Canada 150 - National Nurses Week - May 8-14, 2017

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Celebrating Canadian Nurses

The Canadian Nurse 1919

Next week May 8-14, 2017 is National Nurses Week and I have a few nurses in my family. Nurses are on the front lines of medicine just as soldiers are on the front lines of war, and I would like to thank them for their service! With a shortage of doctors in Canada more and more people (like me) have a Nurse Practitioner instead of a doctor.

The periodical The Canadian Nurse started in 1905 and various issues contain names, graduates, portraits, appointments, etc. Each volume holds issue numbers for that year. Check out Personals or Names in each number.

Appointments and personals Vol 1 No.1 1905

... some have birth, marriage and death notices...

Canadian Nurse BMD 1929

...and this volume has military appointments in 1908

Military Nursing Service Vol 4 No.12 1908

Volume 1 No.2 has names of charter members, and names of graduates who attended Toronto Hospital Training School for Nurses, and where in the world they are now. 

The nurses named in these periodicals are from all over Canada with some from the US, England and other countries.

In Montreal the McGill University School for Graduate Nurses (now the School of Nursing) was established in 1920 and you may find some graduate photos in McGill Yearbooks. 

Relevant Links

The Canadian Nurse - various years 1905-1974

Canadian Nurse website - archives (with subscription)

Names of nurses who obtained certificates at Toronto 1883-1904

Canadian Nursing History Collection - Canadian Museum of History

Canadian Nurses Association

Note:  I can't leave without mentioning that when my brother was dying of cancer we would not have been able to keep him at his home without the help of the fabulous nurses and care workers at Cochrane Home Care. Check out the Hospice Palliative and End-of-Life Care Services in your community. 

Related Posts:  Nurses

Celebrating Nurses

National Nursing Week is May 6-12, 2019

Just as we are for military veterans, we should be thankful for the service of our nurses. They do not have an easy job, and at times it can be downright dangerous, yet they work tirelessly for the people in their communities.

I have cousins and ancestor relatives that are and were nurses and I applaud them all!

Not enough doctors in your area? Ask about a Nurse Practioner, they are not as restricted as doctors are and have the same access to specialists. I have a NP as my primary and I get the best of care. 

This and previous related posts will give you resources to find and celebrate your nursing ancestors.

Marriage announcement of Nurse Kathleen King, my 1st cousin 2x removed

The Canadian Nurse, Vol 25, Jan 1929, pg.152, mark 128

Relevant links

Directory of Trained Nurses of Philadelphia, New York and Brooklyn 1895

Directory of Trained Nurses of Philadelphia, New York and Brooklyn 1900

Hodges' New York City nurses directory 1916

Golden Jubilee, School for Nurses, Guelph 1888-1938

The Canadian Nurse

Training School for Nurses, Montreal General 1890

Report of the Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses

Faulkner Hospital Training School for Nurses, Boston

Bulletin of the Presbyterian Hospital School for Nurses, Chicago 1903-1904 TORONTO

The Royal British Nurses' Association, Pioneering Nurses Database

Related Posts: Nurses

Serendipity Sunday - Nurses, Red Cross, and more

While researching my grandfather's brother, I came across this amazing book.

"Illustrated souvenir, Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital, Christie Street, Toronto : containing photo groups and snap-shots of officers, nursing sisters, patients, hospital celebrities, distinguished visitors and others : alphabetical list of over 3000 names of all patients, past and present, together with present addresses : also names and addresses of officers, nursing sisters and others"



I introduced you to my grandfather's brother, George John Seale, who was commissioner for the Red Cross in Manitoba, in my article The Home Front. George died suddenly at home of heart failure in 1924 and the George Seale Nursing Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade was named after him. George is a Memorable Manitoban.

George's wife, Clara Annie, was a serving sister for the St John's Ambulance in Winnipeg for many years. She was also Honorary President of the George Seale Nursing Division. Their only child, Eleanor, became a doctor.

When I was a kid I took swimming lessons with the Red Cross.  My children and grandchildren took a Babysiting Course. The St John Ambulance not only give courses in first aid and CPR, but also give several Industry Safety courses. Both do a lot in the community, as well as overseas and during disasters. 



Relevant Links

Dominion Orthopaedic Hospital, Toronto Souvenir Book (1920ish)

Nursing Sisters of Canada

British Army Nurses service records - WWI

British Military Nurses (Scarletfinder)

The Order of St John in Canada (Roll of Order PDF download) - St John Ambulance

What is the use for the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada - 1900

Nursing Sisters Nominal Roll 1914 CEF

New Zealand and Australian Army Nurses - Anzac Records

In Honor of the National Association of Civil War Army Nurses - 1910

Our Army Nurses; sketches, addresses, photographs of the nearly 100 noble women who served in hospitals and on battlefields during the US Civil War - 1897

Army School of Nursing 1921-1931

Red Cross Volunteers during WWI - Britain (ongoing upload - check back)

Australian Red Cross - "Carry On" program and souvenir album - 1918

Franklin County KY, Red Cross - men and women serving their country 1918

Australian Service Nurses - National Memorial

Scottish Nurses in Roumania 1918

The Navy List - Nursing Service

Canadian Nurse Magazine (Several volumes, each volume is a year)

Canada 150 - The Boer War

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Canadians in the South African War (Boer War)

The Boer War (1899-1902) was the first time a Canadian military force was sent overseas. According to LAC, "Canadians participated in nine important battles between the November 1899 arrival of the first contingent in South Africa, and the end of the war in May 1902."

A total of 7,368 soldiers from all across Canada and 12 Nursing Sisters served in South Africa.

Head nurse, Georgina Pope

Relevant Links

The 2nd Regiment Canadian Mounted Rifles and 10th Canadian Field Hospital, A.M.C. : organized in Canada for service in the field in South Africa : roll of officers, non-commissioned officers and men and nursing sisters.

The second Canadian contingent for special service in the field in South Africa

Soldiers of the South African War (Boer War) - service files at LAC

Info on the Boer War at the Canadian War Museum (units, battles, uniforms, maps, etc)

Images at LAC - Boer War

Our Boys Under Fire: NB and PEI Volunteers in South Africa

The Home Front

Original post date: 7 Jun 2014

Women at War and Men at Home - Not all good soldiers fight in the war!
 
My great uncle George John Seale was born in Kingston, Ontario.  George was a Stenographer and went to Montreal in early 1900 to work for the Royal Bank. He boarded with the Jackson family, and in 1902 he married Clara Annie Jackson. George John and Clara Annie had one daughter, Clara Eleanor in 1904, and soon after he was asked to manage their Niagara Falls branch. By 1907 George was named the manager of their Grain Exchange branch in Winnipeg.

At the onset of WW I in 1914 George, coming from a long line of military men, was eager to enlist, but he was refused by the medical examiner. He was very disappointed.  Then in 1918 the call went out across Canada for help to the armies through the Red Cross.  George was asked by his fellow citizens to give up his business and become the administrative manager of the Red Cross in Manitoba. That very day a room was secured for Red Cross administration and money started pouring in from people all across the province. Besides their relentless help to soldiers fighting overseas and their families at home, George had the insight to know that when the soldiers came home from war they were going to need special help.  Before the war even ended he set up a Hospice as temporary lodging for returning soldiers heading west.  He got help for wounded soldiers and their dependents. He also conceived of the idea of Sheltered Workshops where soon he had over forty men deemed unfit for work earning an honest living along commercial lines.

One night George was talking to his wife and daughter at the dinner table about new ideas he had. Wanting to do some chores later he went upstairs to changes out of his good clothes and dropped dead suddenly of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 43.  George John Seale, The Commissioner for the Red Cross of Manitoba had died, and the whole province mourned.

During times of war the women are asked to help out by rationing food, rolling bandages and knitting socks. You know…. women’s work.  Those who could became nurses to help out at home and abroad however they could. Then came the call for real work.  Men’s work.  

My Mom worked at the Canadian Power Boat Company that made motor torpedo boats used in war. When there were no longer orders for boats coming in, the company retooled and made parts for de Havilland Mosquito bombers. My mother’s sister joined the RCAF Women’s Division.  These women worked as clerks, cooks, equipment assistants, fabric workers, hospital assistants, drivers, photographers, meteorologists and telephone operators, and overseas in Operations plotting locations of RCAF planes and enemy German aircraft. Their motto was “Women who serve so men can fly!”

Mom and her sister

What did your stay-at-home ancestors do during time of war?

Relevant Links:

Volunteering in the First World War   

WW2 service women in Canada

Women in the RCAF

RCAF Women

Canadian war women on videos

CBC Digital archive - women at war

Canada Remembers Women in the Canadian Military

MSN Women in War  photos

Forgotten Women of War

US War Jobs for Women

US Women Marines In World War I

Silver Cross Mothers

Queen Alexandra’s Royal Navy Nursing Service

British Army Nurse Records

Nurses and Serving Women Australia

8 Female fighters of WW2

Scottish Nurses in Roumania 1918