 | ||
An estimated 1,500 nurses from a number of countries lost their lives during World War I. Some died from disease or accidents, and some from enemy action.
Contents
Australia
29 Australian nurses died from disease or injuries; 25 of these died on active service, and 4 died in Australia from injuries or illness sustained during their service. Most of these nurses were serving in the Australian Army Nursing Service; however, a small number were serving with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, the British Army's nursing service during World War I. Other Australian women made their own way to England and joined the British Red Cross.
Britain
Edith Cavell was executed for treason by a German firing squad on 12 October 1915 in Brussels, Belgium.
In March 1915, four Scottish nurses died in Serbia of typhus. They were part of a group of Scottish women - nurses, doctors and volunteers - who had travelled to Serbia to establish Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service:
Catherine Miller was working at the 1st Western General Hospital in Liverpool, England when she died on 24 December 1918. She had contracted malaria while serving in Russia.
Canada
53 Canadian nurses lost their lives during the war. In one incident, on 27 June 1917, 14 nurses were killed when their hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle was torpedoed while travelling from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool, England. The nurses who died were:
New Zealand
12 New Zealand nurses died during the war, including 10 who died in the sinking of the hospital ship SS Marquette.
Romania
Ecaterina Teodoroiu was a Romanian nurse who enlisted as a soldier and died on 3 September 1917 during active service.
United States of America
Helen Fairchild died in France on January 18, 1918, from post-operative complications following surgery for an ulcer.