Angels of Mercy in our Midst
The prospect of serving overseas during the First World War was one that many young nurses from across Canada anticipated with great joy and enthusiasm. Between their graduation from hospital training schools and their arrival in war-torn Europe, the Nursing Sisters travelled by train and ocean-going ship. Their correspondence to friends and family back home reveals a sense of awe and wonder at the adventure they were undertaking in service to King and Country. This adventure was enhanced by excursions to places as far away as Egypt and Ireland while they were on leave, the details of which were often written down in eloquent prose.
Yet, the joy Canada’s Nursing Sisters relished as they crossed the Atlantic and travelled across Europe, North Africa, and the United Kingdom would soon be tempered by the harsh environments in which they worked. Faced with a daily onslaught of patients battered by disease and injury, the Nursing Sisters were frank in their letters about what war “was really like.” They were frequently victims of war-related illness, and some – such as Lindsay’s own Tilly Mann – never completely recovered from their ailments. In spite of the challenging conditions in which they worked, the Nursing Sisters brought great joy to those in their care through acts of kindness which ranged from taking them on trips to the seaside to hosting Christmas parties.
NURSING SISTER WEBBER HOME
Nursing Sister Bertha Webber, who served overseas with No. 7 (Queens) Canadian General Hospital, arrived home from overseas on Wednesday evening on the 6:40 o'clock G.T.R. train.
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Miss Webber arrived in Quebec a few days ago with Nursing Sisters Grace Hiscock, of Kingston and Miss Pringle, of Brockside. All were shell shocked at the time of the German aerial raids over Queen's Hospital last May, and have been in England several months recuperating.
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Miss Webber is a graduate of Kingston General Hospital Training School for nurses. She was given a warm welcome by her friends, who are pleased to learn that she is recovering from the effects of the shock sustained.
NURSING SISTER WEBBER WRITES
Mr. and Mrs. A. Webber are in receipt of an interesting letter from their daughter, Nursing Sister Bertha Webber, of No. 7 Queens' University Hospital Corps, Étaples, France. it is dated Dec. 26th and was written after Miss Webber had returned from a delightful trip to Italy. The following are extracts from the letter:
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"Well, I am glad that Christmas is past. Have been so busy since I returned from leave. The patients had a lovely time. Each one received a nice stocking with very nice little gifts. For dinner they had roast beef, a roast was sent to each ward, and carved in the ward, mashed potatoes, carrots, turnips, pickles. The plum puddling was grand. I made the sauce myself. They had plenty of nuts, figs, dates, raisins, candy and an apple and orange each. They drank to my health and the medical officers too. For their supper I made a salad, cold salmon, canned fruit, biscuits and cake were issued. They gave cheers for me so I had to make a speech. I was all alone in the ward, which made it so much more to do than in wards where there are two or three sisters. Our dinner was grand too.
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I received a parcel from Mr. Lucas, Miss Moir, Mrs. McAndrew, some pretty little things from some of the girls. My trip south was gorgeous. Suppose you have received my letter long ago from there.
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Some of the sisters can get into hospitals in Canada so as to allow some of the girls who want to come over.
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I am sure the folks at home and patients' folks too would have enjoyed Christmas, had they known how nice our days was.
… We are fairly comfortable. I have quite a large room with another Sister. Our windows overlook the Channel. Our board is fairly good some days, and then the next day I just feel that I would like to drop in home, but we can’t expect too much. Everything is so dear. Sugar is a luxury here, in fact, they won’t sell it to you unless you buy four shillings’ worth of groceries, and then you can only have a pound. This is a regular military training centre, and Moore Barracks in peace time was a regular training school. Now it is all turned over for hospital uses. I was only here three days when I was put on night duty for a month. I have three surgical wards to look after, 90 beds all told, but I have no trouble, and the work is comparatively light. The Orderlies do most of the hard work. I wish you could have had a peep into the wards on Xmas day. I was pleased to find the boys so happy and the wards a perfect picture, all decorated with holly flags, mistletoe bells, etc., and in one ward we had a cartoonist. He drew and painted all the different battalion badges, and hung the proper one over each private’s bed. Everyone remarked how well they looked and on Xmas morning each private received a Xmas stocking with candy, cigarettes, pipe, etc. They were as happy as children. Had a real nice dinner of turkey and plum pudding, which was a luxury in general. Things are served our [sic] pretty roughly. They do not have many luxuries.
Some seven of the boys have been here in bed for six months with wounds which will not be healed for some time yet. Poor lads, how thankful they will be to get home. You at home do not realize what war really is. No one can imagine the real condition unless they see some of it, and this is only a part of France. I hope I will be allowed to go to France in the spring. I want to see and help in the worst way. This war cannot last any longer than the autumn. Some of the German women and children are dying from lack of care and starvation. The tales of the trenches are terrible to relate. Sometime I will tell you more of what the boys have told me. One poor lad told me that he prayed for death in the trenches. He said to me, “Sister, why did you ever leave your happy home in Canada to come to this awful place.” I told him it was to try and cheer a poor lonely heart like his. He is only 18 past, and had both limbs broken and gunshot wound in the abdomen. He will never be able to walk without crutches. His home is in Winnipeg. He is going home soon. Canada is going to have a heavy burden to bear next year. She will have forty thousand soldiers receiving pensions. The boys are hoping to be all home by next Xmas. I feel quite sure we will be. But we are going to lose heavily before we go home. So my dear friends, we, as nurses and soldiers need your prayers and help of home people. I feel proud to come from such a loyal people as the Red Cross of Sonya. It was hard to leave home, but a comfort to know that your home people are thinking of you. I value my little ring so much and wear it on a gold chain around my neck. They will not allow us to wear jewellery in England…
Extracts from December 30, 1916 letter
by Nursing Sister K.E. McKinnon,
who nursed the Canadian boys at
Moore Barracks Hospital, England.
MISS WINIFRED HARDY WRITES NEWSY LETTER FROM FRANCE
The following interesting letter has been received at Peniel from Miss Winifred Hardy, of that place. Miss Hardy, who is at present in No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, France, is a graduate of Ross Memorial Hospital and has many friends in town who will peruse her letter with interest:
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No. 1 Can. Gen. Hospital,
France, Jan. 28, ‘17
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Dear People of Peniel, - Sunday afternoon and just three o’clock. I suppose you will all be sitting in church, while I am sitting here in my room writing. How I wish I could be transported-if only for one day-it would be so good to see you all again.
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It is very, very cold here. In fact, we think that the weather man has made a great mistake and that we are getting Canadian weather instead of what we should have over here in “Sunny France.” However, there is one consolation-winter will soon be over and then we won’t have to worry about the cold for another six months anyway.
I imagine it just as cold as it is at home when an east wind is blowing and with no snow on the ground. The wind penetrates every corner and we feel it in our huts, built of one thickness of board, covered with metal sheeting. We had a coal famine for a while, but thanks be, coal arrived again before this cold spell set in.
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Speaking of snow, I must tell you that we have had several flurries, but it has only stayed on the ground for a few nights. Whilst I was on night duty a week ago we had a regular little snow storm and I won’t forget the eagerness of the Australian soldiers, as they tumbled out of bed to see the snow. Really they were as delighted as children for they had never seen any before. I think perhaps I was just about as silly as they were, for it seemed just like a Canadian night, and I felt a wee bit as though I were home again until I looked at the tents with their long lines of beds and then I came back to earth with a thud and remembered that I was in France and on “active service.”
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We have been very busy despite the fact that there is no “big push” on. Still the men are sick with colds and trench feet and various ailments of that kind and in that way the hospital is always full although the patients do not require as much care as they do in the summer when they come down with such dreadful wounds.
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As I think I said, I have been on night duty. I had charge of five wards, each with sixty-six patients, so you can imagine that I didn’t have many idle moments. I must confess that I didn’t love it very much at first. It was no fun wandering from one tent to another, stumbling over guy ropes and continually losing my way in the dark, but after a while I grew used to it and now feel very brave indeed.
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I want to thank you for the beautiful remembrance from Peniel which I received last week. It was so good of you all to remember me, and it brought a lump in my throat and made me feel homesick when I realized how you had all thought of and remembered me. It is so useful too, just the thing one requires when space is limited, and you have to live more or less in your trunk. Much as I value my little set for its own sake, still the fact that it came from home, and that the people at home still remember and think of me has made it most valuable in my eyes. One makes many new friends, but there are none just as near and dear as the ones at home, in the dear old place where one is brought up and many, many times have I longed for Peniel and home again.
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That doesn’t mean that I am sorry I came, for I am not. I only wish that I could have come sooner, for I feel as though I ought to do all in my power to alleviate the sufferings of the boys. I could tell you stories which have been told me of sufferings “up the line,” but they’ll have to wait until I am home once more for the censor is just a little bit particular regarding what I do tell.
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We had a pleasant Christmas here. Much less lonely than I expected. We, the Sisters, and some of the men, had practised Christmas carols and we sang them outside the wards on Christmas eve. Then the men had a regular Christmas dinner of turkey and plum pudding, and we decorated the wards and tried our best to make the patients forget that they were sick and remember that it was Christmas day, and in doing that we almost forgot that we were lonesome and homesick and that it was our first Christmas away from home. I think I did shed a few homesick tears, but that’s excusable on Christmas day, isn’t it?
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We have church here every Sunday evening, Presbyterian and Anglican service, and I have actually learned just when to get down and get up again. It is a beautiful service, though and I like it. Quite frequently I sing in the choir, as it is simply composed of any who want to help, so you see I haven’t quite forgotten all our old ‘metres,’ and I’ll still know how to sing a wee bit when I am home again and the war is over.
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Once more I want to thank you all for my parcel, and to tell you that even though I am far away my thoughts wander often to dear old Peniel and all its people, and that all letters are devoured very much by me. I may not always answer-there is so little to tell, but, oh, it is so good to get all the news.
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It is not yet too late to wish you one and all the happiest of years, is it? And to hope that the League may have a very prosperous and useful year. With kindest regards to all my friends at home.
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Yours very sincerely,
Winifred Hardy
Nursing sisters, Dominion Day Sports, No. 2 Canadian General Hospital, Le Tréport, France
Library and Archives Canada Contact Sheet e007150751
Little Britain Nursing Sister Tells Of Her Work In France
The following letter was received by Mrs. W. Yeo, Little Britain, from Miss D.M. Dayton, a nursing sister at the Second Canadian General Hospital in France:
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My Dear Mrs. Yeo, – I have thought of writing you a great many times and I believe I’ve heard mother say that you had often spoken of writing me. Anyway, I’m doing it at last.
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The summer is wearing away very quickly. Am very sorry, for the winters here are very trying. The men come in frost-bitten and suffering so and coal is not any too plentiful. However, it looks like another winter of it from all indications.
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My leave is overdue now but we do not expect to go till after the 1st of July. It is a big day here for the Canadians. All sorts of sports, a ball game and play at night. Ball games were unknown here until the Canadians came. The English all play cricket. I suppose the Americans will hold forth on the glorious fourth. They have just arrived, and not being well settled and accustomed to camp life, they may not do much.
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Well, as I said, I am going on my leave soon. Of course we will go directly to London and do our shopping, then up to Holly Leaf and across to Dublin, and over to Killarney and around by Bantry Bay to Cork and Blarney Castle and back to Dublin. If we can manage it we intend [on] going up to the north of Ireland by way of Belfast and see the Giant’s Causeway. But seventeen days soon go and travelling is very slow and uncertain in war time.
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Now I suppose all you people are doing a great deal for the Red Cross and perhaps like many others through lack of knowledge, doing many things and making many things that we do not use. I often wish I could talk to some of my friends and tell them just how we really are fixed out here. In the first place you cannot imagine what war is and what active service means. We are really very comfortable and few of the men really want for clothing. There are always plenty of socks, pyjama suits, bed jackets, handkerchiefs, caps, mufflers, mittens, etc. Well we do not always have enough mufflers and mittens either but we never get enough tooth brushes and tooth paste, etc. to keep their mouths in good condition and the men are always asking for pipes, cigarettes, etc. Perhaps you think these are things we can get along without and I once thought so too but after seeing the ravages of modern war and the men who are run down from shell shock and nervous troubles, I’ve come to the conclusion that a pipe or a cigarette is about the only thing that soothes their pains and heart aches. And there is another thing I have made up my mind I must have for my patients and that is a trench Gramophone. I have watched the effect of music on these men and it works wonders and does far more good than medicine. These men will lie day in and day out listening to the same scratched up records and think they are wonderful. The Red Cross provides a few gramophones but they are so few that we hardly ever get one. Now, I am not begging and don’t want you people [to think] that I am. I am only suggesting a way that you can help if you feel that you can do it. If at any time your Ladies Aid or Red Cross or any society could send me a few dollars, I’ll assure you that they will be well and profitably spent on the boys whose interest I have at heart. Reading matter is also very difficult to get but it is so heavy and the postage so much, that it really is too much.
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I would not ask you to do anything for me if I did not know that you were all willing and able. After seeing the poverty here in France, you people at home seem like millionaires.
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One of my friends and a classmate from Clifton Springs has been seriously wounded in a hospital up the line. It was thought that she would lose her right foot but I have heard that Dr. Blake is going to save it. She has been awarded the Croix de Guerre and is at present in the American Red Cross Hospital in Paris. I wish it were possible for me to spend my leave with her, but I’ll probably get there yet, as she will be in the hospital for months.
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Now I must close, hoping to hear from you soon. You don’t know how much I want to go home some time but such thoughts are not to be encouraged. When I am off duty I play tennis and golf and occasionally go in bathing. Just now we are not so busy.
Very Sincerely,
D.M. Dayton, N.S.
Little Britain
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