Nurses of World War I

Nurses of World War I … A Legacy of Compassion and Caring. Canadian women, from the Yarmouth, Digby, and Shelburne areas of Nova Scotia served as Nursing Sisters with the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), as American Red Cross Nurses, and with the United States Army Nursing Corps during World War I. Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Sisters More than 3,000 nurses served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), including 2,504 who went overseas. These Nursing Sisters were named nicknamed “bluebirds” because of their blue uniforms and white veils. Mary Keir Beairsto Mary Beairsto served at the Rockhead Military Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from April, 1916 until her enlistment in 1918. She served in Canada with the Canadian Army Medical Corps Training Depot No. 6, the Prince Edward Island Military Convalescent Hospital, Camp Hill and Subsidiaries in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On March 1, 1919 Nursing Sister Beairsto began to feel not as well as usual; however, she continued to work until May 17. Admitted to hospital her test reports were positive for tuberculous. It was recommended she spend six months in a Sanatorium. No longer able to work as a Nursing Sister in the Canadian military, she was discharged on July 2, 1919. Sarah Rowena Churchill Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Nursing Sister Sarah Churchill enlisted on October 28, 1916. She left Canada on January 1, 1916 and served in England until June, 1916. She proceeded to France on June 18, 1916 and served there until early 1918 when she was again posted to hospitals in England. On October 12, 1918 she was posted to nursing duties on H.M.A.S Araguaya (Hospital Ship). During World War I the Araguaya made twenty round trips between England and Halifax, carrying a total of 15,324 sick and wounded Canadian soldiers back home. Nursing Sister Churchill returned to Canada on May 21, 1919 and was posted to the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Canada. She was discharged from service on June 18, 1919. Helen Hastings Perry Helen Hastings Perry was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; however, at the time of her enlistment the family was living in the United States. Prior to her enlistment with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, she served as a nurse at the American Red Cross Hospital, St. Katherine Lodge, Regents Park, London. On May 6, 1918, she was taken on strength in England at CAMC Shorncliffe, as an applicant and employed as a nursing sister at CAMC depot at Orpington. On October 8, she was transferred to the IODE Hospital for Officers in London. In November, Nursing Sister Perry became ill with influenza. She recovered initially without complications; however, in December she again became ill. In March, 1919 she returned to Canada as a patient at St Anne de Bellevue Hospital, Montreal, where she remained until August 29, 1919. She was discharged from military service on August 28, 1919. On discharge, she went to the United States. In 1931, she married George F. Conley and they lived in Lake Clear, New York for some thirty-nine years. During that time she served as an office nurse. She died at home on January 13, 1967. Adruenna (Addie) Allen Tupper Addie Tupper was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1870. At the time of her enlistment at Quebec City, she was the widow of William Stanley Tupper. William died July 9. 1899. Her son, Allan S. Tupper, died February 4, 1905 at the age of seventeen. In 1914, Addie Tupper was 54 years old; however, when she enlisted on September 25, 1914, she gave her birth date as 1870, not 1860. If she had given her true age she may have been rejected for service. She sailed with the First Contingent from Valcartier, Quebec and arrived in England on October 16, 1914. She was placed on observation duty in military hospitals. She was sent to France on April 6, 1915 and served at No. 2 Canadian General Hospital where she had charge of 60 beds. She remained there until May 30 when the strain of heavy work caused her health to fail and she was invalided to England at a Convalescent Home for Nursing Sisters. Her next duty was in England at Clivedon and Shorncliffe. She was then sent with other nurses in charge of 800 Canadian wounded soldiers to Canada for convalescence, arriving in Halifax November 15, 1915. She returned to Bridgewater and remained there until December 2. During her time at home she visited various places in western Nova Scotia and gave talks and lectures on the hardships undergone at the front. Large sum of money was raised for soldierly comforts. Returning to England in December, she registered for duty at Ramsgate in the special Canadian Hospital; however, desiring to be near the front she was sent back to France in February 1916. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross decoration, the medal was presented to her December 2, 1916 by the King at Buckingham Palace, seven days prior to her death. Nursing Sister Tupper served in France until November 1, 1916 when she was sent back to England for winter duty at the Canadian Hospital at Uxbridge. Shortly after the presentation of her medal she contracted a cold that developed into pneumonia. She died on December 9, 1916 and was buried on December 12 with full military honours. Anna Teresa Young A resident of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia at enlistment, Nursing Sister Young served in Canada with No. 9 Stationary Hospital at Halifax. She embarked Canada at Halifax on June 19, 1916 and disembarked at Liverpool in the United Kingdom on June 29, 1916. She served in England and France with the No. 9 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Duchess of Connaughts Canadian Red Cross Hospital, Taplow, No. 12 Canadian General Hospital, No. 7 Canadian General Hospital, No. 8 Canadian General Hospital CAMC Casualty Company, No. 11 Canadian General Hospital, and Granville Canadian Special Hospital, Buxton. She returned to Canada on the SS Orduna, sailing on July 31, 1919. On demobilization, Nursing Sister Young returned to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. American Red Cross Nurses Jessie May Cann Jessie Cann was born on May 24, 1879. The family lived in Brenton, Yarmouth Co., Nova Scotia. She graduated in the United States as a nurse on May 4, 1906 from Worcester City Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts. During the nine years prior to her service with the American Red Cross, she served in hospitals in Massachusetts and New York. During World War I, she served as a Red Cross Nurse at the front. She went overseas on November 14, 1917 and was first assigned to the Children’s Bureau at Paris. She was one of the nurses sent to Vodena, Greece to assist in the establishment of a hospital for refugees. She served in Red Cross work in Salonika and on the Italian front, at the American Red Cross Military Hospital No. 5 located at Auteuil, Paris, France and in December 1918 was assigned to work in Germany. She first return to the United States was on March 23, 1919. She then served with the Red Cross at Vladivostok, Russia, caring for refugee children. She returned to the United States on February 18, 1920. After the war she took a nursing position at a hospital in Greenwich, Conn Sara Corning Born in Chegoggin, Yarmouth Co., NS in 1872, Sara Corning trained as a nurse in the United States. She joined the US Red Cross during the First World War and subsequently signed on with the Near East Relief, a US charitable foundation established to assist the displaced populations of the Balkans, Asia Minor and the Middle East. In 1922 she was responsible for the rescue of some 5,000 children in the midst of conflict between Turkey and Greece. She was summoned to Athens in June 1923, where King George II of Greece awarded her the Silver Cross Medal of the Order of the Saviour, an honour comparable to the Order of Canada. Sara worked at the orphanage she established until 1924, when she returned to Turkey to work in a residential training school. Upon retirement, she returned to Cheggogin, where she lived in the home in which she had been raised, until her death in 1969 at age 97. The epitaph on her headstone: "She lived to serve others." In her honour and memory, The Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education founded in 2012 is dedicated to promoting and providing ongoing research and education in the fields of human rights and genocide education. The Centre is located in Toronto, Ontario. Lydia Reata Ferguson Lydia Reata Ferguson was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on September 14, 1881. By 1911 she was living in the United States working as a nurse. In 1917, Ferguson was stationed in Camiens, France with the British Expeditionary Force as a member of the Harvard University Surgical Unit. In September 1918 she followed the American Red Cross Palestine Commission to Palestine, Syria and Egypt. In July 1919 she returned to Yarmouth and eventually married William Kirk. Lydia remained a member of the Harvard British Expeditionary Force Association. She died on January 7, 1957. United States Army Nursing Corps Bertha Cornwall Bertha Cornwall was born in Little River, Digby Co., Nova Scotia. She trained for a nurse at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and during the first World War served overseas with the American Nurse Corps, and was awarded the French War Cross. After the war she was supervisor of nurses at several hospitals in the Eastern United States. Dorothy Gayton Fox Dorothy Fox was born in Pubnico, Yarmouth Co., Nova Scotia on December 23, 1889. She moved to Massachusetts in July of 1910 to begin nursing school at the Malden Hospital in Malden, Massachusetts. She began her military service in nursing on December 5, 1917 in Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. During 1918 and 1919, Dorothy served in France with the American Expeditionary Force as various Base and Evacuation Hospitals. She returned to New York in May, 1919. On July 14, 1920, Dorothy Fox received the US Victory Medal for her wartime service. She became an American citizen in 1926 and married Ray Daniel Perry. Dorothy Fox Perry died October 17, 1952 Annie Maud Killam While born in New Brunswick, the family lived in Tusket, Nova Scotia. Annie Maud was the fourth eldest of eight children. In 1913 Annie left Tusket and travelled to Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States. During World War I she served as a Nurse with the US Red Cross. After World War I, she married Harrison Hill, a civil engineer, on September 30, 1926 at Tusket, Nova Scotia. The couple lived in various locations in Connecticut. Annie died on July 6, 1991 at the age of 101 years.

American Red Cross Hospital, Regents Park, London