Woman of the Week, Mrs. Harry Winsor, Evening Telegram, 1946, Oct. 26, p. 9
A prominent worker of St. Michael’s Church, Mrs. Harry Winsor was a Butler from Fogo. Joining the Posts and Telegraphs in 1912, she worked as telegraph operator at Gander Bay, Roberts’ Arm, Morton’s Harbor, Change Islands, where, in 1920, she married Mr. Harry Winsor, who is Chief of one of the coastal boats at that time, and who is still employed by the Railway.
“During the Great War of 1914-18,” Mrs. Winsor recalls, “the telegraph operators were especially busy. Most of the commercial business of that day was done by money order through the Post. The Public News took the place that the radio fills to-day, and from far and near, the men gathered eagerly to hear the news of the war. It was our only way of knowing what was going on, and for years afterwards, the Public News continued to be our main link with the activities of the country and of the world.”
“Although much improved since my day,” Mrs. Winsor went on, “I think there is still much that is wrong with telegraph work, although it is certainly not the fault of the operator, in my opinion. No busy operator wants to keep business hung up, but there is something very much wrong when, for instance, a person reaches town ahead of the wire that announces his arrival. In my day, an operator had to have very good excuse as to why a telegram was not on time. The public would never have stood for such delays.”
After her marriage, Mrs. Winsor came to St. John’s. She has ever since been a hard-working member of St. Michael’s Church, where her activities have been centered mainly in the C.E.W.A., of which she is president. She has given her interest to this work for twenty-six years. “We have a very fine group,” she said, “and its members do a great deal of work, but of course, women everywhere, do an amazing amount of church and social work. We intend to work harder than ever now, for the new church we hope to have some day.”
“Right now, we are making plans for a sale to be held very soon, the first to be organized to raise funds for the new church.”
Mrs. Winsor is also a member of the Altar Guild, and is secretary of the Peaconess [sic] House Committee the first organization of its kind in the Anglican Church in Newfoundland. “We have two travelling deaconesses,” Mrs. Winsor said, “and we hope to have one for the city in the near future. There is a definite need for work of this type, and we feel that in organizing this Deaconess House Committee, we are attempting to meet that need. We have no doubt but that the people will respond warmly to this as to other needs.”
When the St. John’s Ambulance called for VAD’s to take a course in First Aid in Home Nursing, Mrs. Winsor joined the class, and took special training at the General Hospital. Along with the other Ambulance nurses, she did relief work. “Some of our trainees,” she said, “were called to the K. of C. Hostel fire to render assistance. Mrs. C.E. Jeffery taught us, and trained us for emergencies. I cannot speak too highly of the work she did with us.”
Mrs. Winsor did Canteen work too, during the war, and devoted much of her time for six years to teaching Junior Red Cross work to the children of St. Mary’s School. “This was not a branch of the Junior Red Cross organization,” Mrs. Winsor explained, “but was an effort to give the children as much as possible of the training the children get under that organization, at a time when the teachers of the school were too burdened with other work to attend to it. The children did splendid work in sewing and knitting which was sent to the W.P.A. and later, I understand, distributed among the evacuees, and other needy cases.”