The Great Halifax Explosion and the Halifax School for the Blind

By Terrie Todd

Born on January 4, 1850, in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, Charles Frederick Fraser was whittling a stick with a pocketknife at the age of seven when a splinter flew into one of his eyes, permanently blinding it. By age thirteen, he was losing vision in his other eye. At the time, it was believed to be over-use. A failed surgical procedure led to his enrollment at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind in Boston. He left there in 1872, completely blind.

Intending to go into Business, Fraser instead became the first superintendent of the new Halifax Asylum for the blind—one small building with six students. He promptly changed its name to the Halifax School for the Blind. The school taught blind children as young as kindergarten, its goal to make the blind socially and economically independent. Fraser advocated for a well-rounded education, including physical education and music, along with marketable skills like chair caning, piano tuning, craft production, typewriting, massage, shampooing, and bookkeeping.

Halifax School for the Blind, 1930s

A tireless lobbyist, Fraser traveled on the school’s behalf to raise funding and awareness. He succeeded in convincing the province to provide free education for the blind and the Canadian post office to provide free shipping for Braille books.

With the onset of the Great War, Fraser extended the school’s services to blind veterans and other blind adults, through extension instruction. He was knighted in 1915 for his work.

Sir Frederick Fraser

On December 6, 1917, the Great Halifax Explosion caused classes to cease temporarily at the school. Not only had the building been damaged, but many parents withdrew their children. This increased the school’s financial problems at a time when two hundred people were blinded by the explosion, making the need greater than ever. Sir Frederick rose to the challenge. His school assumed responsibility for these newly blinded victims, with help from the Perkins Institution and the American National Red Cross.

Fraser retired in 1923 and died in 1925. With the growth of integration, the school closed and the building was demolished in 1983. In 1984, the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority built a Resource Center to serve the educational needs of children and youth who are visually impaired. They named it the “Sir Frederick Fraser School.”

Halifax School for the Blind in the 1970s

Sources:

Janet Guildford, “FRASER, Sir CHARLES FREDERICK,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed January 19, 2026, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fraser_charles_frederick_15E.html.

Book: The Braille Jail Anthology: A History of the Halifax School for the Blind By Chris Stark https://bobo.blackspheretech.com/?cat=11

Sir Charles Frederick Fraser appears as a minor character in The Reluctant Healer of Halifax, a novel of the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. A story of love, loss, faith, and honor set against Canada’s most devastating moment of the First World War. Watch for it in August 2026.

 

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of ten historical novels, all set in Canada where she lives with her husband Jon. A former church drama team leader and newspaper columnist, she’s also a frequent contributor to Guideposts Books, mother of three, and grandmother of five.

 

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