Children’s Hospital Graduates – World War One Nursing Sisters

Six graduates from the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing, including the first graduate of the school, Rosalind Long, served their country during the Great War.

 

Rosalind Long, Class of 1913

Photo of Rosalind Long taken in 1916 while in England with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hants. Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba N5626. Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba (N5626)

Rosalind M. Long was born in Devonshire, England and immigrated to Elkhorn, Manitoba in 1906, to live with her brother Wilfred Long on his farm. They both were interested in doing overseas missionary work so Rosalind enrolled in the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1910 and Wilfred began a divinity course.

Rosalind Long was the first graduate of the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1913. After graduating, she became the Director of Nursing at the Columbia General Hospital in South Carolina. She returned to Winnipeg in 1915 and worked as Head nurse of the Infant’s Department before enlisting to serve with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve in 1916. She was posted in England at the Royal Victoria Hospital.  Her brother, Wilfred, also enlisted and was killed in action in October 1917.

After the war, Rosalind worked as a public health nurse in The Pas, Manitoba, before volunteering for missionary service with the Anglican Church of Canada. Her missionary work spanned over 22 years and included teaching and public health nursing in Anglican missions in many northern reserves throughout Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba. She also served as a nurse for the Department of Indian Affairs and was the first northern Health Nurse in Manitoba.

In 1941, she married Dr. Simpson, who was in charge of the St. Michael’s School Preventorium in Alert Bay, British Columbia, treating patients with tuberculosis. They later settled in Victoria, British Columbia, where she assisted her husband in his medical practice and in his capacity as a Health Officer for schools in the area.

They both retired in 1946 in Victoria, British Columbia.

 

Children’s Hospital School of Nursing Graduating Class, 1915 Ethel Bayliss, Jessie Reinhardt, Margaret Hillis, Alice McEwan, Hilda James, Mary Penner, Kathleen Line, Alma McKinnon, Mary Bolton. Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba (N5628)

 

Ethel Bayliss, Class of 1915

Ethel Bayliss was born on September 4, 1893 in Morden, Manitoba.

She graduated from the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1915 and began working as a Staff Nurse at King George Hospital.

After the start of World War I, she enlisted with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) and served for 18 months at Imlaya Hospital, Malta before enlisting with the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) in May 1918.

[Left to right: nursing sisters [Ethel] Bayliss, Forester, [Alfreda] Attrill with St. Erikson.

Nursing sister Bayliss served in England and was stationed at Granville Canadian Special Hospital, Buxton and No. 5 Canadian General Hospital, Kirkdale until being discharged from the CAMC in September 1919 in order to rejoin the QAIMNS.

[Nursing sisters at Granville Canadian Special Hospital, Buxton, December 25, 1918.]

Ethel returned to Canada in 1920 and began private duty nursing in Morden, Manitoba. She married Raymond Joseph Large on April 28, 1933. They lived in Winnipeg from 1950 to 1971.

 

 

Margaret Grace McBean, Class of 1916

Margaret Grace McBean

Margaret Grace McBean was born on August 3, 1895 in Emerson, Manitoba. She grew up on the family farm at Carey, Manitoba and moved to Winnipeg to train at the Children’s Hospital, graduating from its School of Nursing in 1916.  Upon graduation, she accepted a position as Staff Nurse at King George Hospital where she worked for one year until resigning to engage in private duty nursing.

She enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) in April 1918 and served at the No. 10 Manitoba Military Hospital (Tuxedo Park) [Fort Osborne Military Hospital] where she served until June 1919.

[CAMC uniform pins belonging to Margaret Grace McBean]

[CAMC epaulet bars belonging to Margaret Grace McBean.]

[CAMC epalaut buttons belonging to Margaret Grace McBean.]

[CAMC brass buttons belonging to Margaret Grace McBean.]

 

It was at the hospital where she met Lieutenant Robert Hayward; they were married on November 19, 1921 and moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta, where their two children were born.  The family returned to Winnipeg in 1932 where Grace was very active in the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire.

She passed away in Winnipeg on April 5, 1987.

 

Please click on the links below to read about other graduates from the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing who served as nursing sisters during World War I.

Children’s Hospital School of Nursing Graduating Class, 1916 Vera McCluskie, Mabel Coburn, Grace McBean, Peggy Stephen, Bertha Villard, Rebecca Reid. Credit: Provincial Archives of Manitoba (N5629)

 

Hilda James, 1915

Jessie Reinhardt, 1915

Vera McCluskie, 1916