HISTORY

COULD YOU VOTE?

FEATURED NURSES

ABOUT

FEATURED NURSES

In August 1917, Parliament passed the Military Voters Act which extended the vote to all those serving overseas with the Canadian military – including our female Nursing Sisters. Not only were the Canadian Nursing Sisters the only nurses of the Allied forces to hold the rank of officers as part of the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War, they were the first women in Canadian history to vote in a federal election.

Get to know some of the first Canadian women to vote in the 1917 federal election while serving as Nursing Sisters at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, England.

Alma Florence Finnie (1890/91-1992)

“Who did I vote for? Nobody ever asked before. I think it was the incumbent [Sir Robert Borden].” - Alma Finnie reflecting on her vote in the federal election of 1917.

One of seven children, Alma Florence Finnie was born on July 24 1890 in the hamlet of Bensford’s Corners, some twelve miles south of Peterborough, Ontario. Alma was a bright student and entered the teaching profession in 1911, teaching at S.S. No. 1 in Yelverton, a tiny community southwest of Lindsay, Ontario.

Teaching was not, however, the career Alma had in mind.  Within a couple of years she had enrolled at Grace Hospital training school in Toronto, from which she graduated in 1915.  A little over a year later, Alma had enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and soon found herself working in France at Canadian military hospitals and on ambulance trains.  In due course, Alma was transferred to No. 16 CGH at Orpington, where she became the first woman to cast a vote in a Canadian federal election.  Throughout the 1920s, Alma worked as a nurse at the Christie Street Veterans’ Hospital in Toronto and in 1926 travelled to northern Ontario with the Red Cross to look after miners in the Red Lake area.

Celestina Geen (1878/79-1972)

“Since the rush has been on we sisters take turns in giving from 8 to 12 p.m. a sort of supper to the boys who have to be up to help with the convoys—in fact some of them have worked night and day and through it all are so bright and jolly and so kind to the patients, though the poor boys look ready to drop themselves.”  Celestina Geen writing from No. 2 Canadian General Hospital. 

Celestina Geen was born in Belleville, Ontario, and enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps on September 25 1914.  She was initially attached to the No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in Boulonge, France, but within a couple of years found herself working at No. 2 CGH.  For four months in the summer of 1917, Celestina cared for patients at No. 16 CGH, Orpington.  By the first week of November, she had been temporarily assigned to transport duty, but soon returned to England and reported for duty at No. 16.  There, she undoubtedly witnessed (and perhaps participated in) the historic vote taking place that year.  Following the war, Celestina married Samuel Steele and died in 1972.

Caroline Luella LaRose (1890-1977)

For many of Canada’s nursing sisters, their call to serve as nurses dated back to childhood. This was especially true for Caroline Luella LaRose.  Born on March 12 1890 to Isaac LaRose and Mary Livingston in Long Point, Ontario, Caroline was one of ten children. When she was eight years old, Caroline and her infant sister became lost in the woods while berry-picking with her family near Charleston Lake.  For a period of four days, Caroline cared for her sister in a remote shanty, feeding her with crushed berries and water.  Both girls were eventually located, and Caroline’s heroism became something of a local phenomenon in Leeds County.

Caroline enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps on Christmas Eve, 1915, and was taken on strength some months later. Originally stationed at the Moore Barracks hospital, Caroline eventually reported for duty at No. 16 CGH at Orpington in November of 1917. While stationed there, she may have cast her vote in the Canadian federal election, which was then underway. Upon her return to Canada, Caroline served as supervisor of nursing in Galt, Ontario, and retired from the profession in May of 1935.  She died in 1977, having spent a great deal of her life in the service of others at home and abroad.

Florence Sennett (1872-194?)

Florence Sennett was born on February 11, 1872 in Lindsay, Ontario.  The second-oldest of about nine children raised by Irish immigrants. Like many young women of her age, Florence sought opportunities elsewhere, and eventually found her way to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, to train as a nurse.  Florence graduated from St. Joseph’s School of Nursing in 1905, some three years after the training school opened. 

Ten years later, on September 14, 1915, forty-three year-old Florence enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and was attached to the Duchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.  A little over two years later, on October 23, 1917, Florence reported for duty at No. 16 CGH at Orpington.  During her time there, Florence would have witnessed – if not participated in – the Canadian federal election of 1917, when women serving in the military were granted the right to vote.  The following spring, Florence was assigned to transport duty on HMHS Llandovery Castle, and was struck off strength in May 1918.

Oda Weldon (1885-1954)

“You are following the example of the noble Florence Nightingale, and like her, may your work be crowned with loving appreciation from the sick and suffering.”  Such were the words of the Reverend. J.U. Robins, in addressing Oda Weldon before she and her brother Harold departed for England in the spring of 1916.

Oda Everilda Weldon was born on June 23, 1885 in Mariposa Township, Ontario.  One of seven children born to Jesse B. Weldon and Ellen Lownsbrough, of Oakwood.  Called to the nursing profession, Oda graduated from the Toronto General Hospital training school in 1905.  Between then and her enlistment, Oda worked as a nurse in Battle Creek, Michigan and eventually took on a supervisory role at the Vancouver General Hospital.

On June 1, 1917, Oda was taken on strength at No. 16 CGH at Orpington, and it was during her tenure there that she joined Jean Bennett and Alma Finnie in being among the very first Canadian women to cast votes in the 1917 Canadian federal election.  Following the war, Oda served as an inspector for the Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment (DSCR) in Toronto.