ARCHIVES and SPECIAL COLLECTIONS QUEEN ELIZABETH II LIBRARY MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY, ST. JOHN'S, NL

Terence O'Meara papers COLL-239 Website: Archives and Special Collections Author: Bert Riggs Date: 1997

Scope and Content: This collection contains only a small portion of the papers of Terence O'Meara; it contains information relevant to just a particular aspect of O'Meara's career, a short time spent in to co-ordinate the establishment of a Colas plant at in 1937. The collection consists of a report, complete with photographic illustrations, of the construction and start up of the plant, various local newspaper clippings concerning the plant, location diagrams for the plant at Clarenville and charts of the runways at the airport under construction at Gander which the plant was built to surface, of the sea-plane base at Botwood and of North Atlantic air routes. The collection should prove beneficial to researchers interested in aviation history, especially the construction of airport runways, industrial development in rural Newfoundland and the history of Clarenville, Botwood and Gander.

Custodial History: The collection consists of what appears to be O'Meara's personal copy of a report, together with supporting documents, that he would have submitted to his superiors at Shell Oil. It has remained in his possession from its creation in 1937 until 1996 when he moved from his residence into a nursing home. His daughter found the report and, with his agreement, presented it to the Archives and Special Collections in February 1997.

Restrictions: There are no restrictions on access to or use of the material in this collection. Copyright laws and regulations may apply to all or to parts of this collection. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright clearance from the copyright holder(s).

Biography or History: Terence Barry O'Meara was born in India in 1906, the second child and only son of Charles Albert Edmund O'Meara and Mabel Hill. He received his grade school education at Haileybury Public School, England, and went on to university at Queen's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1926.

In 1927 O'Meara began working with Colas, a division of Shell Oil, one of the major oil companies in England. Colas produced an emulsified asphalt product, also called colas, which was used to surface airport runways. In 1935 the Canadian and British governments recognized the necessity of having permanent terminal facilities in Newfoundland for trans-Atlantic flights. They selected an uninhabited area near the railway line on the northeastern side of Gander Lake and in 1936 began work on the construction of an airport. In 1937 the Colas division of Shell Oil was contracted to provide the surfacing for the runways. Several options were considered, but the most practical was considered to be the construction of a plant in Newfoundland to provide colas. Later that year Colas Newfoundland Limited was incorporated. Clarenville was selected because of it was equidistant between St. John's and the site of the new airport, because of its proximity to the railway which would be needed to transport the colas to the airport, and because it had the required port facilities for docking transport ships. Terence O'Meara was the person Colas sent to Newfoundland to oversee the construction of the colas plant and its initial start up. Construction began in the spring of 1937 on a piece of shoreline property leased from the company. Despite problems with the terrain and ground conditions, the plant was in operation by July and the first colas surfacing at the new airport began in mid-August. O'Meara returned to England sometime after the plant went into production.

Back in England, O'Meara continued his work at Colas until the outbreak of World War II when he joined the Royal Engineers with the rank of Captain. He spent 1941 to 1945 in Egypt with Field Marshall Montgomery and the British Eighth Army, where he was responsible for organizing and facilitating the construction of roads, bridges and landing strips in the North African desert. By war's end he had been promoted to Major. After demobilization, he returned to Colas as a civil engineer, but in 1947 transferred to Shell's main office, where he worked until retirement in 1971.

Terence O'Meara married Katherine Theodora Jehu of Llanfair Caerinion, Wales at Trinity Copley Church in Boston on January 8, 1934. They had one child, a daughter, Ann Kathryn. Both wife and daughter spent the summer of 1937 in Clarenville. After retirement the O'Meara's lived in a house he designed in Lodsworth, Sussex where he remained active in personal and community affairs until shortly after his 90th birthday when failing health forced a move to a senior's residence. Katherine O'Meara died in 1983.

Arrangement: Terence O'Meara's report on the building of the colas plant at Clarenville was written on loose leaf paper and bound in a black card folder joined at the left side with a metal clasp. The clasp had become rusty and was discarded. The photographs were originally mounted on a black card stock and were interspersed through the report. Some of the photographs had come free of their surface mount and others were loose. Therefore, the sheets holding the photographs were photocopied and inserted where they belonged in the text and the photographs and captions were removed from their card backings and arranged and described separately. The captions are those assigned by O'Meara. Two site plans of the plant location were mylar encapsulated. 1.0 Textual 1.01 Report on Colas Newfoundland Limited by Terence O'Meara, December 1937, 1.01.001 Report on Colas Newfoundland Limited includes diagrams of runways at Newfoundland airport, Gander, and photocopies of photographs 1.02 Clippings from the St. John's newspaper The Daily News. 1.02.001 Newspaper clippings re Plant at Clarenville, fist shipment. and runway at airport, 1937 2.0 Visual 2.01 Photographs from O'Meara's report, 1937 2.01.001 "Clearing away snow and debris after stripping and burning." 2.01.002 "Laying out the first corner of the factory building in spite of wintery conditions." 2.01.003 "Drainage ditch running out to the sea being used for pouring concrete wall of factory building." 2.01.004 "Section of loading platform complete and process house in construction. Partially ballasted single track in foreground." 2.01.005 "The S.S. Prussa arrives and ties up." 2.01.006 "The S.S. Prussa arrives and ties up." 2.01.007 "Drums are transferred to waiting flat cars, hauled to factory storage and stacked." 2.01.008 "Drums are transferred to waiting flat cars, hauled to factory storage and stacked." 2.01.009 "Drums are transferred to waiting flat cars, hauled to factory storage and stacked." 2.01.010 "Drums are transferred to waiting flat cars, hauled to factory storage and stacked." 2.01.011 "Factory building nearing completion. Double tracks laid." 2.01.012 "The Clarenville "COLAS" plant complete and in operation. "COLAS" storage tanks to left of building, tank cars and boiler to the right. Stock of asphalt in drums in foreground with an equal quantity on far side of building." 2.01.013 "Three of the fleet of specially built tank cars." 2.01.014 "Newfoundland Airport. Mud and water on graded runway." 2.01.015 "The same as above, after drying out." 2.01.016 "Stone train leaving Hall's Quarry." 2.01.017 "The Cedar Rapids mixers ready for assembly." 2.01.018 "Trainload of "COLAS" premix in tank cars on the left and dry-stone ramps to the mixers on the right." 2.01.019 "Two Cedar Rapids mixers in operation." 2.01.020 "Dry stone feeding into mixer from first belt conveyor, left. Mix being ejected to bottom of second conveyor, right foreground." 2.01.021 "Interior of mixer showing mixing blades and emulsion pipeline with spray jets." 2.01.022 "A Jaeger Bituminous Paver spreads the mix to the required thickness." 2.01.023 "A Jaeger Bituminous Paver spreads the mix to the required thickness." 2.01.024 [pavement roller] 2.01.025 "After completing the first strip of mix, the paver turns and lays the second strip, without visible joint." 2.01.026 "Spreading the fine mix on top of the consolidated coarse mix. The airport administration building may be seen in course of construction in the upper left hand corner." 2.01.027 "Various stages of construction on #1 runway. From top to bottom: sub-grade, unconsolidated base course, consolidated base course and fine mix course." 2.01.028 "The end of #1 runway showing from right to left the prepared sub-grade, the coarse mix being laid, the coarse mix consolidated, the fine consolidated, and on the extreme left, seal coat in place." 2.01.029 "Rolling the finished surface." 2.01.030 April 20 - Work starts under wintery conditions." 2.01.031 April 23 - General view of site after removal of trees. Horseshoe bay of sea on right and start of factory building on left center." 2.01.032 "May 4 - Partially drained bog in foreground being filled by thick layer of spruce boughs covered with beach gravel. Note gradual disappearance of snow." 2.01.033 "May 5 - Partially drained bog in right foreground. Ballast for spur track left foreground. Partially filled storage area in center with start made on the factory building." 2.01.034 "May 6 - Breaking into the warf [sic] spur for factory siding. (Compare photograph #38)" 2.01.035 "May 8 - First factory siding being ballasted. Long switch ties in the foreground ready for second factory siding at later date (compare photographs #37 and #39)" 2.01.036 "May 12 - Unloading first trainload of drums of asphalt. (compare photograph #32)" 2.01.037 "May 18 - Last trainload of asphalt drums coming in. Stacked drums may be seen on the right and half finished factory building middle left." 2.01.038 "June 5 - Completed sidetrack and factory building. "COLAS" storage tank on flat car, in middle of the picture ready for erection." 2.01.039 "July 31 - First trainload of "COLAS" leaving factory. (compare #35)" 2.01.040 "19 April 1937." 2.01.041 "Three months later." 2.02 Photographs 2.02.001 Terence O'Meara with unidentified male at Clarenville colas plant 2.03 Postcards 2.03.001 "Gander International Airport" postcard to O'Meara from Selma Barkham, 1982 2.04 Diagrams and plans 2.04.001 "North Atlantic Ocean Air Routes", undated, white on black, 2 copies 2.04.002 "Newfoundland Airport, undated, black on white, 1 copy, white on black, 2 copies 2.04.003 " Base at Botwood", undated 2.04.004 "Proposed layout for Colas plant at Clarenville, Newfoundland", March 6, 1937