Original Item: Only One Available: Just over 3,000 nurses served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during World War I, including 2,504 overseas. Lieutenant Nursing Sister Emily Abalinda Parker served overseas at the Canadian General Hospital at Brighton, England, before being hospitalized herself in 1918 due to Influenza. This is her nurse’s uniform, and her story.

This is the WWI Canadian nurse’s work uniform grouping belonging to Lieutenant Nursing Sister Emily Abalinda Parker, of Winnipeg, Canada. Her uniform grouping includes:

- Parker’s 1916 nurse’s work uniform with a blue uniform and white apron attached with a big red cross on the front. This uniform is in exemplary condition, with little mothing, and no exterior issues that can be seen. This uniform is without a doubt museum quality. It has an orginal tag and is named to Lieutenant Nursing Sister Emily Abalinda Parker.
- One nurse’s surgical gown with a red cross on the front. In worn but fantastic condition for its age.
- A folded red cross head scarf.
- A pair of tall white nurse’s boots in stellar condition with all laces retained and no rips.
- One nurse’s collar.
- One Red Cross armband with two French stamps.
- Two white detachable sleeve covers.
- Placard board with Parker’s history, measuring 8½ x 11”.

Lieutenant Nursing Sister Emily Abalinda Parker was born on , entering the Canadian Army at the age of 28 in January 1917 upon completion of her graduate nursing schooling. She served until demobilized in 1920. Throughout her enlistment, she served at the Canadian General Hospital at Brighton, England, before being hospitalized herself in 1918 due to Influenza.

Of the 2,504 Canadian nurses who served overseas, 53 were killed from enemy fire, disease, or drowning during the war. On June 27th, 1918, a German U-Boat torpedo’d and sank the Canadian hospital ship, the Llandovery Castle. All 14 nurses aboard were killed.

Canadian Army Medical Corps Nursing Sisters
More than 2,800 trained civilian nurses enlisted with the Canadian army during the First World War, becoming the first women in the modern world to hold military commissions as officers. As members of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), the nursing sisters treated and cared for wounded soldiers overseas and at home. At least 58 died from disease or enemy action during the war.

In 1904, the Canadian Militia established the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) which included a small permanent nursing service. Only women were eligible to serve as military nurses. The army created a special officer rank for nurses, with the relative rank of lieutenant and title of “nursing sister.” Their full designation was lieutenant/nursing sister, or if they moved up in rank, captain/nursing sister or major/nursing sister. Until the mid-1940s, Canada was the only country to commission women as officers. The matron-in-chief was in charge of the nursing service.

The CAMC nursing service consisted initially of two nurses (Georgina Pope and Margaret Macdonald). By 1914, there were five regular army nurses in addition to a small reserve of civilian nurses who had completed a one-month military nursing course and attended a training camp.

Appointment to the CAMC nursing service required women to have British citizenship, to have graduated from a recognized three-year nursing program, as well as possess high moral character, dignified deportment, physical fitness, and be between the ages of 21 and 38. However, there were nursing sisters who entered the Corps and who did not meet the standard criteria. Some women were not trained as professional nurses; some were younger or older than the specified age requirements and some were married.

In total, 2,845 Canadian nursing sisters served with the CAMC during the First World War – both overseas and in Canada. The vast majority were fully-qualified nurses. Twenty-nine other women found their way into the ranks, a few with other professional qualifications. Two women physicians enlisted as nursing sisters because they had not been permitted to enlist as medical doctors. Others, often using political connections to get an appointment, had no qualifications. They served as “home sisters,” responsible for managing the living arrangements of the nurses.

On average, the nursing sisters were 29.9 years old when they enlisted although one was 19 years old and at least two were 56 years old. Most were Canadian born with British backgrounds. Although the regulations stated that only single, divorced, or widowed women were eligible to enlist (meaning that they were not responsible for any dependent children), women did find ways around that requirement. Their diaries and letters mention fellow nursing sisters who married secretly but did not resign their commissions as they were supposed to do upon marriage.

CAMC nursing sisters served in Canada, England, France, Belgium, Russia, and in the Mediterranean at Gallipoli and Salonika. They served from 1914 into the early 1920s – long after the signing of the armistice ended the First World War in November 1918. Wounded soldiers still needed care and rehabilitation. The influenza epidemic that swept through military camps during the years 1918–19 also prolonged the need for nurses.

As the Canadian Expeditionary Force demobilized, the nursing service gradually decreased in number to a post-war establishment of only 12 military nurses by 1920. That year, the medical service was reorganized and designated the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps.

This is a fantastic identified Canadian Nurse’s grouping, ready for further research and display.