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The story of four years in the lives of two nursing sisters who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Esquimalt, British Columbia, in the summer of 1915. Both served overseas in England, Salonika and France as lieutenants with the Canadian Army Medical Corps.
Their World War I experiences are recorded in the diary of Nursing Sister Elsie Collis, a memoir by Nursing Sister Ethel Morrison and photograph albums from 1915 to the end of their service in 1919. The story is told primarily in their own words, with relevant excerpts from recollections of nurses and doctors from other Canadian medical units. The political and military situations requiring their services have been summarized to put overseas postings into context.
“A book for anyone who had relatives in the First World War”
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 Battlefront Nurses
in WW I
Author: Maureen Duffus
Published 2009, Victoria, BC
ISBN 978-0-9733809-1-0
168 pages
A diary, a memoir & photo albums from two British Columbia Nursing Sisters
$29.95 CDN
Cover picture: Florence Nightingale and her Crimean War nurses, shown in this 1856 lithograph of a Scutari hospital ward, set new standards for future military nurses. (Wikimedia Commons)
Available at Bolen Books, Munro's Books and Russell Books
Click pictures for larger versions
The Daily Colonist ran enthusiastic reports of the formation of the BC Medical Unit from its inception in May until its departure on August 19, 1915. This is one of a number of photos of nurses, doctors and troops, including the cooks, that filled picture pages early in August. Nursing Sister Morrison is second from right, middle row, with Nursing Sister Collis standing behind her.
(The Daily Colonist, August 8, 1915)
Nursing Sister Elsie Collis, Matron Frederica Wilson and Nursing Sister Ethel Morrison are front and centre of this group of BC nurses on leave in Cairo in January, 1916.
Bomb-shattered nurses quarters at Canadian
General Hospital No. 1, Etaples, France, after
2-hour air raid on the night of May 19-21, 1918.
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