![]() ![]() Lack of food and sanitary water and malaria were particularly problematic in the Eastern Mediterranean. Many nurses spoke of long-term permanent lung problems after the war. ![]() On the Western front, poison gas infused soldiers’ clothing so that when nurses bent over the men either to care for them or remove the contaminated clothing, they too breathed the gas and suffered the effects of it. ![]() On several occasions, nurses were in the territory where poison gas was still active and had to wear gas masks. By the end of the WWI, approximately 45 nursing sisters had died in service, succumbing to enemy attacks, including the bombing of a hospital and the sinking of a hospital ship, or from disease. The nurses worked in all types of army hospitals including the casualty clearing centres near the battlefronts. Lynne: What kind of work did the nurses do in the corps?Ĭolleen: Their work was gruelling. Over three thousand Canadian women served in the nursing corps. In January 1915, for instance, there were 2,000 applicants for 75 positions. There was never a shortage of candidates. The members of the corps volunteered for service. In reality, their ages ranged from 19 to 56 with the average being just under 30. Also apparently many nurses adjusted their ages in their attestation papers. But nurses had to resign if they became pregnant. Apparently ten to fifteen percent of the corps was married at the time of enlistment or secretly married after enlisting. Now even though I said that those were the requirements, there were exceptions. between 21 and 38 years of age on enlistment.a graduate of a three year nursing training program.In order to qualify for the corps a woman had to be: Lynne: How did a person qualify to join the corps?Ĭolleen: Not just anyone could be a member of the Canadian nursing corps. Because of their blue dresses and white veils they were nicknamed the "bluebirds." The Canadian nurses were the envy of their British and American counterparts who had no rank and were paid much less. They were also entitled to travel first class, did not have to participate in meal preparations and were provided with “home sisters” to assist with housekeeping and shopping. In fact they were called “Millionaire Colonials” by some because of the pay they received: basic pay of $2.00 per day, a “messing” allowance of $1.00 per day, a field allowance while overseas of $0.60 per day and travel allowances. They were in a unique position as they were fully enlisted, commissioned officers (lieutenants except for the matrons in charge of hospital units who were captains). The nurses were referred to as “sister soldiers”. For the first time ever, nurses served as fully integrated members of the Canadian army. In World War I, Canada created a nursing corps called the Canadian Army Nursing Service. Lynne: Is it true that Canadian nurses in World War I were considered to be officers?Ĭolleen: Yes. In this article, Colleen answered specific questions I posed about nursing in and around World War I While I did all of the initial research for my Beneath the Alders series and for the first book in the series, The Innocent, I was greatly assisted in completing The Beleaguered and The Mending by the research skills of my good friend Colleen Mahoney, a pre-maturely retired librarian. ![]()
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