HISTORY
a timeline of events
Public Health Reform in the United Kingdom
1832
Like many reforms in Britain, political and social alike, public health reform began in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Through the efforts of men such as Dr. Robert Baker, Edwin Chadwick, Henry Mayhew, John Snow, and even Charles Dickens, it was made clear to authorities in the United Kingdom that disease was directly linked to the cleanliness of public infrastructure and even more so to places where poverty was rampant. A cholera outbreak in 1832 was in many ways a wake-up call to action, with Dr. Baker’s Report to the Leeds Board of Health asserting that more efficient systems of drainage and sewerage be implemented, along with “the enforcement of better regulations as to the cleanliness of the streets.” Within less than two decades, a series of publications, grassroots organizations, and eventually an Act of Parliament combined to ensure that the health and well being of the British public could be steadily improved.
Keywords
Reform, Cholera, Outbreak, Cleanliness, Sanitation, Public Health, Regulations, Disease
Sources:
British Library - http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/21cc/publichealth/background/timeline/publichealthtimeline.html
1843
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Health of Towns Commission
In response to an inquiry into sanitary practices made by Edwin Chadwick in 1842, the Health of Towns Commission was established in 1843. Chaired by the Duke of Buccleuch, the Commission investigated the sanitary conditions of poorer neighbourhoods and made recommendations on ways to improve the living conditions of its inhabitants. The Commission focused its energies on five matters in particular: drainage; paving of public streets and alleys; street cleaning and removal of refuse; water supply; and building construction and ventilation. By 1844 a number of “Health of Towns Associations” were organized across the United Kingdom to pressure the government into acting on sanitary reform.
Keywords
Commission, Sanitation, Chadwick, Reform, Infrastructure
Sources:
A History of Building Control in England and Wales (Ley, pgs. 30-32); Public Health and Social Justice in the Age of Chadwick (Hamlin, pgs. 217-224)
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Public Health Acts in Britain
The British government passed the first of three Public Health Acts in 1848, creating a General Board of Health, which was responsible for administering the Act. Under it were local boards of health that regulated virtually everything from street cleaning to slaughterhouses. A second Act was passed in 1866 targeting drainage issues, while the Public Health Act of 1875 focused primarily on combating squalid living conditions. It remains in force to this day.
Keywords
Reform, Government, Sanitation, Public Health
Sources:
A. J. Ley, A History of Building Control in England and Wales 1840-1990
Public Health Act 1848Public Health Act, 1875 - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/38-39/55/introduction
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_board_of_health
1860
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
No one in the history of nursing has had as much influence as that of Florence Nightingale. Born to wealthy parents in 1820, Florence felt a calling from God to serve as a nurse and pursued that calling in her early twenties. Her first major impact upon health care took place during the Crimean War, when she initiated a series of sanitary reforms. “It may be safely affirmed,” she wrote, “that even a magnificent stone Hospital…leaves the soldier in a sanitary condition far inferior to that of the commonest hut.” Following the Crimean conflict, Florence devoted her energies to the establishment of a training school in connection with St. Thomas Hospital, London, now called the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.
Florence died in 1910, four years before the First World War broke out. Yet, her influence on the Canadian nursing profession at the time is indisputable. It was due in part to Florence’s observations about sanitation that Canada’s nursing sisters and members of the V.A.D. sought to maintain sanitary hospital wards even though many wards were established under desperate circumstances. Perhaps more significantly, Florence’s devoted and gentle character inspired countless Canadian nurses in their care for the sick and wounded. “I told him it was to try and cheer a poor lonely heart like his,” said one nursing sister in response to a young soldier who asked why she had left the comforts of Canada to serve overseas. Such nurses embodied the spirit of Florence Nightingale throughout the First World War.
Keywords
Nightingale, Nursing, Sanitation, Crimean War
Sources:
Collected Works of Florence Nightingale (edit. Lynn McDonald, pg. 809); Canadian Nurses Association: One Hundred Years of Service (2008, pg. 10);
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale
Canadian Post (letter from N/S Katherine McKinnon, December 30 1916)
1875
Dr. Jennie Kidd Trout
Jennie Kidd Trout (1841-1921) was the first woman in Canada licensed to practice medicine after receiving her degree from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1875 and passing the Ontario registration examination. She would be the only woman legally-qualified to practice medicine in Canada until Emily Stowe completed her qualifications in 1880. She later helped to endow the Women’s Medical College in Kingston Ontario.
Keywords
Medicine, women, Trout, degree, medical college, Stowe
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jennie-trout/
1876
Toronto Women’s Literary Club
In 1876, Canada’s first suffrage organization known as the Toronto Women’s Literary Club was formed by Dr. Emily Howard Stowe to address issues of women’s social and political status. The group joined with the Social Progress Club in 1883 to become the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association after declaring its main purpose was to garner support for women’s right to vote.
Keywords
Suffrage, Stowe, right to vote, Toronto
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/womens-suffrage-in-ontario/
1880
Dr. Emily Howard Stowe
Emily Howard Stowe (1831-1903) was the founder of Canada’s first suffrage group (the Toronto Women’s Literary Club), the first president of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association (1889) as well as the first woman to practice medicine in Canada, although she was not legally licensed to do so until 1880. She received her medical degree from the New York Medical College for Women and went on to set up a practice in Toronto in 1867.
Keywords
Medicine, suffrage, degree, medical college, Stowe
Sources:
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/emily-stowe/
1883
Ann August Stowe-Gullen
Ann August Stowe-Gullen (1857-1943) was the daughter of Emily Howard Stowe and the first woman to receive a degree from a Canadian medical school. She studied at the Toronto School of Medicine and earned her degree from Victoria College in 1883. Like her mother, Ann was also a leading figure in the suffrage movement and succeeded her mother as president of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association in 1903.
"When women have a voice in national and international affairs, wars will cease forever."
Keywords
Medicine, Stowe-Gullen, suffrage, degree, medical college
Sources:
http://encyclopediecanadienne.ca/fr/article/stowe-gullen-ann-augusta/
1885
Canadian Nursing in the Northwest Rebellion
The earliest military service in which Canadian nurses were engaged occurred in 1885, during the Northwest Rebellion. Seven nurses, overseen by the Rev’d. Mother Hanna Grier Coome, served in Canada’s west for a period of four weeks. While their contributions are not nearly as well remembered as those of the “Bluebirds” during the First World War, these seven nurses foreshadowed what the military and civilian nursing profession in Canada was to become.
Keywords
Northwest, Rebellion, Canadian Army Medical Corps, Profession, Military, Nursing
Sources:
Veterans Affairs Canada - http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/those-who-served/women-and-war/nursing-sisters
1899
Canadian Nursing in the South African War
Perhaps the earliest recognition of Canadian nursing sisters achieving some level of distinction in the military took place during the South African War. It was there that the women were granted relative rank, pay, and the allowances of a lieutenant in the armed forces. Characterized by poisonous animals, antiseptic conditions, and a hot climate, the South African War served as a dangerous breeding ground for disease and injury. By the time hostilities ceased in the spring of 1902, a total of eight nursing sisters volunteered to serve in the conflict. One such nurse was Georgina Pope, who went on to make a name for herself during the First World War.
Keywords
South Africa, Boer, Nursing, Military, Canadian Army Medical Corps
Sources:
Veterans Affairs Canada - http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/those-who-served/women-and-war/nursing-sisters
1907
Mary Agnes Snively (1847-1933)
The influence of Florence Nightingale spread across the globe, with many women seeking to emulate her work in their own countries. One such woman was Mary Agnes Snively. Known as the “Mother of Nursing in Canada,” Mary was born in St. Catherines, Ontario, on November 12 1847. Like many other nurses, Mary spent a few years in the teaching profession before exploring the possibilities offered by nursing. In the autumn of 1882, Mary journeyed to New York City, where she entered the Bellevue Hospital Training School. Following her studies at Bellevue, Mary took up a position in 1884 as lady superintendent at Toronto General Hospital.
Throughout the following two decades, Mary devoted herself to cultivating a successful nursing school at Toronto General Hospital while also networking with other individuals and institutions across the country to better coordinate the professionalization of nursing. It was through her tireless efforts that Canada’s nursing sisters earned a reputation for being among the best-trained servicewomen in the First World War. Mary also gained renown on the world stage, serving for a period of five years as treasurer of the International Council of Nurses (1899-1904) and eventually serving as vice-president of the organization. Mary retired from her position at Toronto General Hospital around 1910 and died twenty-three years later, having secured her place in nursing history as a determined and progressive visionary.
Keywords
Nursing, International Council of Nurses, Professionalization, Organization, Toronto General Hospital
Sources:
Canadian Nurses Association: One Hundred Years of Service (2008, pgs. 10-18)
1908
Canadian Nurses Association
The Canadian Nurses Association had its roots in the creation of the International Council of Nurses, of which St. Catherines-born Mary Agnes Snively was instrumental in establishing. Nearly a decade after the ICN came into being, Mary became the first president of the Canadian Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses in 1907. According to its mandate, this organization sought to “promote by meetings, papers, discussions, cordial and professional relations and fellowship; and in all ways to develop and maintain the highest ideals in the nursing profession.” Such were the principles and ideals that paved the way for the formation of the Canadian Association of Trained Nurses in the autumn of 1908. Although its membership initially consisted of nurses living in Quebec and Ontario, the CNATN would eventually broaden its base to include trained nurses living in all parts of the country, from Vancouver and Edmonton in the west to Quebec City and Halifax in the east. In this respect, the CNATN paralleled the ongoing evolution and expansion of Canada itself, with Canadian women emerging as respected voices in the worldwide community of nursing professionals.
Keywords
Nursing, Training Schools, Council, Mandate, Profession
Sources:
Canadian Nurses Association: One Hundred Years of Service (2008, pg. 10-18)
1914
See also “Featured Nurses”
The “Bluebird” Uniform
“Nearly every one we would meet gazed at us. I think they must have taken us for a band of lady police. Evidently they had never seen the Nursing Sister’s uniform before.” - Katherine McKinnon about she and her fellow nursing sisters disembarked from their train in St. John, New Brunswick.
Katherine’s comparison of wartime nursing dress to that of a police uniform reinforced the sense of authority the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) uniform conveyed. Originally khaki in colour, the uniform was redesigned in blue at the recommendation of Georgina Pope. The blue and white represented the purity and compassion of the Mother Mary. As a result of this change in hue, Canada’s nursing sisters became known as “Bluebirds” and were instantly recognizable in among allied forces and ordinary Canadians alike. The blue uniform appeared in wartime propaganda posters, and inspired a sense of common purpose and loyalty amongst those who wore it.
Keywords
Dress, Khaki, Blue, Bluebirds, Pope, Nursing, McKinnon, Uniform
Sources:
Canadian Post (letter from N/S Katherine McKinnon, December 30 1916);
The Canadian Encyclopedia - http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/georgina-fane-pope/
A Cultural History of the Nurse’s Uniform (Bates, pg. 57)
The CNATN during the War
As it was for so many other organizations, the First World War was a turning point for the Canadian Association of Trained Nurses and the issue of professional training became of particular importance to the association. The CNATN strongly believed that only the very best nurses ought to be selected for service overseas; women were chosen with “scrupulous care” based on recommendations from provincial nursing associations. Alas, the federal government showed no interest in choosing only the cream of the crop, and as such allowed a number of what the CNATN deemed to be unqualified individuals to serve as military nurses. In fact, the Association stressed the importance of not only having the proper training, but also emphasized the need for nurses to have “the personality which is required to do good work among the soldiers overseas.” Because of their frustration with the government’s indifference, many members of CNATN expressed hope “that our power will be increased as the ballot is extended throughout the Dominion.”
Keywords
Nursing, Professionalization, Association, Training, Suffrage, CNATN, WWI
Sources:
Canadian Nurses Association: One Hundred Years of Service (2008, pgs. 32-33)
Elizabeth Smellie (1884-1968)
Many of Canada’s nursing sisters would apply their wartime experiences to the fields of public health and veterans’ rehabilitation. Others would serve in supervisory positions at hospitals across Canada and the United States of America. Elizabeth Smeillie embodies a lifetime of nursing service come full circle. Born in Port Arthur, Ontario, on March 22 1884, Elizabeth’s inspiration to become a nurse can be traced to the illnesses and subsequent deaths of her brother and sister. Before the First World War – during which she was among the first women to volunteer as nurses with the CAMC – Elizabeth worked as a nurse in both Canadian and American hospitals. During the war, she held supervisory positions at both the Duchess of Connaught Red Cross Hospital and No. 2 Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport before returning to Canada and serving as an assistant to Margaret C. MacDonald, the Matron-in-Chief of the CAMC.
Throughout the 1920s, Elizabeth undertook extensive study in the growing field of public health nursing; teaching courses in the subject at McGill University. She also became actively involved in the Victorian Order of Nurses, and was appointed as national chief superintendent of the order in 1924. Sixteen years later, in 1940, Elizabeth was appointed as Matron-in-Chief of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, a position she held for four years. Following the Second World War, Elizabeth returned to her responsibilities with the VON. She died in 1968, nearly sixty years after she embarked upon a rewarding career as a nurse.
Keywords
Canadian General Hospital, Matron, WWI, Public Health, Nursing, Canadian Army Medical Corps, Victorian Order of Nurses
Sources:
The Canadian Encyclopedia - http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elizabeth-lawrie-smellie/
Margaret C. MacDonald (1873-1948)
“We are become the custodians of a great heritage. Willing and unafraid these Nurses entered into the valley of the shadow of death. Though they died young these lives were crowned with achievement. To live but a short time, but pass away animated by high physical and moral courage, by noble purpose in a great cause is to attain one of the highest efforts of which life is capable.” - Maj. Margaret MacDonald at the unveiling of the memorial to Canada’s nursing sisters in the Centre Block of the Canadian parliament buildings
Born in 1873, Margaret C. MacDonald was raised in the village of Bailey Brook, Nova Scotia. The first woman in the British Empire to hold the rank of major, Margaret served as Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian nursing service. A nursing veteran of both the Spanish-American War and the South African War, Margaret joined Georgina Pope in being appointed as the first full-time Canadian military nurses eight years before the First World War began. As Matron-in-Chief, Margaret was responsible for overseeing some three thousand nurses attached to the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC), a responsibility that she continued to relish even in retirement: when nurses travelled to Ottawa in 1926 for the unveiling of nurse’s memorial, Margaret issued orders instructing her “warrior sisters” to show up in uniform, if possible. Decorated with both the Royal Red Cross and Florence Nightingale Medal, Margaret yearned to be of service during the Second World War and died in 1948.
Keywords
First, Military, Memorial, Nursing, Matron-in-Chief, Major, Pope, Canadian Army Medical Corp
Sources:
Margaret MacDonald: Imperial Daughter (Susan Mann, pg. 179);
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_C._MacDonald
Nova Scotia’s Part in the Great War (Hunt, pg. 410)
Georgina Pope (1862-1938)
Writing from Wynberg, South Africa where she was stationed during the Boer War, Georgina Pope described how “We nursed in huts and found the work at times very heavy, often times having our dinner between nine and ten p.m.” The heavy workloads, long hours, unpredictable weather, and threat of poisonous animals characterized the experience of nursing during the South African conflict, in which Georgina was the first Canadian nurse to see service.
Cecily Jane Georgina Fane Pope was born on New Years’ Day, 1862, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The daughter of William Henry Pope, a prominent Islander and Father of Confederation, Georgina was raised in an upper class household. Like a number of other Canadian women seeking to become nurses, Georgina trained at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. From here, she served in supervisory positions at hospitals in Washington, D.C. before moving on to become Superintendent of St. John’s Hospital in Yonkers, New York. Military service soon beckoned, and Georgina oversaw Canadian nursing contingents in South Africa in 1899 and again in 1902. With Margaret MacDonald, Georgina became one of two full-time military nurses in 1906, and would hold a variety of posts in both Canada and Europe during the First World War. By the time of her retirement in 1919, Georgina had accomplished much in the way of integrating Canadian women into military service via the nursing profession.
Keywords
First, Boer, South Africa, Canadian Army Medical Corps, WWI, uniform
Sources:
The Canadian Encyclopedia - http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/georgina-fane-pope/
Those Splendid Girls: The Heroic Service of Prince Edward Island Nurses in the Great War (Dewar, pgs. 1-11)
1915
Professionalization of Nursing
Brought on by the experiences of the war, during which many underqualified or semi-qualified women (particularly those in the Voluntary Aid Detachment) were selected to work in military hospitals overseas, the Canadian Association of Trained Nurses sought to implement a process of standardization in credentialing and education throughout the country. Even before the war, some people were expressing concern about “discarded probationers” and “ward maids” being mistaken by the public for trained, professional nurses. Some believed that a course of training in a hospital setting was not enough, and that aspiring nurses ought to also study in the university setting. Regardless of what direction the CNATN took, it was becoming increasingly clear after the emergence of formal training schools that the days of health-care in Canada being carried out on a strictly voluntary and amateur basis were numbered. By the 1920s, the newly-renamed Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) had made educational reform a priority.
Keywords
CNATN, CNA, Training, Standardization, Education, Reform, Association, Nursing
Sources:
Canadian Nurses Association: One Hundred Years of Service (2008, pg. 33, 35-39)
1916
Women in Western Canada win the Provincial Vote
On January 28, 1916, women in Manitoba are the first in Canada to receive the provincial right to vote and run for office. Later in the year, women of Alberta and Saskatchewan receive the same privileges.
Keywords
Suffrage, right to vote, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, provincial
1917
Military Service Act
The controversial Military Service Act was passed in May of 1917 and allowed for the conscription of Canadian men for military service in the final years of the First World War. Conscription was fiercely opposed by many farmers, trade unionists, non-British immigrants, pacifists as well as the majority of French Canada. The federal election of 1917 centered on this issue.
Keywords
conscription, WWI, Borden, election
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/military-service-act/
Military Voters Act
The Military Voters Act was the first for two temporary wartime measures passed in 1917 under Prime Minister Robert Borden to gain extra votes for the Union Government in the midst of the Conscription Crisis. The Act extended the right to vote to all serving in the Canadian military — including the Nursing Sisters. As a result, a large number of Canadian women received the right to vote federally for the first time.
Keywords
Suffrage, right to vote, election, Nursing Sisters, conscription, Borden
Sources:
Wartime Elections Act
The Wartime Elections Act was a temporary wartime measure passed in 1917 under Prime Minister Robert Borden in attempt to gain extra votes for the Union Government in the midst of the Conscription Crisis. The Act gave the right to vote to female relatives of Canadian soldiers serving overseas, because it was assumed that they would be supportive of conscription. At the same time, the Act disenfranchised many Canadian who had immigrated from “enemy” countries.
Keywords
Suffrage, right to vote, election, conscription, Borden
Sources:
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-elections-act/
Women of Ontario and British Columbia gain the provincial vote
Women in British Columbia and Ontario receive the provincial right to vote and run for office.
Keywords
Suffrage, right to vote, provincial, Ontario, British Columbia
Sources:
Roberta MacAdams (Price)
Roberta Catherine MacAdams Price (1881-1959), along with Louise McKinney, was one of the first women elected to a legislate in the Commonwealth. Born in Calgary, MacAdams served as a Nursing Sister during the First World War and worked as a dietician at the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, England. On September 18, 1917, she was elected to represent the soldiers overseas in Alberta. She became the first woman in Canada to introduce and successfully move a piece of legislation.
Keywords
Suffrage, nursing sister, MacAdams, Alberta, election, Orpington
Sources:
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/roberta-macadams-price/
1918
Health Reform in Canada
Efforts to reform health care in Canada generally paralleled those in the United Kingdom. As was the case across the pond, sanitation was a significant issue throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Additionally, pollution caused by a coal-fired infrastructure made for a particularly unhealthy environment in urban areas such as Toronto and Montreal. While many privately run or church-run hospitals did exist, health care was primarily a domestic task. Because Canada was created as a federal state, it became clear that responsibilities relating to health care would have to be divided between the federal and provincial jurisdictions. This remains the case today. Yet, for many years in the first quarter of the twentieth century, the provinces were forced to take the lead, as the federal government reduced funding available for healthcare. It was not until after the Second World War that the federal government increased its efforts in encouraging public health through welfare.
Keywords
Federal, Provincial, Reform, Environment, Government, Welfare
Sources:
The Canadian Encyclopedia - http://(http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/public-health/
Nova Scotia Women Get the Vote
On April 26, 1918, women were given the vote and the right to run for office provincially through the Nova Scotia Franchise Act.
Keywords
Suffrage, Franchise, Vote, Borden, Election
Sources:
http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/ParlInfo/Compilations/ProvinceTerritory/ProvincialWomenRightToVote.aspx
The Last Hundred Days
The Last Hundred Days represent the last offensive campaign of the First World War and the significant role Canada played in the Allies victory. Roughly 100,000 Canadians were able to advance 130 km but the the success didn’t come without a cost. Approximately 6,800 Canadians and Newfoundlanders were killed in three, short months.
Keywords
WWI, war, 100 days, Canadian, Currie
Sources:
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/fact_sheets/hundred-days
Anti-conscription Riots Break Out in Quebec
After a controversial decision by Borden's government to implement conscription, riots broke out across Quebec . The worst of these riots involved the deaths of four civilians. MIKAN no. 3193206 - Anti-conscription riot
Keywords
Conscription, Borden, WWI, Riot, Quebec
Sources:
An Act to Confer the Electoral Franchise Upon Women
On May 24, 1918, the federal government passed An Act to Confer the Electoral Franchise Upon Women, which extended the vote to women at least 21 years of age regardless to whether they were able to vote in the provincial elections.
Keywords
Suffrage, Franchise, Vote, Borden, Election
Sources:
http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/ParlInfo/Compilations/ProvinceTerritory/ProvincialWomenRightToVote.aspx
Armistice Day
On November 11, 1918 at 11:00am , the fighting of the First World War ceased. It would be another three years before the poppy was worn as an act of remembrance, a reference to the poem “In Flanders Field" by Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.
Keywords
WWI, peace, treaty, armistice, Borden
Sources:
http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/after-the-war/remembrance/remembrance-day/
Battle of the Canal-du-Nord and Cambrai
The battle of Cambrai and Canal-du-Nord bean on September 27, 1918 and ended on October 11, 1918 with a victory for the Canadian troops. Of the 68,500 men involved in the conflict, 13,672 were lost.
Keywords
WWI, war, 100 days, Canadian, Currie
Sources:
https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-1600-e.html