Funeral of Nursing Sister Gladys Maude Mary Wake, who died of wounds received during a German air raid on Étaples, France, May 1918. LAC-PA-002562
Bomb damage at a hospital. Queens University Archives
Propaganda poster of the execution of Nurse Edith Cavell. CWM 19960034-008
Propaganda poster depicting the German U-boat attack on the Llandovery Castle. CWM 19850475-034
Mike Bechthold
Nurses and staff of Ambulance 16/21, including Warner. British Journal of Nursing
Nurses and patients at the Physiotherapy Department, New Brunswick Military Hospital, Fredericton. NBM1990.11.78
Doctor and nurse examining several children at the School Clinic at the Saint John Health Centre. NBM NANB-SJHealthCentre-pg8
Endnotes
Chapter 4
1 Nurse Florence Nightingale and her staff worked in a hospital in Scutari, Turkey, caring for wounded and sick British soldiers during the Crimean War.
2 The town of Dinant in Belgium was destroyed by the Germans on August 23, 1914, and nearly seven hundred civilians killed.
3 The 1st Canadian Division fought in the 2nd Battle of Ypres, April 22-26, during which it suffered more than six thousand casualties.
4 The 26th (New Brunswick) Battalion, which was raised throughout the province, sailed from Saint John on June 13, 1915.
5 Throughout June 1915, the French army launched several secondary attacks along its front in support of its main offensive in May and June on Vimy Ridge, near Arras.
6 The Germans launched a major offensive against the French at Verdun on February 21, 1916. The campaign lasted until December.
7 The 26th Battalion helped to capture the village of Courcelette, on the Somme, on September 15, 1916. During the attack it lost about 325 men.
Acknowledgements
I first encountered Nurse Agnes Warner’s remarkable story as part of a project initiated by Lianne McTavish, for which I was investigating the contributions of women to the New Brunswick Museum in the late nineteenth century. At that time, Dr. Stephen Clayden, Head of Botany and Mycology at the N.B.M. introduced me to Warner’s exceptional collection of botanical specimens, pointed to her intriguing book of First World War letters, and generously shared what he had uncovered about Warner and her family. I am so grateful to him for that introduction to Miss Warner and for encouraging me to dig deeper into her life.
Thanks to Marc Milner for expanding the scope of the project and connecting me with the New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, thereby launching this glimpse into the great work of our province’s nursing sisters. I am very grateful to Marc and to Brent Wilson for answering questions and facilitating the project through many phases. Special thanks to Brent, who patiently edited the manuscript, obtained the images, coordinated all input, and handled dozens of other tasks prior to publication. I’m grateful to Mike Bechthold for creating the maps that follow Nurse Warner’s path through France and Belgium. Doug Knight and Susan Ross of the Canadian War Museum assisted in obtaining photos. And I owe many thanks to the staff at Goose Lane Editions for their editorial and design expertise.
For his impeccable judgment and serene endurance, I thank Greg Quinn, without whose advice and encouragement this project would have languished. And finally, I remember with appreciation every heartening word from family and friends who took an interest in this undertaking.
Selected Bibliography
Adami, J. George. War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. London: Colour Ltd., 1918. Available online at: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/adami/camc/camc.html
Anonymous. Mademoiselle Miss: Letters from a First World War Nurse at an Army Hospital near the Marne. Cornwall: Diggory Press, 2006. Originally published 1916, Macmillan.
British Journal of Nursing, volumes 53-62 (1914-1919). Available online at: http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/ and http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=british%20journal%20of%20nursing%20AND%20collection%3Atoronto
Bruce, Constance. Humour in Tragedy: Hospital Life behind 3 Fronts by a Canadian Nursing Sister. London: Skeffington, 1918.
The Canadian Nurse, volumes 10-11 (1914-1915). Available online at: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=the%20canadian%20nurse
Hallett, Christine E. “The Personal Writings of First World War Nurses: A Study of the Interplay of Authorial Intention and Scholarly Interpretation,” Nursing Inquiry 14 (4, 2007): 320-329.
Higonnet, Margaret R., ed. Nurses at the Front: Writing the Wounds of the Great War. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001. Includes two primary texts: Ellen N. La Motte, The Backwash of War (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916); and Mary Borden, The Forbidden Zone (New York: Doubleday, 1929, 1930).
Higonnet, Margaret Randolph, Jane Jenson, Sonya Michel, and Margaret Collins Weitz, eds. Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1987.
Macphail, Andrew. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914-19: The Medical Services. Ottawa: F.A. Acland, 1925. Available in print or online at: http://www.archive.org/details/medicalservices00macpuoft
Mann, Susan. Margaret Macdonald: Imperial Daughter. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005.
———, ed. The War Diary of Clare Gass 1915-1918. Montreal and Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.
———. “Where Have All the Bluebirds Gone? On the Trails of Canada’s Military Nurses, 1914-1918,” Atlantis 26 (1, 2001): 35-43.
Morton, Desmond. When Your Number’s Up: The Canadian Soldier in the First World War. Toronto: Random House, 1993.
Nicholson, G.W.L. Canada’s Nursing Sisters. Toronto: Stevens, 1975.
Quiney, Linda. “Assistant Angels: Canadian Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses in the Great War,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 15 (1, 1998): 189-206.
Scott, Eric, ed. Nobody Ever Wins a War: The World War I Diaries of Ella Mae Bongard, R. N. Ottawa: Janeric Enterprises, 1998.
Smith, Angela K. The Second Battlefield: Women, Modernism and the First World War. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Stuart, Meryn. “War and Peace: Professional Identities and Nurses’ Training, 1914-1930,” in Challenging Professions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Women’s Professional Work, edited by Elizabeth Smyth, Sandra Acker, Paula Bourne, and Alison Prentice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
Veterans Affairs Canada. Canada’s Nursing Sisters. Ottawa, 2005. Available online at: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/content/history/other/Nursing/nursingsister_eng.pdf
Warner, Agnes. My Beloved Poilus. Saint John, NB: Barnes & Co., 1917.
Wilson-Simmie, Katherine M. Lights Out! A Canadian Nursing Sister’s Tale. Belleville, ON: Mika, 1981.
Web pages and Virtual Exhibitions:
Canadian War Museum. “Canada and the First World War.” Available at: http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/guerre/home-e.aspx
Library and Archives Canada. “The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sister.” Available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/nursing-sisters/index-e.html
New Brunswick Museum. “Mark Our Place”: World War I. Virtual Exhibit. Available at: http://website.nbm-mnb.ca/MOP/english/ww1/index.asp
Veterans Affairs Canada. “Canada Remembers.” Available at: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/
Photo Credits
/
The photos on the front cover (top) (LAC-PA-002562) and bottom (LAC-PA-006783), pages 9 (LAC-PA-5230), 25 (LAC 1970-163), and 128 (LAC-PA-002562) appear courtesy of Library and Archives Canada (LAC). The drawing on page 11 appeared in the book Humour in Tragedy. The photos on pages 14 (19920085-102), 20 (19920044-811), 22 (19590034-002), posters on pages 30 (19920143-009) and 39 (19900076-809), photos on pages 56 (19720102-061), 59 (19920085-529), the bottom photo on page 131 (19960034-008), and the photo on page 132 (19850475-034) and back cover (19700046-012 — illustration; and 19590034-002 — uniform) appear courtesy of the C
anadian War Museum (CWM). The photo on pages 18 and 19 (V28 Mil-Hosp-10) appears courtesy of Queen’s University Picture Collection. The posters on pages 21 (WP1.F12.F2) and 49 (WP1.B12.F2) appear courtesy of McGill University. The photos on pages 34 and 35 (1990.11.4), 36 (NANB-Military-7), 44 (VP-02816), 149 (1990.11.78), and 150 (NANB-SJHealthCentre-pg8) appear courtesy of the New Brunswick Museum (NBM). The photos on pages 40, 53, 69, 73, 75, 93, 95, 104, 108, 114, 115, 120, 124-125, and photo of Agnes Warner on back cover from My Beloved Poilus. The maps on pages 47, 52, and 134 appear courtesy of Mike Bechthold. The top photo on page 131 appears courtesy of the Queens University Archives. The photo on page 137 appears courtesy of the British Journal of Nursing. All illustrative material is reproduced by permission.
Index
A
Adami, J. George 24, 26
Adhem, Abou Ben 142
Aisne France 111
Alexander of Teck, Prince 144
Ali, Ben 100, 102
Alsace France 46, 76, 82, 84, 86
Ambulance Mobile 31, 51, 52, 129, 130 136-140
Ambulance Volant 93, 108
American Ambulance 50, 68, 69, 72
Amiens France 110
Antoinette (cat) 106
Army, British 26
Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.I.M.N.S.) 17, 26, 27
Army, Canadian
Battalions
26th (New Brunswick) 81, 111, 121, 122
Casualty Clearing Stations 18, 20
No. 3 53, 118
No. 10 118
Divisions
1st Canadian 78
General Hospitals
No. 1 32, 38
No. 7 18
Medical Corps (C.A.M.C.) 8, 10, 12, 17, 20, 22-25, 27, 32, 34, 37, 45, 59, 130, 143, 149
Stationary Hospital
No. 1 10
No. 2 38
Army, French 27, 47, 53, 82, 140
Corps
36th 129, 135, 139, 147
Service de Santé Militaire 27
Army, United States
Union 41
Arras France 82, 85
B
battles
2nd of Ypres 78
Kennesaw Mountain 41
Vimy Ridge 82
Beaverbrook, William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron 10
Belgium 13, 23, 60, 91, 93, 129, 130, 134, 135, 143
Besançon France 82, 88
Bluebirds 24
Bongard, Ella Mae 12
Borden Turner, Mary 31, 51, 52, 58, 91, 98, 101, 109, 117, 119, 144
Boulogne France 32, 38, 93
Bourg France 76
British Journal of Nursing 32, 129, 139
Bruce, Constance 10, 11
Brussels Belgium 100
C
Calais France 93
Canada Food Board posters 20
Canadian Expeditionary Force 17, 23, 120
Canadian Nurse, The 28
Caumont, Mademoiselle de 77
Cavell, Edith 130, 131
Chasseurs d’Alpine (Blue Devils) 75-76, 84-86
Chicago IL 41, 42
Clint, Mabel 10
Cody, H.A. 65, 133
Coppin, Sister 130
Coster, Charles 43
Coster, Laura (Warner) 41, 43, 53
Coster, Robert Warner Bayard 53, 62, 87, 111, 112, 118, 119, 121
Courcelette France 121
Courtenay Bay 117
Crassier France 89
Crimean War 63
Cushing, George 146
D
Daillet 86, 88, 116
Daily Telegraph 26, 32, 37, 48, 146
Denries 117
Department of National Defence 10
Dinant Belgium 78
Divonne, Count de 90
Divonne-les-Bains France 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 65, 66, 70, 76, 77, 79, 80, 97, 106, 115, 143
Domville, Grace 17
Domville, Mary 115
Dunkirk France 91-94, 96, 101, 115, 117, 144
E
Educational Review 43
Eldridge, Louise (Udall) 45, 48, 78, 141
Eldridge, Roswell 45, 48, 71, 141
Ellison, Grace 27, 28
England 8, 10, 16, 23, 26, 27, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 123
Étaples France 38, 115, 128
F
Fenwick, Mrs. Bedford 27
Fernhill Cemetery 151
First World War 7, 9, 12, 15, 16, 45, 140, 141
Flanders Belgium 52
Forbidden Zone, The 52
Forges-les-Eaux France 135
France 10, 13, 23, 27, 38, 45, 48, 66, 67, 93, 115, 116, 120, 134, 136, 141, 142, 147
Fredericton NB 34, 149
French Flag Nursing Corps (F.F.N.C.) 136, 140, 141, 148
Ambulance Mobile No. 1 54, 135, 138, 139
G
Gass, Clare 12, 38
Geneva Switzerland 45, 85
Germany 16, 111, 117
Givet France 139
Great Britain. See England
Great Saint John Fire 42
Great War. See First World War
H
Halifax NS 147
Hanning, Annie Mildred 140
Hare, Margaret 53, 116, 118
Hay, George Upham 43
Hindenburg Line 29, 138, 141
Humour in Tragedy 10
I
Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire
De Monts Chapter 38, 39, 53, 73, 78, 111, 141, 146
Loyalist Chapter 87
Royal Standard Chapter 141
International Nursing Corps 17
J
Jaffery, Sister 130
Jones, Colonel Guy Carleton 20
Jones, Mabel Constance 140
K
Kennebecasis Bay 41
Kuhring, Mrs. 143
L
Lalance, Mme. 46, 48
Le Havre France 140
Le Touquet France 38
Lerous, General 58
Lights Out! A Canadian Nursing Sister’s Tale 7, 10
Llandovery Castle 130-132
Loggie, Ruth 38
London England 31, 115, 118
Lyon France 51, 78-80
M
Macdonald, Matron-in-Chief Margaret 8, 9, 12, 15, 19, 23, 45
MacLaren, Colonel Murray 17, 38, 95, 115
Macphail, Sir Andrew 10, 12
Mann, Susan 9, 12
Maxwell, Anna 43
McGill Unit 36
McGill University 43, 65, 118
McKnight, Miss 141
McMurrich, Helen 31, 53, 136, 140
Metzeral France 85
military honours
Croix de Guerre 29, 90, 96, 140
Médaille des Épidémies 29
Médaille des Epidémies — L’Insigne Spécial en Or 139
Médaille d’Honneur in Bronze 139
Médaille Militaire 81, 96
Montreal QC 27, 43, 59, 102, 143
Montreal General Hospital 31, 43
Morgan, Harjes & Co. 130
Morrison, Captain 144
Mullin, Mrs. D. 141
Murray, Mary 97
My Beloved Poilus 13, 53, 54, 60-127, 130, 133
N
Natural History Society (N.H.S.) 42
Nejon France 90
Neuilly France 74
New Brunswick Military Hospital 34, 149
New Brunswick Museum 43
New York NY 41, 43, 45, 48, 65, 68, 78, 141, 151
New York Presbyterian Hospital School for Nurses 43, 45, 56, 65, 141, 151
Nightingale, Florence 15, 16, 63
Noble, Colonel 99-100, 105
Nobody Ever Wins A War 12
Nollet, General 139
Normandy France 73
O
Opéra Comique 117
Ottawa Graduate Nurses’ Association 20
Our Bit: Memories of War Service by a Canadian Nursing Sister 10
P
Paris France 50, 68, 70, 71, 74, 76, 79, 85, 91-93, 100, 109, 115, 117, 136
Parks, Dr. Margaret 17, 115
Poperinghe France 53, 110, 116
Pugsley, William 54
R
Red Cross 17, 29, 32, 38, 39, 46, 48, 51, 65, 67, 73, 79, 98, 119, 149
Canadian 123
Comité de Londres 28
nurses 24
Rothesay 121
Rémy Siding Belgium 53
River Marne 27
Rochambeau 140
Romans France 79
“Rose of No Man’s Land, ” 141
Rousbrugge Belgium 31, 51, 53, 104
Royal Victoria Hospital 27
S
Saddle Rock NY 45
Saint John NB 17, 26, 31, 32, 38, 41, 43, 48, 50, 53, 54, 65, 81, 83, 92, 106, 107, 111, 116, 117, 123, 129, 136, 137, 141, 143, 146, 151, 152
St. John Ambulance 31, 32, 115
Saint John General Hospital School for Nurses 43
Saint John Globe 42, 130
Saint John Health Centre 150, 151
Saint John High School 146
Saint-Quentin France 138, 147
Salonica Greece 10
Scott, Eric 12
Scutari Turkey 63
Serbia 17
Solidago flexicaulis 44
Somme France 119, 121
Stamers, Nursing Sister Anna Irene 130
Standard 143, 144
Switzerland 46, 85
T
Tain France 79
Thompson, Dorothy 97
Todd, Miss 86, 89
Toronto ON 107, 111
Tournon France 79
Travis, Catherine 17
Trinity Anglican Church 151
U
United States 16, 26, 42, 43, 53
soldiers 136, 145
V
Valence France 80
Verdun France 81, 109, 115
Vichy France 116
Victoria High School for Girls 42
Victorian Order of Nurses (V.O.N.) 149
Vimy Ridge France 82
Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) 30, 32-35, 37
W
Wake, Gladys Maude Mary 128