoria Cross award for Hopewell-born Cyrus Peck.

Diary Transcription