A.R. Scammell

cammell, Arthur Reginald (1913-1995). Author and educator. Born on Change Islands, son of Archibald and Sarah (Torraville) Scammell. Educated Change Islands; Memorial University College; McGill University; University of Vermont. Married (1) Isabella Butt (2) Carrie LeMoine. He taught in Newfoundland from 1932-1939, and after study in Montreal taught there from 1942 until his retirement in 1970, when he returned to Newfoundland.

In April 1949, in ceremonies marking Newfoundland's confederation with Canada, a song was played on the clarion of Parliament Hill over the city of Ottawa. The song chosen to represent Newfoundland was the "Squid Jiggin Ground". AR Scammell is probably best known as the composer of the song the "Squid Jiggin' Ground", which he wrote at the age of 15 while fishing with his father. The song was heard by folksong collector Gerald S. Doyle, who had the tune written down. In 1943 Scammell recorded it, with piano accompaniment, in which what is generally considered to be the earliest commercial recording of a Newfoundland folk song. About that time he also published the song in sheet music. Scammell also composed songs for special occasions: "The Shooting of the Bawks", a defence of the right of rural people to kill seabirds for food, was written after regulations governing wildlife were introduced in 1938; "The Newfoundland Come Home Song" was written to mark Newfoundland's Come Home Year in 1966; and "A Sealers Song (1977)" was a satirical look at the controversy surrounding the seal hunt.

Scammell has also published humourous short stories, poems and reminiscences. He was a frequent contributor to, and associate editor of, the Atlantic Guardian, which he founded in 1945 with Brian Cahill and Ewart Young; and also published extensively in the Newfoundland Quarterly. His earliest published works were Songs of a Newfoundlander (1940) and Mirrored Moments (1945). Some of his material was later reissued in My Newfoundland (1966). An album of the same name, containing verse and songs recited and sung by the author, was released in 1973. In 1987 From Boat to Blackboard, a book of prose and verse on outport life, was published by Harry Cuff Publications; Newfoundland Echoes followed in 1988 and the Collected Works in 1990. Scammell was according to Patrick O'Flaherty, the first significant writer with deep roots in the traditional outport way of life to reflect on that way of life and to try and recreate it in imaginative literature.

In 1977 Scammell was awarded an honorary LL.D. by Memorial University, and an annual award for writers was established in his honour by the Newfoundland & Labrador Arts Council in 1985. In May 1988 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. The school in his home town of Change Islands was renamed the A.R. Scammell Academy in his honour in 1990. Calvin Coish (Atlantic Advocate, Nov. 1979), Patrick O'Flaherty (1979), DNLB (1990), MUN Gazette (May 13, 1977), Who's Who Silver Anniversary Edition (1975), Centre for Newfoundland Studies (Arthur Scammell). IONA L. BULGIN

Encyclopedia of Newfoundland & Labrador, Volume One
Newfoundland Book Publishers (1967) Limited, Third Printing (1994).
Editor in Chief: Joseph R. Smallwood
Managing Editor: Robert D.W. Pitt