Angels of Mercy in our Midst
Dovie Matilda "Tilly" Mann
(1887-1928)
Dovie Matilda “Tilly” Mann was born in Apsley, Ontario, on March 9 1887. Descendants describe her as having been born into a marriage of convenience; when Tilly was not quite a teenager, she went to live with relatives in Lindsay. At about twenty years of age, Tilly applied to train as a nurse at the Ross Memorial Hospital, but was rejected on the grounds of being too young and inexperienced. “I am coming again,” a determined young Tilly was reported to have said at the time. “Time will overcome one objection and I can overcome the other.”
In due course, she returned to the Ross, where she would spend three years in training to be a nurse. After graduating, Tilly served as an Assistant Matron at an unnamed Ontario hospital before being promoted to the position of Matron. When the war broke out, she volunteered for service and after some time spent working at a convalescent hospital in England was eventually appointed to No. 3 Stationary Hospital in France.
Tilly Mann and Neil Malcolm McFadyen were married by the Rev'd. F.H. McIntosh in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Lindsay.
Forced by ill-health to return to Canada, Tilly soon found herself recuperating at the Laurentian Sanitarium in St. Agathe, Quebec. It was during her stay here that she was awarded, in absentia, a medal for her distinguished service overseas, which was marked by a “true Canadian spirit of loyalty and devotion.” In spite of her illness, Tilly apparently fell in love during the war and would marry Pte. Neil Malcolm McFadyen in the fall of 1919; the wedding taking place in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Lindsay. Tragically, the marriage would not last a decade, as both succumbed to pneumonia in 1928 and are interred at Riverside Cemetery in Lindsay.
Resources:
Dovie McLaughlin (Tilly’s niece), telephone conversation with author, April 2016
“Presentation of Medals to Returned Soldiers,” Lindsay Post, January 26 1917, Pg. 2
Lindsay Post, January 26 1917, Pg. 2
Marriage Register, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church archives
