• Women and the War
• Nurses
  • Biography
• Volunteers
• Schoolteachers

Women and the War

"It was during the South African War that the Nursing Service was organized as an integral part of the Army Medical Corps and Canadian nurses were granted the rank, pay, and allowance of Lieutenant in the Army."

The military nurses of Canada : recollections of Canadian military nurses. - E.A. Landells, Editor. - White Rock, B.C. : Co-Publishing, 1975. - 3 vol. - Vol. 1,P. 7

"At No. 1 General, we nursed in huts, finding the work at times very heavy, oftentimes having our dinner between 9 and 10 P.m."

Pope Georgina Fane, Supt. 1st Contingent of Canadian Nursing Sisters to South Africa. - "Report B (Ottawa, Canada, Jan. 17, 1901)". - Supplementary report…1899-1900. - Sessional paper, no. 35a (1901). - P. 63

"Here under canvas in June, like our Sisters at Springfontein, we suffered acutely from cold, each morning the hoar frost being thick both inside and out, of our single bell tents. We were very short of water and lived on rations which an orderly cooked for us on a fire on the veldt, dinner being a very uncertain feast on a rainy day."

Pope, Georgina Fane, Supt. 1st Contingent of Canadian Nursing Sisters to South Africa. - "Report B (Ottawa, Canada, Jan. 17, 1901)". - Supplementary report…1899-1900. - Sessional paper, no. 35a (1901). - P. 64

Queen Victoria's handmade scarves were a rare, prestigious award for bravery. Women served as nurses during the War, as schoolteachers in post-war South Africa, and on the home front as volunteers, fundraisers and local historians, recording the war-related events in their regions.