Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War Read Online Free PDF

into a volunteer nursing organization.
    The Canadian military authorities took a practical view of V.A.D.s. The number of trained nurses who were applying to join the C.A.M.C. was sufficiently large that Canada did not have to turn to V.A.D.s to help fill the ranks. So, while V.A.D.s would not be permitted to work alongside the hospital and military-trained nurses of the C.A.M.C. — they lacked qualifications and the army could not vouch for their discipline — there might be a place for them as non-nursing assistants in military convalescent hospitals back in Canada, or as “home sisters” keeping house for trained nurses overseas in their billets or rest homes. Canadian V.A.D.s who wanted to nurse the wounded would still be welcomed by Britishauthorities, but only if they could get themselves across the Atlantic — and about five hundred did so.
    From the beginning, then, a clear line in Canada indicated where serious, disciplined nursing ended and nursing “assistance” began. The line also struck through any aspirations women might hold of nursing full time without proper training. Consequently, Canada did not see the uglier side of the V.A.D. debate that was ongoing in Britain, although some of the young V.A.D.s who sailed for England from New Brunswick with local accolades ringing in their ears must have bumped abruptly into iton arrival. Fortunately, some hospitals managed to maintain a cooperative and friendly atmosphere between the nursing sisters and the V.A.D.s. And for the soldier-patients, who called them all “Sister,” the differences in certification meant little or nothing.
    As the war dragged on into its second year, there were nurses in blue, nurses in grey, nurses in white veils, nurses in black veils, volunteers with red crosses on their sleeves, and many variations in between. They bustled through the wards of giant general hospitals in England, lurched on hospital trains barrelling toward the French interior, slogged through inches of mobile ambulance mud, kept watch under dripping canvas marquees, shooed swarming flies from open wounds in the Mediterranean heat, or matured their sea legs on hospital ships plying the Atlantic. Though it might have been their second choice, some stayed home to nurse at convalescent soldiers’ hospitals, where the need was also great. According to the Daily Telegraph , “up to October 5, 1916, the number of soldiers sent back to Canada because of medical unfitness was 6,208. Of these, 961 were suffering from wounds, shell-shock, or the effect of gas; 122 were insane; 245 were afflicted with tuberculosis; while the remainder, 4,880 were suffering from other diseases and disabilities.” Those who needed artificial limbs or physical therapy to regain function had a long road ahead, and nurses were there to see them through their treatments.
    While it is impossible to overstate how arduous were the challenges of nurses’ on-duty hours, there were also hours of leisure and sheer exhilaration. Upon arrival in England, New Brunswick C.A.M.C. Sister Joyce Wishart and fellow nurses went on a grand tour of Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and the Guildhall. They visited an art gallery and took in a symphony concert at the Royal Albert Hall. In every direction lay a feast for the senses, mingled with corporeal reminders of a nation at war: “We don’t hear much about the war, but you see soldiers everywhere, drilling in all the public squares and parks, while every taxi and wall is covered with patriotic appeals and mottoes, and the cry everywhere is for more men. . . . We have great fun here riding around on the high motor ’busses. They don’t stop a second, but we go up and down the steps like squirrels.” Soon the Canadian nurses settled into thehospital routine, whether in England or in France, but even then they were encouraged to make the most of their regular half-days, holidays, or leaves by