The Canadian Military Heritage Project

 ™

Women in the War

This page is dedicated to that group of people whose contribution and importance is so often overlooked in the story of the Great War.

The years of the Great War saw a remarkable spread, in Canada as well as in other parts of the world, of female suffrage or women's rights. The demands of the war for huge quantities of fighting men and material provided women with an opportunity to prove themselves like none before. Women found themselves filling many positions that had previously been reserved for men, as well as continuing to maintain more traditional (but no less important) roles such as nursing.

Over 1000 women were employed by the Royal Air Force in Canada on a wide range of duties, such as motor transport work; and many went over seas as ambulance drivers or on other war work. The number of women employed in Munition Factories exceeded 30,000. Between 5,000 and 6,000 were employed in the civil service and untold thousands more in banks, offices, factories and farms. ¹

The Great War was the first modern industrial war and it could not have been fought as such without the direct participation of women. Over 2000 women enlisted as nursing sisters in the Canadian Expeditionary Force betwen 1914-1918. ² The folowing is a partial list of nurses with the Canadian Expeditionary Force taken from two photographs dated 1914. ³ I will be adding more names of women involved in the war as they become available.

Photo #1

• Miss L. Mabe, Montreal.
• Miss A. Hinchey, Kingston.
• Miss H. Graham, Glasgow. N.S.
• Miss J. Robertson, Montreal.
• Miss F. McCullum, Kingston.
• Miss E. Pense,Kingston.
• Miss R.A.M. Gratton, Pictou.N.S.
• Miss C. MuCullough, Ottawa.
• Miss V.C. Nesbitt, Ottawa.
• Miss M.M. Mills, Ottawa.
• Miss M. Goodeve, Ottawa.
• Miss M. Kent, Montreal.
• Miss M.C. Worth, Quebec.
• Miss K. Lambkin, Ottawa.
• Miss D.E. Winter, Ottawa.
• Miss Vernon Smith, Ottawa.
• Miss E. Henderson, Winnipeg.

Photo #2

• Miss E.H. Leslie, Montreal.
• Miss B.M. Cromwell, Quebec.
• Miss M.C. Jamieson, Quebec.
• Miss E.B. Burpee, Vancouver.
• Miss J. Pelletier, Quebec.
• Miss A.D. Allan, Halifax.
• Miss I. Denmark, Montreal.
• Miss C. Macalister, Kingston.
• Miss M. Pugh, Kingston.
• Miss C. Galt, Winnipeg.
• Miss M.C. MacLeod, Halifax.
• Miss A.J. Attrill, Halifax.
• Miss J. Smith, Montreal.
• Miss M. Clint, Montreal.
• Miss B.J. Willering, Smith's Falls. (can't find)
• Miss M.A. Follette, Port Gravel. N.S.
• Miss E.M. Binning, Quebec.
• Miss E.A. Ponting, Quebec.
• Miss M.M. Muir, Montreal.

Links to information about Canadian women in the War

• "My beloved Poilus": Letters home from a Nurse, trained in Canada, serving in France, illustrated with original photographs.

Footnotes: