Finding the Forty-Seven: Canadian Nurses of the First World War

More on Carola Douglas

2012-01-30T09:13:00.002-07:00

I recently received an email from Martha Jackson, Project Coordinator of For King and Country, a project to transcribe the war memorials in Toronto Schools (there are 26,498 memorials covering both world wars). She told me that Carola Douglas was a graduate of Harbord Collegiate, in Toronto. A memorial photograph of Douglas still hangs in the school today. To visit the For King and Country site and learn about the women and men they remember, visit:

http://torontofamilyhistory.org/kingandcountry/

Death in the Dardanelles: Remembering NS Munro

2012-01-30T08:00:00.002-07:00

Mary Frances Elizabeth Munro was born in Wardsville, Ontario in the County of Middlesex in 1866. Wardsville seems to have been a prosperous village located along the banks of the Thames River. The small community had a number of businesses including a farm implement company and a foundry)and boasted a library, established in 1876 in a room rented in the downtown. In 1908, a building was purchased to house the collection.

Mary's family seems to have been a prosperous one. Her mother was Martha Ward, part of the family that founded the village. Her father, Malcolm Munro, was listed as a merchant and was Wardsville's town reeve for over a decade. Mary had an older sister and brother--Marcella and Alexander--and two younger siblings, Marion and John. As in many 19th century families, death was a frequent visitor to the household. Both Marion and John died in childhood and in 1878, Martha Munro also died.

There was another loss yet to come. In the 1880s, Malcolm and his son Alexander moved the family home and business to Morrisburg in Dundas County. In 1888, Malcolm Munro died there--of drowning.

In her attestation papers, Mary lists herself as a nursing sister, but there is no information about where she trained. What the papers also reveal is that before the war, Mary had also faced another terrible challenge--her right breast had been removed, likely in response to cancer. At the time of her enlistment in London in May 1915, she was almost 49 years old. She was five feet, three inches tall, with brown eyes and gray hair.

Munro was assigned to No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in West Mudros. Within four months, she would be dead. In her book "Lights Out!," fellow Mudros Nursing Sister Kate Wilson described the events leading up to Munro's death. "Before the end of six weeks, owing to the hot days and cold nights, many of the unacclimatized Canadians had fallen ill, with the result that each hospital ship returning to England carried ten to twelve No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hopsital personnel, including our Commanding Officer Colonel Casgrain...Our very much loved Matron Jaggard had taken ill. With little thought for herself and a keen interest in her nursing staff she carried on. So anxious would she become at night that many times she would go from hut to hut of her sleeping nurses, assuring herself that they were alright...Lying with the picture of her seventeen year old son smiling down at her, one night she closed her eyes for the last time and slept....A few days earlier Sister Munro had fallen ill, and too weak to battle with this eastern disease [dysentery] she too was called to rest. A good soldier and a true friend, she will be remembered too." A good soldier and a true friend are all we know of Mary Frances Munro. She died on September 7, 1915 and is buried in Portianos Military Cemetery, Plot V, Row D, Grave 176.

The Story of a WWI Uniform and the Woman Who Wore It

2011-12-21T05:03:00.002-07:00

Hello and season's greetings from Finding the Forty-Seven! I'm a bit late in posting my regular blog, but as Bob Cratchit told Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, "I'm behind my time, sir, but I've been making rather merry." I hope you have all been doing the same.

Today, I'd like to remember a nurse who survived the war, but who did not escape from the effects of war later in her life. My connection with this nurse began with two WWI uniforms that I purchased online. I bought the uniforms (one the smart dress uniform with it's matching cape, the other the "bluebird" working uniform that nurse's wore on the job) so that I could bring them with me when I gave talks about the nurses of the Great War.

I knew little, then, about the woman who had worn them. Her name was sewn into the back of each--"Cecile McKibben." Naturally, as a Great War researcher, I had to find out more about Cecile. I began with a foray into Ancestry.ca. I learned she was born in Glanford, Ontario, on August 2, 1883. She had red hair and green eyes. Her mother was German—Catherine Lois Hagel (her parents were Samuel and Ann Eliza Hagel) and her father was Scottish born George McKibben (son of Hamilton and Ascenath McKibben), a farmer. The pair was married on December 24, 1873 in the Weslayan parsonage in Ingersoll, Ontario. They would have four children—Lulu Kathleen (1875), Allie (1877), George (1879), and Cecile (1883).

George would die on October 11, 1885 of typhoid. This must have caused the family much hardship. Catherine is later listed as “farmer” on 1891 census returns, suggesting she kept the family farm going after George’s death. Her efforts cost her dearly. She would die on April 30, 1903, of pernicious anemia. She was only 51 years old.

It was clear that the McKibben children would have to make their own way in life. Cecile would become a nurse, studying in the United States. In July 1914, she is recorded as crossing the border of Duluth, Minnesota as a trainee nurse. I believe she attended the nursing school at the University of Illinois, as a Cecile McKibben appears as a nursing student there in 1914. Her last Canadian residence (before she completed her program) was recorded as Fort William, Ontario.

By 1917, Cecile had completed her studies and was living with her married sister Kathleen (Lulu) Wilkens in a solid two story brick home at 12 Somerset Avenue, Hamilton, Ontario. At this point, she had decided to serve overseas. With a limited number of nursing positions open in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, she opted to join the British nursing service (the QAIMNS) first and transfer to the Canadian service later.

Fortunately, I discovered that Cecile’s records with the QAIMNS have been preserved (very lucky, since many had been weeded or lost). They reveal a great deal about her character. She joined the QAIMNS in March 1917 and served until March 1918. During that time, she was stationed in France, in #13 General Hospital (8 months) and in #14General Hospital (4 months).

During her time with the British nursing service, Cecile seems to have had some run-ins with the senior nursing staff who report that she was not “energetic or keen about her work in the wards.” At the time of Cecile’s resignation from the QAIMNS in 1918, Matron Fox of #14 General reports in February 1918 that “I would not recommend that Miss C.L. McKibben’s services should be retained in the QAIMNSR even should she wish to continue serving. Her work has not improved since my report to the effect that she did not appear to take any interest in her work or her patients.” This is very damning criticism, however we are fortunate to have Cecile’s own version of events. A month earlier, she had written to Matron Fox: “Madam: I have the honor to request that I may be allowed to resign on the termination of my contract [nurses in the QAIMNS signed up for one-year-at-a-time contracts] on March 7, 1918. My reason for doing so is that I wish to join a nursing service in which I shall have more freedom, more privileges and better pay. I have the honor to be madam, Cecile L. McKibben, Staff Nurse, QAIMNSR.”

Canadian nurses did have more freedom (they could date other officers and socialize more freely than British Army nurses) and they were paid the same as other lieutenants in the Canadian military (they had true military rank—something no other military nursing service of this time had). The correspondence clearly indicates a conflict between Cecile and her superiors. It raises some interesting questions: Did Cecile perhaps have a romance going on at this time? (She met her future husband George MacKenzie while nursing.) If so, it would have been a breach of her contract with the QAIMNSR. Or did her German background come to light (many Britons and Canadians were German-phobic at this time) and as a result, Cecile was poorly treated by other nurses? Or was her nursing work not up to par? It is hard to know, but my feeling is that she seems to be a strong-willed character and that may simply have led to some challenging moments.

In March 1918, Cecile entered the Canadian Army Medical Corps. I was able to get her records in the Canadian service from the national archives. (Anyone can do this. You go to http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html. Then click "ancestors" in the upper right hand corner, then go down to "soldiers of the first world war." Click this--it will take you to a page where you can put the name into the search engine and inevitably, you will find your nurse or soldier.)

I ordered her complete file (the website only gives you the first two pages). Her records listed her as being 5’3” tall and 125 pounds—dropping to 120 by the end of the war, with a “good physique.” She must have been very tiny, since the uniform that I own will only fit on the smallest size possible on my dressmaker’s dummy. Cecile also wore glasses. She would serve with the No.15 Canadian General, the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Military Hospital, and No 10 Canadian General. In 1919, at the end of the war, she would catch (and survive) the Spanish flu. She would also suffer a breakdown—what doctors then called “neurasthenia” and what we now call “post-traumatic stress disorder.” This was not unusual for nurses at the time—many suffered from being witnesses to terrible trauma and loss.

Sometime during her service in France or England, she met George Fraser MacKenzie, a farmer from Spirit River, Alberta. He had enlisted in 1916 and was serving as an ambulance stretcher bearer. George was muscular, 5’7” tall, with gray eyes and brown hair and was eight years younger than Cecile. He had been wounded and Cecile seems to have been his nurse. [This bears future research.] George and Cecile were married on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of the Great War.

In their years together, Cecile was active in the local United Church, participating in the Ladies Aid, and playing the organ for many years. George was on the school board and Spirit River Municipal Council. One older lady described Cecile as a sweet woman with a very strong belief in her own rightness, and George as gruff. They had two children, Hugh born in 1922 and Virginia Lois born in 1924. The children attended White Mountain School and the Spirit River High School. As Lois wrote: “Like other country children who lived more than four or five miles from Spirit River, they lived on their own during the week, and went home on weekends.” The two were very close and there are many pictures of them in the Spirit River history book—smiling, attractive young people.

During WWII, George enlisted in the air force in 1941, and the farm was rented out. In 1942, when Hugh and Lois graduated from high school, Cecile joined George in Ontario, while Virginia went to Normal School, then joined the Air Force a year later. Hugh became a navigator and was killed in action over Germany in 1944. The couple who had survived the rigors of the First World War, could not escape suffering a terrible loss in the Second.

Cecile came home after that tragedy and George joined her a year later and they resumed farming. Virginia was discharged in 1945, taught at White Mountain School, and then went to the U of A on a soldier’s grant, receiving her MD in 1953. In 1954, Cecile died after a short illness. She is buried in White Mountain Cemetery. George farmed until 59, and then moved in with Virginia and her husband George Sawers until MacKenzie’s death in 1977. According to George Sawers, the MacKenzie’s kept loads of their souvenirs of WWI (from cots to uniforms to clothing)—the war they couldn’t ever forget.

So that is the tale of my uniform and the woman who once wore it. Next month I will return to commemorating nurses who lost their lives in the First World War. Until then, I wish you the best of the season!

Destruction of War Memorial at Mount Allison

2011-11-24T07:39:00.005-07:00

It's just an old brick building on a beautiful university campus in New Brunswick. Not really important in the scheme of things--much more important to tear it down and build a new arts centre. But the Memorial Library at Mount Allison University is more than just a building--it's a memorial to 73 former students at the university who died in the First World War. It was paid for by family and friends of the students and it is a cherished part of the university's built history. Yet the administration says its too costly to save. Cost is an interesting concept; the students who died and were remembered by the building of the library paid a high cost, as well. But that seems to be of little consequence to the Mount Allison University decision makers. There actions are shameful and show how little regard for those who sacrificed their lives in that long ago war.

Photographs of Ada Ross Funeral

2011-11-23T13:50:00.003-07:00

Contributor Annette Fulford has sent me a link that you may want to visit, as well. It shows photos of the funeral of Nursing Sister Ada Ross. I have not yet written an entry on Ross, but thought that you might be interested in the kind of response made by British communities to the deaths of nursing sisters. Here's the link:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=171734&pid=1669273&st=0&#entry1669273

For some background on Ada Ross, here is a quote from the Manitoba Free Press, August 8, 1918:

"Nursing Sister Ada Janet Ross, of the C.A.M.C., who died at the Canadian Nurses' Convalescent Hospital at Northwood, Buxton, Derbyshire, England, on July 12, was a graduate of the Winnipeg General Hospital. The deceased went to France almost with the first Canadian nurses, namely, in May 1915, and remained there for two years, when she was put on hospital ship duty between Canada and the Old Country. For some months prior to her death she had been doing work at Buxton."

Nursing Sister Miriam Eastman Baker

2011-11-21T15:50:00.007-07:00

Recently, I received an email from Glyn Hethey. He wrote: "my Great Aunt, Miriam Baker was a nursing sister and was killed at an early age in the war. Her picture is in the poster which hangs at the Memorial Centre here in High River[Alberta], and after moving here six yrs ago from BC, I was astounded to see her picture, the likeness of which hung in my Mother's house for as long as I can remember."

Glyn didn't know a lot about his great aunt, but his email raised my interest. I discovered a photo of Miriam on-line and realized that she must have served, not only in the CAMC, but in the British service. As I've mentioned before, so many of our Canadian nurses entered the QAIMNS initially, since so few places were open in the CAMC at the beginning of the war. Then they transferred over to the Canadian corps. I discovered that Miriam's files were intact at Britain's national archives, as well as in our own. But before I share what I learned from these files, I will add another quote, this time from Glyn's cousin, Allan Baker. Allan had a little more knowledge of Miriam:

"Our aunt, Miriam Eastman Baker, was the second of seven children born in ten years to George William Baker [ed. note: Baker was a Winnipeg lawyer, member of Winnipeg City Council and Winnipeg Police Magistrate] and his wife, Jennie Eastman Baker. Jennie was from Maine. She died when my father was born. Their father married twice again. Miriam played an extraordinary role in the raising of her siblings. Perhaps it was inevitable that Miriam would become a Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Sister in WWI. She was based at Cliveden. Like Miriam, four of her brothers served overseas, in the Canadian Army and the Royal Flying Corps."

According to Miriam's Canadian attestation papers, she was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on August 20, 1886. She graduated from the St. Luke's Hospital nursing program in New York in 1915. Miriam appears to have enlisted in the QAIMNS in September 1916. At that time, she was serving in a British military hospital in Chatham, England. Miriam transferred to the Canadian service on October 2, 1917 and was assigned to the Canadian Red Cross Military Hospital in Cliveden, Buckinghamshire. Allan Baker describes some of the background of that hospital:

"Nancy Langhorne, born in Virginia, married Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor. Thus she was identified as The Right Honourable Viscountess Astor, but she was known, as a public-spirited citizen, as Nancy Astor. In 1919 she became the first woman elected to the British Parliament. The Astors had a country home, Cliveden, on the Thames, west of London. It served as a hospital in WWI (and again in WWII)."

Almost a year after she began her work at Cliveden, Miriam contracted the Spanish influenza. She died on October 17, 1918 and is buried at the Cliveden War Cemetery. I believe her will provides a real glimpse into what Miriam was like. It appears that she was engaged, leaving her fiance Charles Herbert Dore her diamond ring, cigarette case, and small silver frame with his photo in it. She was religious, leaving her brother Phipps her silver-framed picture of Paul along with a brass clock. She leaves her pearl and turquoise ring to her friend Francis Chaffey, and to her brother Henry her watch, gold locket and chain. To her brother Ralph, her framed picture of Paul and Peter and silver mug. She left her silver card case to another friend, Edwina Higginson. Her sister Doris received the remainder of her jewelry and other personal possessions, her interest in an estate, and all the money she had in the bank with the exception of $50, which she left to her brother Paul.

It is clear that many mourned the loss of Miriam and that she left behind a loving family.

Nurses Missing in Action

2011-11-21T15:35:00.004-07:00

This is Remembrance month, when we remember the fallen of previous wars. This blog is dedicated to the forgotten fallen--the women who gave their lives during the First World War. Since starting the blog, I have discovered I am not alone in this task of reclamation. People from all over the world--men and women--have shared their stories and desire to remember these women. Recently, I received a few emails from a colleague in Australia, librarian and fellow researcher, Maggie White. She sent me an article entitled "Australian World War I Nurses: Missing in Action." The author, Ruth Rae, argues that we have a particular blind spot when it comes to remembering the fallen nurses of the First World War. She says that this blind spot isn't new--in fact, nurses were lamenting it during the war itself. She quotes Australian nursing sister, Haynes in a letter home. Haynes wrote that she had sent poetry to the local paper because "They are always so keen on ‘our boys’ – no one ever hears of ‘our girls’, and it would be a good chance to mention that we are here. One bit in the paper said that the Sisters had arrived and…without a comma even, said the horses were in good condition." This month, I hope that more people around the world have celebrated the sacrifice of "our girls" alongside "our boys."

First American Military Nursing Sister to Die in WWI

2011-11-01T15:04:00.004-06:00

Today I came across a compelling profile of Nurse Helen Wood, who was the first official American female military nurse to be killed while on duty. The profile, entitled "Nurse Helen Wood: A Scottish Lass, War, and the American Dream" was contributed by writer Sonny Moran. To read the article, go to: http://www.worldwar1.com/tripwire/smtw.htm.

This Intrepid Band

2011-10-24T13:08:00.002-06:00

For those who are interested in the heroic work of British nursing sisters, go to a terrific blog by nurse historian Sue Light: http://greatwarnurses.blogspot.com/. Entitled "This Intrepid Band," it provides "information and chat about women who served as military nurses from the Boer War through to the end of the Great War." A compelling and informative resource as well as a great read.

Nursing Sister Dorothy Baldwin Remembered

2011-10-24T12:53:00.005-06:00

May 19, 1918. Three nurses were busy in the operating room at Number 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Doullens, France. Their hospital was an ancient citadel, with heavy brick walls that dated back to the 17th century. However, even these could not protect the nurses, doctors, medical personnel and patients from a German attack. According to Matron In Chief E.M. McCarthy of the British Expeditionary Force, who was touring the hospitals in France: "Left early in the morning having received a telephone message from Doullens saying that No.3 Canadian Stationary Hospital had been heavily bombed, and 3 nursing sisters killed and one badly wounded. Left as soon as possible with Miss Ridley, Principal Matron, Canadians. On arrival found that one huge triangle in the Citadel had been absolutely destroyed – part of it did not exist and the remainder of the roof had gone leaving only walls. The whole of the theatre and Xray appliances had been absolutely wiped out and the people working in the theatre were not recognisable. No N.C.O.’s were on duty – those who were not killed were badly wounded. I saw the O.C. and the Matron who spoke in the highest terms of the work of everybody. While there the D.M.S. of the 3rd Army arrived with the A.D.M.S. It was arranged that all sisters who could be spared should be moved at once and the wounded sister transferred to Treport."

Many of the Canadian nurses acted heroically during the attack, helping with the removal of patients, and aiding the wounded despite the fact that they were surrounded by wreckage and that parts of the building were on fire. Accordign to GWL Nicholson, a chronicler of the history of Canadian women in the first world war, "Eleven patients, two medical officers, three nursing sisters, and 16 other ranks (including orderlies) were killed; 16 were wounded.” One of those killed was NS Dorothy Mary Yarwood Baldwin. Dorothy enlisted in the CAMC in May 1917. She was 26 years old, a trim, 5'3" tall woman with curly dark hair. At the time of her enlistment, she was living at 173 Lowther Ave., a comfortable Toronto street lined with solid brick homes. She listed her religion as Anglican. Although she was born in Toronto, her parents Mary and Robert were living in Paris, Ontario. Dorothy was a graduate of the nursing program of Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario. Both she and her sister Mary were nurses, although Mary did not join the CAMC (probably because she was married). Dorothy also had a brother serving overseas. In June 1917, Dorothy was taken on the staff at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent and was posted to Doullens, France a month later. She was terribly wounded in the attack of May 19 and survived until May 30, at which time she passed away. In Dorothy's will, she left her estate to her sister Mary Powell and her mother. If you know more about Dorothy and wish to share it, please send me an email or comment on this entry and I will be glad to share the information with others.

Nursing Sister Florence Hesseltine Dolson

Elaine Eigl is a relative of Florence Hesseltine Dolson later Brown (after she married Le Roy Gorringe Brown on June 1, 1920)who served as a Nursing Sister in WWI. Dolson served in both the British and Canadian forces in the following hospitals: 13 General Hospital (BEF) from April 1 to November 2, 1917, 14 General Hospital (BEF) from November 5 – 14, 1917, 48 Casualty Clearing Station from November 16, 1917 to March 20, 1918, and 15 General Hospital (Canadian), Taplow, England.Although Elaine is able to get the Canadian records, among her British records, only Florence's Medal Card seems to exist. If you know of where Elaine might be able to find information or a photo of Florence, she would so much appreciate this. Please email me a note or comment on this blog entry and I will pass your information along. Thank you as always!

A Great Resource Remembering Great War Nurses--Free to Watch Online

In 2008, the National Film Board of Canada produced a series of five documentary vignettes about the first world war entitled Front Lines, directed by Claude Guilmain. One of the vignettes is called "Front Lines: Nurses at the Front" and superbly describes the work of NS Katherine Macdonald, whose life and death is described in one of my previous blogs. To view the documentary, go to http://www.nfb.ca/film/front_lines/.

A Fatal Flight

2011-09-14T14:01:00.002-06:00

The life of a military nurse during the First World War was a mix of excitement, exhaustion, horror, hope and despair. The sights and sounds of wounded men were often overpowering, and it is no surprise that the women often longed for and enjoyed brief breaks when they explored local villages and historic sites, bicycled through the countryside, visited the leave clubs in Paris, or went for picnics with friends and colleagues. It was rare, however, for a nurse to lose her life when enjoying one of these much-needed breaks. Yet such was the case for Canadian Nursing Sister Marion Overend.

Born sometime around 1895, Overend and her sister May were natives of Peterborough, Ontario. They studied nursing at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York in 1913. In 1917, they joined the American Red Cross and travelled to France. According to her friends, "Miss Overend was a bright and lovable young woman," who had a real sense of adventure. According to researcher Tighe McManus, by 1918 she was serving at the American Army 3rd Base Hospital which was located in an old monastery near the village of Montpon-Menesterol in the Dordogne region.

On June 1, 1918, Overend decided to do something that many of her colleagues would have envied. She got the chance to go up in an aeroplane piloted by an unnamed Captain. Flying was considered a daring, exciting activity during the First World War--and a dangerous one. Many pilots were killed simply because of accidents or poorly constructed machines. Unfortunately, Marion Overend would become one of the few (if not the only)nurse to lose her life in this way. The Orillia Packet of August 1, 1918 describes what happened next. "Something went wrong with the machine while they were in the air, and it crashed. Miss Overend was killed instantly, and the Captain was very seriously injured." Overend was given a military funeral, which was attended by nearly the whole staff of the American base hospital. Marion is buried at: Plot A Row 6 Grave 14 of the St. Mihiel American Cemetery in Thiaucourt, France.

Overend was one of the countless Canadian nurses who served with the medical corps' of other nations, such as Britain and France. Recently, I came across a list of nurses who died in the AEF during the war. It was in the American "Red Cross Bulletin" of January 6, 1919. Two of those listed were Canadian, including Marion Overend and Constance Caplan of Toronto. There may well be others--Canadians who lived in the United States during their studies or for other periods in their lives were often perceived to be Americans. If you know of other Canadian nurses who died while serving in other medical corps, please let me know and I will be glad to share their story here. Thanks today to
Tighe McManus and Annette Fulford for first telling me about Marion.

Death on the Island of Lemnos

2011-08-10T14:15:00.005-06:00

It's great to be back writing another entry for Finding the Forty-Seven. Interest in Canadian nursing sisters of World War I is certainly growing--at least among the WWI collectors. This past month, the medals of a Canadian sister named J. B. McDonald were sold for $919 (US) on ebay! There were 27 bids altogether.

Behind every medal belonging to a Canadian nursing sister there is a story. Today, I'm writing the story of Nursing Sister Jessie B. Jaggard. Jaggard was Matron of the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital in Mudros. According to the British Red Cross Journal of Nursing, October 16, 1915, "Matron Jessie B. Jaggard, born at Wolfville, King's County, Nova Scotia, [1893] received her training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. On completion of her course, her ability being well marked, she became Superintendent of the Morristown State Hospital, Philadelphia, and later held the same post at the University Hospital, Philadelphia. After some few years, she resigned to marry a prominent American, Mr. Herbert Jaggard, President of a well-known railway. As soon after the outbreak of war as personal affairs permitted, Mrs. Jaggard volunteered her services to the Canadian Militia Department. She was promptly accepted and appointed Matron. On arrival in England in May 1915, she was posted to Shorncliffe, where a Canadian hospital was being established at Moore Barracks. Here she worked hard and earnestly, and succeeded in getting the hospital in good working order. On August 1, the unit of which Mrs. Jaggard was matron was ordered to the Mediterranean. Full of enthusiasm, with which she inspired her staff, they sailed for Lemnos with No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital. Conditions there were at first found to be difficult and trying; many of the Sisters fell ill and in her endeavour to make everything as comfortable as possible for both nurses an patients, Mrs. Jaggard undermined her strength."

Nursing Sister Kate Wilson who served alongside Jaggard, picks up the story from there. "Our very much loved Matron Jaggard had taken ill. With little thought for herself and a keen interest in her nursing staff she carried on. So anxious would she become at night that many times she would go from hut to hut of her sleeping nurses, assuring herself that they were alright and not suffering from want of blankets when the nights were extra cold. Lying with the picture of her seventeen year old son smiling down at her, one night she closed her eyes for the last time and slept. In her service uniform of blue, in a crude wooden coffin, covered with the British flag, her veil and belt lying mutely on top, and carried by boys who knew and loved her, she was laid to rest [September 25, 1915], with full military honours, in the Canadian Soldiers cemetery, outside of the village of Sarpi [Portianas Cemetery, Mudros]. Forever she will remain in the hearts of those who were privileged to serve under her, the memory of this fine, unselfish woman." (Kate Wilson Simmie, Lights Out! CEF Books, 2004)

Jaggard was well-connected, the cousin of Prime Minister Robert Borden, and as the Red Cross attests, she was a highly competent professional nurse. The 5'4" tall, 120 pound Matron died of dysentery, a disease that afflicted many of the nurses and staff serving on Lemnos--the extremes of heat and cold, unsanitary conditions, and unrelenting work, all contributed to the illnesses they suffered. Jaggard was only 42 when she died.

A Tale of Two Ships and Two Nursing Sisters

2011-07-06T16:12:00.003-06:00

This is a tale of two Great War hospital ships and two nurses who served on both at different times. Each woman faced the threat of death at sea. One would survive, the other would not.

Hospital ships plied the Atlantic during the Great War. They transported the wounded home to Canada and transported medical staff back to Britain to rejoin their units. In June 1918, Marguerite Condon was one such nurse, enroute to Canada on HMHS Araguaya. The ship was full of patients—yet Marguerite must have felt it was a break to take care of wounded men in a state of the art hospital enroute to Canada rather than under canvas on the Western front. She had already spent much of her time there as a nurse. As her grandson Gordon MacLean writes: "She had fairly recently graduated as a Nurse in Boston when the war commenced & signed on with the initial contingent of the Harvard Medical Unit which got her to the battlefields of France by mid-1915. After a year of service, she obtained a commission in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and alternated between service in the field & serving on Hospital ships convey wounded soldiers home." Although now on board the Araguaya, Condon had previously served on the Llandovery Castle.

On June 27, the same day that the Araguaya left the dock for Canada, the Llandovery Castle was nearly back to Britain, empty save for its medical staff and ship’s crew. There were 258 people on board. These included 94 members of the CAMC, including 14 nurses. One of those nurses was 35-year-old Alexina Dussault. The Montreal native was one of 120 graduates of the Royal Victoria Hospital nursing program who were now serving overseas. She had enlisted in September 1914, and like Marguerite Condon, had also served on other hospital ships, including the Araguaya and the Letitia (both in 1917). Alexina had also served in France at No. 2 Canadian Stationary Hospital and at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent.

All electric lights on board the Castle were burning and a huge electric cross was lit over the bridge. There were strings of green and white lights hanging along the side of the ship, all to alert any enemy submarines that she was a hospital ship and not to be subject to attack. Unfortunately, as I have described in other blogs, this did not deter Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, the commander of German U-boat 86 from firing on the ship. All 14 nurses on the Castle were killed when their lifeboat was sucked under the ship. Lifeboats that did manage to get away from the sinking ship were rammed and fired on by the German sub. Only 24 people survived. Patzig later defended his actions by suggesting that the Castle was carrying troops, an untrue allegation that could have been checked if the u-boat crew had boarded and inspected the ship (as it was allowed to do).

An interesting twist to the story is that Marguerite Condon told her son (Gordon's dad) that the "Araquaya, on its return voyage was involved with the recovery of the
murdered Nursing Sisters' remains & she personally witnessed them being brought on board." I have not been able to positively confirm this. The destroyer Lysander picked up survivors. However, I have read an account from a member of the crew of a different ship (not the Araguaya) that passed through the area soon after the sinking. He reported seeing bodies floating among the wreckage of the Castle. This would suggest that Marguerite's story could well be true.

Website Worth Visiting

2011-06-20T16:19:00.001-06:00

Today I came across a website that contains a few short films and some information about WWI nurses. It's called "100 Years of Nursing on the Prairies." The site is well worth a visit. Here's the address for just one of the short films it has produced: http://www.100yearsofnursing.ca/english/media/player.html?movie=06MacAdams.swf
It describes the contribution of Great War nurse Roberta MacAdams. There is also a film on the work of military nurses from the prairies. Soon I will be posting information about another nurse who died during the First World War. In addition, I'll be sharing the story submitted by a reader about his ancestor's nursing experience during the Halifax Explosion, and her possible connection with the Llandovery Castle.

Remembering Jessie Mabel McDiarmid

2011-05-30T13:20:00.004-06:00

An all-too-familiar column in the July 12, 1918 issue of the Perth Courier (an Ontario newspaper), listed the names of the local people who had most recently lost their lives while serving their country overseas. Among those names was Nursing Sister Jessie Mabel McDiarmid. McDiarmid was yet another casualty of the Llandovery Castle (see other blog posts for more information about the sinking). According to the newspaper, McDiarmid was “survived by 2 brothers and 5 sisters: John, Ashton; Peter, Provost AB; Mrs R P Brown, North Gower; Mrs D McDougall, Glen Isle; Mrs A Howard, Mather MB; and Misses Annie and Jennie, at home.”In her attestation papers, Jessie listed her birthplace as Ashton, Ontario. However, records suggest she may have been born in Scotland. Whatever the case, by 1891 she was living in Lisgar, Manitoba with her widowed father Peter and brothers and sisters. Her father’s profession was listed as “stock raiser.”

Jessie McDiarmid enlisted in the CAMC in London in September 1915. Her attestation papers described her as a tall woman—five feet, five and a half inches tall—with dark brown hair and “dark” eyes. She confidently lists herself as "professional nurse." Her papers are signed by Matron-in-Chief Margaret MacDonald, so she must have been very competent and well-respected. Her records show that at this time, her father was no longer part of her life (he had likely passed away) and Jessie listed her brother John as her next of kin. I am hoping to have more on Jessie in a future blog, as I have contacted people who I believe are her descendants.

Thanks this month to Ontario researcher Glenn Couch for providing me with the obituary in the Perth Courier!

Canadian Army Medical Corps Site

2011-04-20T09:12:00.001-06:00

Just a short note to recommend a very interesting website. It's entitled the "Canadian Army Medical Corps" and is dedicated to the experience of those who served in that body during the First World War. Many nurses are profiled there and the site has interesting posts about the CAMC. I've listed the link in my Recommended Links file.

French-Canadian Nursing Sister Ernestine Champagne

2011-04-13T15:27:00.002-06:00

“The death has occurred in Montreal of Nursing Sister Ernestine Champagne, who succumbed, after an illness of three years, to consumption contracted on service in France. Miss Champagne joined Lieut.-Col. Mignault's French-Canadian Hospital Unit in 1915,” reads an article on page 10 of the March 28, 1919 issue of the Quebec Chronicle. “For some time she served at the St. Cloud Hospital where working under canvas she contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, and was invalided home in 1917. Miss Champagne who, was the daughter of the late Justice Champagne, had been decorated by the French Government for distinguished service in France, and leaves her mother (nee Aglace Ethier) and four brothers and two sisters.”

Ernestine Champagne was born on January 27, 1880. As her obituary mentions, she was from a distinguished French Canadian family. At 35 years of age, she joined the CAMC. She was a tiny woman—four feet, seven inches—with brown eyes and dark hair. The unit she joined was led by Lt. Col. Arthur Mignault. Mignault was a wealthy Montreal physician. A former Montreal militia officer, he had donated $50,000 in 1914 to raise the 22nd (French-Canadian) Battalion, the famous Van Doos. He also established a French-speaking Canadian hospital unit located in a former racecourse in St. Cloud, a suburb of Paris. There were 520 beds in the hospital. According to the Montreal Gazette, the beds, operating rooms and other facilities were in tents. It rained constantly, and soon the racecourse was a muddy swamp infested by rats and fleas. Champagne’s work at the hospital would have been demanding and she seems to have earned the respect of those around her, given the fact that she was decorated by the French government for her service. Unfortunately, it may have been her hard work and the rough conditions that led to the illness that claimed her life. She was invalided home on the hospital ship Letitia in May 1917 and died in March 1919, another nursing sister who gave her life in the service of her country.

Remebering Mae Belle Sampson

2011-03-15T09:15:00.003-06:00

A slim newspaper column in the July 5, 1918 issue of the Toronto Evening Telegram proclaimed that “Nursing Sister Mae Sampson…was one of the nurses on the Llandovery Castle who has been lost. Her mother and cousin who live at 7 Baker Avenue received a letter from her from Halifax, stating that she was sailing overseas on this particular ship.” The article was accompanied by a photograph of a pretty young woman with short bobbed fair hair and a shy smile.

Born in 1890 in Simcoe County, Ontario, Sampson was a graduate of the Hamilton City Hospital School of Nursing. She enlisted in the CAMC shortly after the outbreak of war and was one of first draft of Canadian nurses to travel overseas in October 1915. Sampson was initially stationed at #2 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Le Touquet, France. She served in France for two years and was awarded the Mons Star and mentioned in despatches. Later, she served at the Canadian Convalescent Hospital in Uxbridge, England, a Canadian hospital in Salonika (serving there for nearly a year) and #16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. The only thing that slowed down this indefatigable nurse was her hospitalization for diphtheria in October 1917. This illness would indirectly lead to her death. After recovery, as was usual, she met with a military medical board. In February 1918, the board declared her “fit” for active service and gave her an “easy” assignment—“transport duty.” That duty took place on the ill-fated Llandovery Castle. As I've written in other blog posts, the Llandovery Castle was sunk by a German u-boat, and all the nurses (including Mae Belle Sampson) perished.

Margaret Jane Fortescue

2011-02-09T14:28:00.003-07:00

Among the 14 nursing sisters who crowded into the Llandovery Castle’s lifeboat on that awful June day in 1918, was a slender 39-year-old woman with a heart shaped face and deep brown eyes. Her name was Margaret Jane Fortescue. According to Fortescue family genealogist Don Edge, she was descended from a historic Canadian family. Her father was Joseph Fortescue, Chief Factor for the Hudson Bay Company at York Factory from 1872-1884. Margaret was born in York Factory in 1878, one of ten surviving children—her siblings were Matthew, Annie, Caroline, Frances, Gertrude, Charles, John, George, and Joseph. Her father died in 1899 when Margaret was just 21. Without a father to support her, she opted for the new profession of nursing, graduating from the Montreal General Hospital School of Nursing in 1905.

On April 22, 1915, Margaret enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. It was not surprising that she was assigned to No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in Camiers. No. 3 was a McGill University unit that had been mobilized on Montreal, March 5, 1915. Many of its members were drawn from those who had studied and worked in that city. The unit arrived in England on May 15 and sent to France on June 16, opening in Camiers on June 19. On January 5, 1916 it was moved to Boulogne and was there until May 19, 1919.

While Margaret was working at No. 3, she received tragic news. In 1916, one of her brothers died of tuberculosis. Perhaps that news, together with the strain of work at the busy hospital in France contributed to Margaret’s first work-related illness. In January 1917, she was suffering from bronchitis and given three weeks sick leave to England. Following this illness, she returned to No. 3 Canadian. On February 25, 1918, she was sick again with bronchitis due to “climatic conditions in France.” (She was “mentioned in despatches” in March 1918, suggesting that her commitment to her work at Camiers had been above and beyond the call of duty.) She was treated at No. 14 General Hospital in Wimereaux and then recovered at a British convalescent home at 71 Vincent Square in London and at the Canadian Red Cross Special Hospital at Buxton. Finally, on April 10, 1918, she was discharged and given a lighter assignment. She was attached to the Llandovery Castle, a hospital ship taking wounded soldiers home to Canada. On June 27, 1918, while returning to England, the ship was sunk by German submarine U-86 and all 14 of the Canadian nursing sisters on board were drowned. The sinking of this clearly marked hospital ship was a war crime. German Commander Helmut Patzig, however, managed to evade capture after the war. The only two German officers that were eventually convicted of the crime escaped on their way to prison.

Ironically, one of the other nursing sisters who died alongside Margaret Fortescue was a younger fellow graduate of the Montreal General Hospital Nursing School, Gladys Irene Sare. Both Sare and Fortescue were commemorated on a brass tablet with a border of maple leaves that was hung in the main corridor of the hospital in the 1920s. (I am not sure if it remains there today.) I will be writing about Sare in a future blog.

Finding the Fallen & Carola Douglas

2011-01-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

Happy new year to all the readers of Finding the Forty-Seven. During the holidays, I caught the tail-end of another continuation of the Finding the Fallen television series. Once again, the team was on the hunt for another fallen soldier of the First World War. The show is really well done and I'm glad it is being continued. However, I felt again the great lack of interest shown by producers of such programs in the experience of the women of the First World War--especially those who served in various capacities during the conflict. According to Arthur Marwick's excellent book Women at War 1914-1918, there were over 7,000 women served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war. Nearly 8,000 served in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps. Over 2,400 served as nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Not to mention, of course, the tens of thousands of women worldwide who worked in munitions factories. Some of these women gave their lives (munitions workers often died later of chemical related causes). Yet television producers seem strangely uninterested in their experience. A colleague who pitches shows to History Channel recently told me that those in charge of the channel believe that women aren't interested in history, so it's unlikely that they will produce programs related to women and the first war any time soon. Such a view is wrong on all kinds of levels. I have taught history on a number of occasions and often have more women than men in my classes. I also believe that women aren't the only ones interested in women's contributions to war. Information for the following story about a nurse from the Great War, for instance, has been contributed by a male reader, David Smith.

Carola Douglas Revisited

Le Treport, France, August 28, 1915. It was a scorching hot afternoon at the Canadian General Hospital in Le Treport, France. Twenty-three-year-old William Henry "Harry" Patrick had been returned to his ward following surgery. Patrick had been a Nottingham miner before the war and was now a private in “C” Company of the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Forresters. He had suffered terrible wounds and was anxious that his family should know how he was doing. Nursing Sister Carola Douglas was sitting beside him, YMCA letterhead on her knee, preparing a letter home on his behalf:

Dear Mrs. and Mr. Patrick and family:
I am writing these few lines for your son who was operated on this morning and is feeling rather upset. He had some shrapnel taken out of his leg. His condition this morning is a little serious as it always is after an operation, it will hurt. But in a few days he will be feeling much more able to write for himself. In the meantime I shall drop you a line every day. He is a good patient. It will be my pleasure to see that he wants for nothing. Will you kindly tell his wife. I am,
Very sincerely
Carola J. Douglas
Nursing Sister

Unfortunately, Harry died on August 31st. Carola Douglas also died during the war. However, the story does have a hopeful twist. Harry had married on May 24, 1915. During his short honeymoon, a child was conceived. That child was contributor David Smith’s grandmother!

Thanks to David for sharing this story and a copy of the original letter from Carola Douglas. If any other readers have stories they’d like to share about nurses of the first war, please forward them to me and I will be glad to post them. I am gathering more information on other fallen nurses and hope to do another blog before then end of the month.

Remembering Nursing Sister Christina Frederickson

2010-12-09T15:11:00.004-07:00

Today’s blog is about Nursing Sister Christina Frederickson. Frederickson was a Canadian military nurse who didn’t die as a result of German bombs or torpedoes. Instead, she was struck down by a more powerful enemy—the Spanish influenza. There are many estimates as to the number of lives lost during the pandemic, but over 50 million people may have died as a result of the disease, with another 500 million infected. Many more lives were lost during the epidemic than the number lost in the Great War.

Frederickson was born in Skagafjord, Iceland in 1886. Her father was Frederick Frederickson and her mother was Guglaug Frederickson. She had at least five brothers and sisters, according to the 1916 Canadian census. The family lived in Manitoba. However, at the time of her enlistment in January 1918, Christina had moved to Edmonton. She may have been staying with her sister, who was a resident of the city. Her younger brother Walter, a steam traction engineer, had already enlisted in 1916.
Instead of being sent overseas, Frederickson—like hundreds of other nurses in the CAMC—served in a convalescent soldiers’ hospital in Canada. According to the newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, “up to October 5, 1916, the number of soldiers sent back to Canada because of medical unfitness was 6,208. Of these, 961 were suffering from wounds, shell-shock, or the effects of gas; 122 were insane; 245 were affected with tuberculosis; while the remainder, 4,880 were suffering from other diseases and disabilities”(quoted in Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War by Shawna M. Quinn). Frederickson was a strong and stocky woman—5’6” tall and 160 pounds, an ideal candidate for the demanding work of caring for these men. The hospital to which she was assigned was the Strathcona Military Hospital in Edmonton (an institution which later became the University of Alberta Hospital).

Unfortunately, there was one disease that seemed to especially target healthy, young people such as Christine. That disease was the Spanish flu. While the cause of that particular strain of the virus has not yet been determined, what is known is that it was spread quickly by the massive troop movements that took place across the world during the Great War. Troops, already weakened by the trying conditions in which the war was taking place, were particularly susceptible to the disease. According to historian Diana Mansell, the disease “entered Canada on troop ships during the summer of 1918. Initially, the disease did not spread rapidly; however, it was obvious by the end of September that Canada had a problem. The epidemic adhered to historical tradition and travelled westerly across the country by means of the railway. This was a unique variety of flu in that it had a high morbidity rate and a much higher mortality rate than previously associated with flus…By 1918, Spanish Influenza had affected one in every six Canadians and killed between thirty and fifty thousand people.” (March 2001 email correspondence). One of the Canadians who died of the disease was Christina Frederickson.

According to the October 29, 1918 issue of the Edmonton Bulletin, Christina was working at the convalescent hospital when a call came for nurses to volunteer at an understaffed influenza hospital in the city. (At this point in the pandemic, hospitals were having a hard time finding nurses to serve those suffering from the disease.) “Nursing Sister Frederickson volunteered when the soldiers of the Siberian force were taken from a troop train some days since suffering from the influenza and placed in the isolation hospital to assist in nursing them, and she had been steadily at work with little respite up to the time that she herself became infected with the disease.”

It is instructive to read Frederickson’s military record for what it reveals about the course of this terrible disease. Christina became ill with the disease on October 24, 1918. She had a chill, coated tongue, cough, loss of appetite and occasional vomiting and “great prostration.” She was given quinine, apirin, and a laxative. The next day “symptoms continue severe.” Her chest “bubbled” and she had severe pain in that part of her body. She was given an expectorant. On the 26th, her symptoms continued, with no abatement of her fever. She coughed up blood. On the 27th, her right lung was clear, but by mid-day, her pulse was weak and she was perspiring. Her cheeks and fingertips were turning blue, a sign of oxygen deprivation. She was given camphor and caffeine to improve her pulse and respiration—but her symptoms did not improve. On the morning of the 28th she was cold and clammy. Christina was given more stimulants, including caffeine, camphor, adrenalin, strychnine, and whisky. By now she was “irrational.” By mid-day her condition worsened and despite “heroic treatment” she died at 5:30 p.m. Cause of death: epidemic influenza. While she didn’t die as a result of enemy fire, she was certainly a hero of the First World War.

Christina’s name was included on a war memorial set up in her home town of Glenboro, Manitoba. This can be seen on-line at:

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/glenborowarmemorial.shtml.

A special thanks to Annette Fulford for locating the Edmonton Bulletin article that announced Christina’s death.

Special Request
David Parsons, a fellow WWI historian, is asking for help in locating information about his aunt, Nurse Maysie Parsons. She served with a group of nurses who went to Belgium to nurse at a Dr LePage's hospital at De Panne, Belgium. He believes that they went overseas early in 1915, recruited by Madame Le Page of Montreal (who was later lost on the Lusitania). David has the names of three Newfoundland nurses who went to Le Page’s hospital in Belgium: Elsie Doyle, Emma Reid, and his aunt Maysie (she later served with the CAMC in Mudros at the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital). If you have any information to share, please send it to me at parsenippress@interbaun.com and I will forward it to David.

Happy Holidays
Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy holiday and I look forward to continue my monthly blog in the new year!

New Research Guide for Fallen Nurses

2010-12-06T12:41:00.002-07:00

I recently received a copy of the Ontario Genealogical Society Newsletter. Inside was a review of a new resource that will be of interest to those who are researching fallen nurses of the Great War.It is called Canadians at War: A Research Guide to World War One Service Records by Glenn Wright (Global Heritage Press c/o www.GlobalHeritagePress.com). It is $24.95 softcover. Wright was military archivist at the Library and Archives Canada before his retirement. The book exhaustively explores the resources available to researchers seeking information on WWI soldiers and nurses. Many people know how to access the basic service records of first war nurses and soldiers, but Wright offers additional suggestions for further research. For instance, Circumstances of Death records often provide additional fascinating insights. Later today, I'll also be posting another profile of another fallen nurse of the First World War.

Remembering Christina Campbell and the Fallen

2010-11-12T15:05:00.007-07:00

It's the day after Remembrance Day. I spent part of yesterday in Edmonton at the only Ex-Service Women's Branch (#215)of the Royal Canadian Legion. A group of ex-service women were being presented with special medals in recognition of their service in the community. The women included veterans of the Second World War (as well as those who joined the service afterwards and served in various capacities across Canada and in Europe). It was wonderful to witness these often self-deprecating women being honoured by their families, peers, and some members of the current military. Surprisingly, I made another connection regarding the women and men of the First World War. I was seated next to a woman named Catharine Arthur, who had served as a wireless operator during the Second World War. "We lived war in our family," said Arthur. Her father had served in the trenches of the First World War and her aunt--Mary Elizabeth Miller--had been a nursing sister with the CAMC. (Miller was a nurse from Renfrew, Ontario. She trained in Michigan, moved to Edmonton, and enlisted in 1917. She worked at the Misercordia Hospital briefly after the war, then married and raised a family.) Catharine's father was gassed and died of the effects in 1929. Sadly, her family lost another family member in the Second World War--Catherine's only brother, shot down over Germany. So, today's blog is dedicated to Mary Millar and Catherine Arthur's father and brother.

Nursing Sister Christine Campbell

Today I'm profiling Nursing Sister Christina Campbell. Campbell was born in 1877 in Inverness, Scotland. Her family later moved to Victoria, British Columbia. Her attestation papers describe her at 5'7", with blue eyes and fair hair. She enlisted in London, England on September 16, 1915. Her papers were signed by the Matron in Chief of the CAMC, Margaret Macdonald. She served for two months in France, six weeks in Egypt and five months in Salonica. During her time in Salonica, she endured two months of night duty. According to the proceedings of a medical board, it was during this time that she became ill. She lost weight and suffered from headaches and pain in her back, shoulder blades and arms. Campbell was eventually "unable to sleep and in a very nervous condition, frequently crying when spoken to." She was told that she was suffering from neurasthenia and would be unfit for general service for at least three months. She was transferred to a convalescent hospital in England and later served in British military hospitals. Clearly, she was a hard-working, dedicated nurse. Sadly, her life would end while serving on the ill-fated hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle.

An excellent article has been written about Christina Campbell by writer Barbara Bavinton. It provides many interesting details about Campbell's early life and wartime service. I take the liberty here of quoting from that piece. To read the entire article, go to http://bcnursinghistory.ca.

"Christina Campbell left her native home in Inverness, Scotland and sailed to Victoria, British Columbia in 1893, when she was just 16 years old. Leaving her three sisters and parents, she travelled to the home of her brother Angus who owned a ladies wear shop on Broughton Street in Victoria. Four years later in 1897 she graduated from the Royal Jubilee Hospital School of Nursing as a graduate nurse.
In 1915 Christina was a member of the Army reservists when she enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) as a Nursing Sister with the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force. She completed her army medical examination in Esquimalt, BC, the Matron-in Chief MacDonald signed her attestation papers and on September 6th. 1915 Christina arrived in London for four weeks of training before she was deployed.
Prior to the outbreak of the First World War there were just five permanent nurses in the CAMC and 57 in the reserves. By 1917 there were 2030 nurses with 1886 serving overseas. Nurses recruited for the Nursing Service were required to be single, in good health, and have a nursing diploma from a recognized school. They received 4 to 6 weeks of training at the Halifax Military Hospital followed by an oral and written exam. Priority was given to those nurses who, like Christina, already had some military training.

When Christina arrived in London she had her kit of blue dresses and white veils, her duty boots, cape, and a few personal belongings. She joined other Canadian “Bluebirds” as they awaited their assignments. The nursing sisters received C$50 per month in salary and an additional field allowance when away from home, and at that time were the only women in any armed forces to hold officer rank. Nursing Sister Christina Campbell had her pay assigned to the Bank of Montreal in London, had written her will, assigned David Miller as her executor, and bid her family goodbye. She was well prepared for active duty in the war effort.

She did not have to wait long as In October 1915 she was assigned to the #2 Canadian General Hospital (CGH) in France. A tent hospital of over 1,000 beds it had just been set up just 6 months before and had consistently coped with a heavy patient load since opening its doors. As many as 500 soldiers could arrive in a convoy and all had to be received, diagnosed, and allocated to wards with minimal delay. The work was relentless and the conditions challenging.

By mid November Christina was transferred back to London and then on to the #5 CGH of the medical evacuation force, where she worked ferrying the wounded to hospitals in England until June 1916, when she disembarked on the Duluce Castle to Salonica, Malta. This assignment was cut short when she became ill and was invalided back to England with neurasthenia and insomnia. After a year of active service and several months of continuous night duty and heat, Christina was ill and debilitated, so she was admitted to the Kings Cross Canadian Red Cross Convalescent Hospital in Bushey Park, London to regain her strength before returning to the #5 CGH and more medical evacuation work.

In August 1917 Christina was moved yet again to the Eye and Ear Hospital in Westcliffe in the UK, where she stayed until March 1918 when she was posted to transport duty on the Canadian hospital ship the Llandovery Castle. Hospital ship assignment was considered an easy posting and was often given as a reward to overworked nurses. The assignment entailed caring for the injured soldiers who were being shipped home to Halifax for convalescence, further medical attention, or medical discharge. On the return journey the Canadian doctors and nurses could enjoy the relaxing sea voyage under the hospital ship lights and designation, which by international agreement, protected them from enemy attack."

As Bavinton points out, these lights didn't ultimately protect the ship. For more on the Llandovery Castle, read earlier posts on this blog. I'll end my entry today with Bavinton's words:

"[Christina Campbell’s name is] inscribed on the Halifax Memorial in Nova Scotia’s capital. Standing in Point Pleasant Park, the 12 metre high Cross of Sacrifice is visible to all ships approaching the Halifax Harbour. It stands as a memorial to the over 3000 Canadian men and women who lost their lives at sea in the service of their country during the two world conflicts. “Their graves are unknown but their memory shall endure.”

Remembering Carola Douglas and Anna Stamers

2010-10-11T14:41:00.002-06:00

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! The research materials I ordered have now arrived and I am able to catch up on my entries for Canadian nurses who died during the First World War. As I wasn't able to provide a nurse biography last month, this month I am providing two. Both nurses died on the Llandovery Castle (see earlier blogs). The two nurses had many things in common beyond the manner of their deaths. As I've discovered with many of the nurses who died on the Castle, they had both provided exemplary service to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. In fact, it was this high level of service and the fact that both were exhausted from the work that they had done, that likely led to them being given the posting to the Llandovery Castle. Authorities would have recognized that their duties on board the hospital ship would have been much more limited than the work they had done previously and the trip to Canada would allow them a much-needed break and opportunity to visit family and friends.

Anna Irene Stamers
The military file on Anna Irene Stamers is a thick one. It describes a slender brown haired woman with blue eyes, standing 5' 6 1/2 inches tall. Anna was from St. John, New Brunswick. At the time of enlistment on June 3, 1915, she was living at 171 Waterloo Street with her widowed mother, Sarah Stamers. Her service record describes Anna as having been assigned to No. 1 General Hospital in Etaples, France. It wasn't an easy assignment. Located near railway lines and with a training camp attached to it, Etaples was often the target for German boming raids. Nurses also faced the risk of catching illnesses from the patients they served. Just four months after being taken on strength, she was a patient at another hospital at Etaples (No. 24 General), suffering from some sort of infection. (Her illness was described as "inflam. ext. aud.meatus. slt." I'd be happy to hear from any readers as to what this illness might have been.)She was later transferred to a convalescent home in Paris Plage. In July she returned to duty and there seems to have been no lasting effects from her illness.

In January 1917, Anna was given two weeks leave. In May 1917--perhaps ready for a less adventurous posting--she was tranferred back to England and ultimately posted to the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent. In March 1918, she was transferred to the llandovery Castle. After an uneventful journey to Canada, caring for wounded men returning home, she enjoyed a short leave. In July, she boarded the ship for the return journey. Sadly, she didn't make it back to England. The ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-86, on June 27. None of the nurses on board survived. Her records are stamped "Missing Believed Drowned." The War Service Gratuity form in her file lists her mother as her dependant and says "not eligible no S.A. paid." I would be interested if any readers know if this meant that her mother did not receive a gratuity and if not, why not?

Carola Josephine Douglas
Carola Josephine Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 7, 1887. At the time of her enlistment on March 2, 1915, she does not provide a home address, but does say that the address of her next of kin was Straw River, Manitoba. She was listed as having a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair and was five feet four inches tall. Like Anna Stamers, she was assigned to Etaples, where she worked at No. 2 Canadian General Hospital. In October 1915 she was assigned to the No. 2 British Stationary Hospital at Abbeville for short term temporary duty there. She was returned to Etaple and given three days leave. In November 1916, she was transferred to duty with No. 5 Canadian General Hospital in Salonika. In March 1917, she suffered from badly infected fingers--a potentially life-threatening injury at this time. She recovered and returned to duty. However, by October 1917, she was exhausted from overwork and stress. She was sent back to England, where she was admitted to the Canadian Red Cross Special Hospital in Basingstoke to rest and recuperate. After her health was restored, Carola (like Anna Stamers) was attached to No. 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. In March 1918, she too was transferred to the Llandovery Castle, sharing the same fate as the other nursing sisters on that ship.

I am following up on some further research on Carola Douglas and hope to have more information about her for my next post. Please let me know if you have any information you would like to share about any of the nurses on this blog.

Books on Battlefront Nurses

2010-09-08T18:02:00.003-06:00

I apologize for being late with my blog once again. I've ordered some new materials on some of the Canadian nurses who died during the Great War. However, those records haven't yet arrived. So, in their stead, I'm going to review two books on four intrepid women who served on the battlefronts of that conflict. The first book is Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front by British historian, Diane Atkinson (London: Arrow Books, 2009--paperback edition, 2010). The book describes the experience of two of the most famous women of the war, British born Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisolm. The two women served in Belgium with "Dr. Hector Munro's Field Ambulance" under battlefront conditions. Both women began their service in September 1914 and stayed until they were nearly killed in a gas attack in March 1918. At the beginning of the war, Mairi was just 18 years old and Elsie was 30, a divorcee and mother of a young son. They met at a motorcycling event in 1913 (both women were avid motorcyclists)and when war was declared, decided to offer their services. In the early months of the war, they were stationed near Ghent, Belgium and then found themselves on the run from German troops, sometimes so close to the action that they witnessed German bayonet charges. They came under fire often, sometimes when they were trying to save wounded men (from both sides) on the battlefield. The women eventually spent much of the war in a bombed out cellar in Pervyse, where they "lived, made soup and patched up the wounded." "The day started at six o'clock in the morning, when teh ladies got dressed (put their boots on and brushed their hair), lit the stove and made cauldrons of soup or hot chocolate, which they kept warm all day. They served it to the wounded soldiers they were looking after and otehrs who called in, and also took it in enamel pails at breakfast and in the evening to the men on teh sodden front line. They walked in the dark in the 'icy freezing stillness' without a light and in silence, whispering the password to the sentries, knowing the Germans were not far away." Elsie and Mairi Go to War is an excellent, informative read for anyone interested in the frontline roles played by some women during the Great War.

The second book I'm going to review is Battlefront Nurses in WWI by Canadian historian Maureen Duffus(Victoria: Town and Gown Press, 2009). Duffus' book focuses on two British Columbia nursing sisters--Elsie Collis and Ethel Morrison. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the personal experience of those Canadian nurses who served on many different fronts, including England, Salonika, on hospital ships in the Mediterranean, and in hospitals along the lines of communication in France. Duffus' interest in these two nurses began with the rediscovery of old wartime photo albums--one that had belonged to her aunt Ethel Morrison, the other that once belonged to Morrison's colleague Elsie Collis (now in the hands of her daughter Barbara Randall). Duffus combines the photos, Collis' diary, Morrison's memoir, with her own research and produces a vivid picture of the lives of these two women as well as the staff of No. 5 Canadian Gerneral Hospital. In previous blogs I described the destruction of the large military hospital complex at Etaples. Collis wrote many diary entries describing the raid: "Before I left for supper I heard distant guns but thought nothing of it. had just got to the kitchen door when bombs began to drop. There were several in the mess quarters and set the rows of huts on fire. Two dropped outside the [nurses'] club, another outside our new quarters. Teh whole place was wrecked--poor little 'Bob' [Gladys Wake] was buried, she had a fractured femur, a huge wound in the other leg and several smaller ones. A Miss [Katharine] McDonald was killed. She had a tiny wound, but it must have severed the femoral artery as she died of haemorrhage almost immediately..." Collis continues with a vivid description of the raid and its aftermath. The book also contains a list of those Canadian women who received the Royal Red Cross award, as well as a list of all BC Graduate nurses who served durign the war. A fascinating read and a great resource for anyone interested in Canadian nursing sisters.

Historian Annette Fulford also tells me that another regionally focused history of nursing sisters, is due out in October from Goose Lane Editions. It is entitled Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War To read more about it, visit: http://www.gooselane.com/book/9780864926333. Watch this spot as well! I'm hoping to review it in a future blog.

On a final note; as soon as my records arrive, I will be writing more profiles of Canadian nurses who fell during the Great War. Until then, if you have any comments, suggestions, or pieces of history to share, please contact me and I'll post them here.

Nursing Sister Eden Lyal Pringle and Nursing Memorials

2010-08-04T19:09:00.005-06:00

Remembering Nursing Sister Eden Lyal Pringle

Number 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital was located 45 miles inland from the coast of France, inside an ancient Citadel outside Doullens. Although clearly marked with red crosses and not located near military installations (such as Etaples), it was still bombed. The incident occured on May 29, 1918, shortly after midnight. A large part of the main building was destroyed, killing many officers. Nursing Sisters Eden Lyal Pringle and Agnes McPherson died instantly while assisting in the operating room. Nursing Sister Dorothy Baldwin was killed on duty in the officer's ward.

Eden Pringle was born on September 4, 1893 in Glasgow, Scotland. At the time of her death, her home residence was listed as 2621-29th Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia. She had enlisted in May 1917 in Montreal. As noted below, she was the youngest nurse to die in the war. The hospital's Commanding Officer Lieut-col Reason recalled the internment of Pringle: "In the quiet little cemetery in France our friends lie. Their graves are marked by simple crosses, the wood kindly given by the Canadian Forestry Corps. Each cross is marked with a Maple Leaf cut out in metal and stamped with the name and particulars of the deceased. The graves are well kept and decorated with many flowers. For these we are deeply indebted to the French civilians, who so kindly stripped their gardens that the graves of their friends from the Hospital might be fittingly adorned." (quoted in Sister Heroines by Marjorie Barron Norris).

A Profile of First World War Nursing Sisters

According to the Canadian Great War Project,the nurses who served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War were predominantly Canadian born (82%), typically 5 foot 5 inches in height and the average age was 30, with some of the Matrons as old as 56 and one--Minnie Lisk--only 15! They were mostly Protestant, the majority either Church of England or Presbyterian. Approximately 60 of them died as a result of the war, the youngest being Eden Lyal Pringle (see above) who died at the age of 23.

Nursing Memorials

I want to let you know about an exciting initiative being taken by Diane Dodd, historian with Parks Canada. She is researching an article exploring how the over sixty(including those who served with British and American forces)Canadian First World War nurses have been commemorated across Canada. Pasted below is an explanation of Diane's project and I encourage you to participate if you know of any memorials to Canadian nurses of the Great War. I think it would also make a great school project:

Remembering First World War Nurse Casualties

As an historian for Parks Canada, responsible for women’s history, I’ve long been interested in the ways women are commemorated. Military nurses seem to be among the few women who have received some level of national recognition, although there is still a great deal of silence around this theme. I am presently researching an article that will explore the commemoration of over 60 First World War nurses who died during their war service and how groups, communities and the nation remembered them. I am interested in looking, not only at the well-known national level monuments such as the nurse memorial erected in Parliament in 1926, the Ottawa Cenotaph and the war art program. I would also like to investigate how nurses were remembered at local and provincial levels. I have found some commemorations of these nurses listed in the Veterans Affairs Canada website (Canadian Virtual War Memorial), but I suspect there are many others out there as well. If you know of any historic markers, anywhere in Canada, put in place to remember these First World War nurses who died, could you please get in touch with me? Ideally, I would like a photograph and a description of the memorial. Commemoration can include everything from naming buildings after a particular nurse, to monuments listing nurses’ names, to plaques, gravesite markers, even virtual memorials on websites – anything that pays respect to the memory of nurses who died while serving their country during the First World War. Thanks so much,

Dianne Dodd, Historian
Parks Canada
5th Floor, 25 Eddy Street, (25-5-R)
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M5
Email: Dianne.Dodd@pc.gc.ca
Phone: 819-994-5537
Fax: 819-953-4909

Nursing Sister Helen Fowlds

An interesting website that I came across explores the life of Canadian nursing sister Helen Fowlds, whose wartime career took her to many hospitals. She enlisted right at the beginning of the war and served right until 1919. To learn more and view the many photographs she took during the Great War, visit http://www.trentu.ca/admin/library/archives/ffowldswelcome.htm.

Women and War, Then and Now

2010-07-04T18:23:00.005-06:00

Remembering Those Women Lost in Afghanistan
in Our Own Era
Today I want to begin by recognizing that Canada has lost its third female soldier in combat in Afghanistan. The first two were Captain Nicola Goddard of Calgary, who died on May 17, 2006, and Trooper Karine Blais, who died in April 2009. Both were performing combat roles. The most recent woman to die in the line of duty in Afghanistan was playing the role most connected with the women who died overseas during the First World War. Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht was a medic from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. She was 34 years old when she died. At the time of her death (June 27, 2010), Geisbrecht and Pte. Andrew Miller and other troops were responding to a call for help from an Afghan family whose home had been rigged by the Taliban with explosives. Enroute, the medics' armoured vehicle struck a makeshift landmine and they were both killed. Seven medics have now died in Afghanistan. According to Matthew Fisher of Canwest News Services, "Although largely unheralded, medical technicians have one of the most dangerous and important trades in the military. They routinely go forward with infantry and combat engineers into the most perilous areas." This seems to me to be an apt description of the military nurses who also died in the First World War and I thought it would be appropriate today to recognize the fact that such women are continuing in that role today.

Remembering Great War Nurse Henrietta Mellett
Canadian Nursing Sister Henrietta Mellett was the last nursing sister to be killed by enemy action during the Great War. She was on board the Irish mail-boat, HMS Leinster, when it was attacked by the German submarine UB-123 and struck by torpedoes on October 10, 1918. The ship was in the Irish Sea at the time. Five-hundred and one people were killed in the attack. The ship took only 13 minutes to sink.

According to an article by Marc Leroux of the Canadian Great War Project, Henrietta Mellett was born in Galway, Ireland October 21, 1883, and enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps (No 15 General Hospital) at London, England on January 22, 1918. She likely immigrated to Canada sometime prior to 1911 and it may have been that her family had moved from Galway to Dublin and was living there in 1918. For that reason, she may have been returning to England on October 10, 1918 after visiting them. Her body was recovered and is buried in Dublin.

Henrietta's attestation papers reveal that her next of kin was her sister "Mrs. Bowen of 218 St. George St. London, Ontario. (See Annette Fulford's comment on this). Henrietta was Anglican. Before she signed on with the CAMC she had already served 18 months in Egypt with the Red Cross and 10 months with the Red Cross in Tumbridge Wells, Kent. This would have been extremely demanding work under difficult conditions. Like many Canadian nursing sisters, she may not have initially been able to sign on with the CAMC at the beginning of the war (many women wanted to enlist, but there was a limited number of openings), but joined later in the war after serving with a different nursing service.

Those interested in the sinking of the Leinster may also want to read "Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster by Philip Lecane.

Two Nurses to Remember--Edith Cavell and Margaret Lowe

2010-06-14T15:39:00.002-06:00

Hello again. Computer issues and family concerns have taken me away from my blog for two months. Happily, I’m back again and ready to catch up with you again. Today I’m going to profile another WWI nursing sister. But first, I’d like to recommend a book about a very famous British nursing sister who lost her life during the first war. Many people have heard of Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. However, few may know just who Edith Cavell was or what she did. In his book Silent in an Evil Time: the Brave War of Edith Cavell, (Tundra Books, 2007) writer Jack Batten explores Cavell’s short life and heroic actions. Although the book is intended for youth, it contains many interesting details about Cavell’s life, as well as interesting photographs that anyone interested in first war nurses will appreciate.

Edith Cavell
Edith Cavell was the matron of a clinic in Brussels when the First World War broke out. When German troops invaded Belgium, Cavell refused to escape to England and instead elected to stay with the hospital. By August 20, 1914, Belgium was occupied and German troops paraded in Brussels. Unfortunately, hundreds of allied soldiers had been caught behind enemy lines and were now in hiding in the Belgian countryside. A secret network was formed to help get these troops out of Belgium. Edith’s clinic became part of that escape line. She gave escaping soldiers clothes, shelter, disguises and even escorted some of the men herself. Eventually, her work was uncovered by the Germans and she was put to death, along with her friend and colleague Philippe Baucq. International outrage was so great that the execution of Cavell’s other co-conspirators was commuted to imprisonment. Cavell’s name quickly became synonymous with courage, valour and the central contribution of women to the cause of the allies.

In his book, Batten explores Cavell’s early life and work, as well as the many risks she willingly took during the war. The night before her execution, she told a priest: “I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.” Her final words before being executed were: “I am glad to die for my country.”

Nursing Sister Margaret Lowe
On March 24, 1917, Nursing Sister Margaret Lowe of Manitoba, was taken on strength in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Lowe was born in Morayshire, Scotland on January 26, 1888. At the time of her enlistment, Lowe was living with her family on Wolsely Avenue, Winnipeg. She began her work overseas at #16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. At the end of January 1918, she was transferred to France, where she served with #10 Canadian Stationary Hospital and then #1 Canadian General Hospital in Etaples. Only a few short months later, she was dead, a victim of the bombing of the Etaples Military Hospital Complex (see Gladys Wake’s profile in an earlier blog). In a BBC online forum, Neil Hill of Peterborough, Ontario noted that Lowe was his great great aunt and that she emigrated from Scotland to Binscarth, Manitoba. She trained at the Winnipeg Civic Hospital before enlisting. To see some of the photos of Lowe’s funeral, you may want to visit the following site, sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem/photos&casualty=497437

Another VAD: Gertrude Gwenydd Vaughan

Today, I’ve explored the life of a nurse who died at Etaples—Margaret Lowe. Trawling the internet, I found a reference to another nurse whose life was forever changed at Etaples. Gertrude Gwenydd Vaughan was born in 1880 at Heapham Rectory, Britain. She was educated at the Cheltenham Ladies College and at the age of 23 became Assistant Mistress, Queen Margaret's School, Scarborough. In 1906, she was a teacher at the Diocesan High School, Auckland, New Zealand. She served as a V.A.D. during the Great War. She began by serving in New Zealand. Then, between June 1916 and January 1919, she was stationed overseas in France. In 1918 she lost a leg as a result of an accident at Etaples. According to her descendants, “She never married, lived in the same house as her sisters Gwladys and Mildred, and died there 17/4/1952. Her great-nieces remember her as telling them wonderful stories and stabbing knives into her wooden leg!”

Nursing Sister Mary Agnes McKenzie

2010-04-05T20:45:00.002-06:00

I apologize for being a day late with my blog--the holiday and family demands threw me off my blogging schedule. Today I am writing about NS Mary Agnes McKenzie. McKenzie died on June 27, 1918, in a particularly infamous chapter in the history of the First World War.

McKenzie was born on April 28, 1880 (sometimes listed as 1878) in Toronto, Ontario. Her parent's were Mary and Thomas McKenzie, Scottish immigrants to Canada. She had two brothers (Donald and Walter)and one sister (Christina). She took her nursing studies at the Rochester General Hospital and graduated in 1903. McKenzie was Presbyterian, and at the time of her enlistment on January 31, 1916, she was living at 290 McPherson Avenue in Toronto. She had experience as a military nurse, having served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1911.

Mary's first posting overseas was to the Ontario Military Hospital at Orpington, Kent. However, she must have wanted to return home for a visit in 1918 or simply wanted a change. For whatever reason, she was serving on the British hospital ship the Llandovery Castle in June 1918. That month, the Castle was returning to England after bringing convalescent soldiers back to Canada. Mary was on that return voyage along with 164 officers and men and 80 Canadian army medical staff and 13 other Canadian nurses.

At 10:00 pm, the German submarine U-86 got the ship within its sights. The Castle was plainly marked as a Red Cross ship, with special lights beaming. Despite this, the captain of the U-86 chose to torpedo the unarmed ship. All of the nurses were killed; only 24 people survived the sinking (only one lifeboat got away; the rest were pursued and rammed by the sub). Survivors spent 36 hours at sea before they were rescued. One witness recounted that "I saw some of the sisters pitched out (of the lifeboat), and that was the last of the boat as far as I am aware unless what I caught a glimpse of later was the same boat bottom upward. I went down and on coming up was struck on the head and dazed by a heavy bit of wreckage." (Globe, July 5, 1918). The ship went down 116 miles from Fastnet Rock.

Mary is remembered at the Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia. I'll have more on the Llandovery Castle in future blogs as I remember the other 13 nurses who died when it was sunk. If you know anything about any of the nurses who died on the Castle, please don't hesitate to share it with me and I'll post it on my blog.

Check Out New Links

2010-03-03T14:24:00.002-07:00

Another quick note. Today I've added two new links to this blog that you may be interested in. One is the blog of fellow historian and writer Annette Fulford. Her blog on the war brides is informative and casts a fresh light on women's experience of the Great War. The other is a link to the Great War Project's page on nursing sisters who served during the conflict. While my blog focuses on those who served overseas, their website lists all the nurses who served, both at home and abroad.

Remembering Katherine Maud Macdonald

2010-03-03T13:02:00.003-07:00

Today I want to continue remembering Canadian nurses who died during the May 1918 raid on Etaples, France. Nursing Sister Katherine Maude Macdonald served in Canada, Britain and France during the Great War. She was born in Brantford, Ontario on January 18, 1883. Macdonald took her nursing training at Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario, graduating on May 15, 1915. She enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) on March 20, 1917 and sent to England where she was posted to #10 Canadian Stationary Hospital and later, #14 Canadian General Hospital (both in Eastbourne). She seems to have been a strong, physically fit nurse--5'2" tall, 125 pounds. MacDonald was sent to France in February of 1918, where she was posted to #1 Canadian General Hospital. She died on May 19, 1918, of wounds from the same air raid that also killed Nursing Sister Gladys Wake (see last month's post, for more information on Wake). Macdonald was only 25 years old when she died.

While I was unable to gather much more information about Macdonald than what is printed in her military file, I do have an article describing the precautions taken for other nurses following the raid that took her life. Apparently, the Etaples hospital complex had taken no precautions against air raids, believing that the Germans would not attack a hospital. (They forgot that part of the camp was also a military training ground, and that this might have made it a "military target".) However, after the attack, steps were taken to give nurses and other personnel a fighting chance at survival in the event of another raid.

"The funeral was held Tuesday in a beautiful cemetery near the pine woods and the sea. Everyone attended. Our girls were given a soldiers' burial. The Germans returned Tuesday night. This time, however, preparations had been made to repel them, compelling their retirement. Immediate steps were taken to make the camp more safe against attack, the nurses being taken to sleep at night time in the woods some distance away. Dugouts are now being hastily built to give all shelter. Yesterday afternoon, steel helmets were served out to the nurses. One cannot fail to see how heavy the strain has been on them..." (Toronto Star, undated clipping--near May 25, 1918).

In 2000, I visited the graves of the women who died at Etaples. It was a moving experience, especially since the cemetery is very near the location where they died and one can imagine how little protection they had in the exposed, sandy coastal area where the hospital was established.

Female WWI Veteran Celebrates Her 109th Birthday

2010-02-20T05:49:00.004-07:00

Some international news about surviving veterans of WWI. Florence Green of King's Lyn, Norfolk, England, recently celebrated her 109th birthday. She joined the Women's RAF (WRAF) two months before the end of the Great War and served as a mess steward at Norfolk RAF bases. It had been thought that Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, both of whom died in 2009, had been the last surviving veterans of WWI. Then Mrs. Green's story came to light. She was honoured with a card from Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton, delivered by Wing Commander Adrian Burns and mess steward Hannah Shaw (Shaw does the same job that Mrs. Green did during the war.)

Nursing Sister Gladys Maude Wake

2010-02-04T11:31:00.003-07:00

As promised, on the fourth of each month up until the 100th anniversary of WWI, I will be posting a short bio of a Canadian nurse who died while on service overseas during WWI. Today I'm posting the first of these bios, a description of Nursing Sister Gladys Maude Wake, who died on May 21, 1918 of wounds received during the bombing of #1 Canadian Hospital, Etaples, France.

Gladys Maude Wake was born in Victoria, British Columbia on December 13, 1883. At the time of her enlistment in London on January 10, 1916, she was 5'1" tall, a tiny woman weighing 112 pounds. She was a graduate nurse, although the school she attended was not named in her military records. While overseas, she served at the Duchess of Connaught's Canadian Red Cross Hospital, #1 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Salonica, #4 Canadian General Hospital, and in England, #11 Canadian General Hospital. In October 1917, she joined #1 Canadian General Hospital in Etaples.

Gladys was one of three Canadian nurses who were mortally wounded on May 19, 1918. That night, 15 German planes attacked Etaples. During a hellish two hours, 116 bombs were dropped over the hospital complex. The nurses' quarters of #1 Canadian General sustained a direct hit, scattering debris and setting it on fire. Wake was among those in the nurses' quarters when it was hit. As flames crackled around her, recognizing that she was unlikely to survive, Wake begged black-faced stretcher-bearers to leave her and save themselves. Despite her protests, they pulled her from the burning hut. Above them, German planes flew low, sending a spray of machine-gun fire among the rescuers. Wake eventually died of extensive damage to her legs and a fractured femur.

Remembering VAD Ethel Dickenson

2010-01-25T09:26:00.004-07:00

While this blog is dedicated to the memory of Canadian military nurses who died during the Great War, I have been receiving emails about VADs who also lost their lives while on active service during the conflict. These are a welcome addition to the blog. Colleague David Parsons has sent another note, this time about Ethel Dickenson, a VAD from Newfoundland who went overseas and worked as a VAD, returning home in late 1917/early 1918. According to David, "When the flu epidemic hit Newfoundland, she was a volunteer at the make shift hospital in the Grenfell Hall. She died of the flu in September 1918. A memorial was erected in her memory and to all the women who served during the war." Thanks David for that information. I encourage others who have come across similar information to please share their comments on this blog.

Remembering a Newfoundland VAD

2010-01-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to all those who have already sent me emails of support for my new blog. Some have also posted links to this site. One colleague, David Parsons, has kindly forwarded the information about Bertha Bartlett, a VAD from Newfoundland. Apparently Bertha died in the flu epidemic in 1918and is buried in the Newfoundland plot in the Wandworth Cemetery in London. If anyone has further information about Bertha, please let me know and I will post it.

Welcome to "Finding the Forty-Seven"

2010-01-20T20:22:00.004-07:00

I am a writer who has spent the past ten years researching and writing about aspects of women's experience during the First World War. As part of that work I have observed the recent publishing boom in Great War books. Doorstop-size books by John Keegan, Niall Ferguson, and Margaret MacMillan have crowded onto bestseller lists. Biographers such as Dominic Hibbard and Jean Wilson have drawn compelling new portraits of the Great War writers, and memoirists David Macfarlane and Stephen O'Shea have charted their own journeys "back to the front." Novelists have also plowed the fertile fields of Flanders. Pat Barker's Ghost Road series, Sebastien Faulks's Birdsong, and Jack Hodgins's Broken Ground were all critically acclaimed explorations of the war's wrenching impact on the lives of individuals and communities.

With few exceptions, men are the main subjects of these works. Despite a surge of scholarly interest in women's experience of the Great War, most historians and writers have been focusing on the strategies of generals and politicians, and the battles, mud, blood, and anguish of front-line soldiers. Women are usually only present in short chapters or footnotes describing how they nursed the wounded or "kept the home fires burning." Some writers leave them out entirely, making it hard to believe that women of any nationality ever walked on the martial fields of France and Belgium, sold their bodies on the edges of military encampments, or sailed in the hospital ships that plied the Mediterranean.

Recently, documentarians have explored the Great War, with programs such as "Finding the Fallen" making their way onto television screens. While these are wonderful programs that reveal much about the social history of the first war, they are created in such a way that women's experience is often excluded. Evidence of men's bodies on battlefields are used as the basis to trace men's lives and experience at war. Women seldom fell in combat during the first war, so their bodies cannot furnish the basis of programs that seek to reclaim their lives. That's why I've created this blog.

On the fourth day of each month (up until the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War in 2014), I will be posting the story of one of the forty-seven Canadian nurses who died while serving overseas during the first war. Wherever possible, I will provide photographs or other images and as much information about each woman as I can. If you know anything about these women or about other women who served during the war and you would like to share that with others, I would welcome your comments and input.