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Standing:Crummey, Burry. Sitting: Smallwood, Bradley, MacKenzie King. Ottawa. 1947.

Even though Newfoundland received the right to elect a House of Assembly in 1832, only the eastern half of the island was actually represented. The west coast and the Northern Peninsula were  part of the "French Shore". It would take 50 years before the west coast and the Great Northern Peninsula received the franchise, and it was 1949 before Labrador was represented in the House of Assembly.

The residents of Labrador had gone to the polls three years early, however, to elect a member to represent them in the National Convention. The winner was the United Church minister in North West River. Lester Leland Burry was born in Safe Harbour, Bonavista Bay, on July 12, 1898, the son of Stephen and Mary Burry. He was educated there and at Greenspond, before going to St. John’s in 1917, where he spent two years as a clerk with George Knowling, who had mercantile outlets on Water Street, St. John's.

Burry attempted to enlist in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in 1918 but was rejected on medical grounds. He then enrolled in Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., where he spent the next five years studying arts and theology, graduating in 1923.

The following year he was one of the last group of candidates ordained into the Methodist ministry, as in 1925 the Newfoundland Methodists became part of the newly established United Church of Canada.

Burry’s first parish was St. Anthony. He spent four years in that northern town, where he met two people who would have a profound influence on the rest of his life: Dr. Wilfred Grenfell and Amelia Marie Penney, who he married..

Grenfell’s missionary work in northern Newfoundland and coastal Labrador greatly impressed Burry. Burry decided to dedicate his life to helping the people of Labrador. After a year in Curling and three in Little Bay Islands, he and Marie moved to North West River, in western Lake Melville, in 1932. This was where they would spend the next 26 years.

North West River was a community of about 200 people, more than half of which were United Church, but that was not all of Burry’s parish. He ministered to other settlements around Lake Melville — Mulligan, Sebasquesto, Mud Lake — and out on the coast, south to Cartwright and beyond.

To enable him to meet the needs of his flock, Burry acquired a 35-foot cabin cruiser, the Glad Tidings. He had his own team of dogs for the first 17 years, but after 1946 they were replaced by a snowmobile, complete with a cabin, with the United Church crest painted on each door. Burry averaged about 7,700 kilometres each year, visiting the many communities which made up his parish.

Trappers, who spent long periods of time in the woods on their traplines, were a particular concern for Burry. By 1937, he had acquired a broadcasting license, a radio transmitter, and several receivers, which the trappers took with them.

He would broadcast Sunday services to them and keep them apprised of happenings at home. The men looked forward to these broadcasts and were grateful for the news. They would gather together in small groups around a receiver each Sunday anxiously awaiting Burry’s voice.

Soon after his arrival in North West River, Burry arranged for the building of a church, and by 1935 there was a new parsonage. Here, Lester and Marie Burry made their home. She cultivated a large garden, and became quite adept at preserving vegetables for the long winter, as there was no fresh produce, after the lake froze in October, until the following spring. She was a driving force behind the Women’s Association, the Sunday School and the Labrador Girls in Training.

In 1946, Burry was elected to the National Convention. There he was one of the strongest supporters of Confederation with Canada and was part of the 1947 delegation to Ottawa to discuss possible terms of union with the Canadian government. He campaigned for Confederation in Labrador, which voted overwhelming in favour of that option.

Then premier Joseph R. Smallwood wanted Burry to be the Liberal candidate for the House of Assembly for Labrador in 1949, but Burry felt his missionary work was not yet complete. He spent another nine years in North West River, helping the people there adjust to the changes Confederation brought. In 1958, he moved to Clarke’s Beach where he ministered for two years before becoming United Church chaplain to St. John’s hospitals and institutions. He served as president of Conference during 1959-60 and retired from the active ministry in 1963.

Retirement only meant a change of direction in Burry’s life. He worked in a volunteer capacity with the John Howard Society, the Grenfell Association and the Newfoundland Amateur Radio Association. In 1969, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He died in St. John’s on Aug. 31, 1977.
 
 

Delegates of the Newfoundland National Convention arrive in the Dominion of Canada. 1947. Photo from private collection.

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