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    HomeWar / Conflict / TerrorismFirst World War Nursing Sister Laura Gamble: ‘Tender hands, buoyant spirit’

    First World War Nursing Sister Laura Gamble: ‘Tender hands, buoyant spirit’

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    By Steven Fouchard, Army Public Affairs

    Ottawa, Ontario — When remembers the First World War, Western Europe looms large: Vimy, Passchendaele, Flanders. However, Canadians made equally significant, if lesser-known, contributions in the Mediterranean region.

    Canada had no combat troops there but, in places like , Malta and parts of , Canadians served with great distinction in medical roles.

    Among them was Laura Gamble, one of more than 3,000 Nursing Sisters who served with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during the war. The vast majority of those – more than 2,500 – would do so overseas.

    Born in Wakefield, Quebec in 1887, Ms. Gamble graduated from the Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing in 1910 and enlisted in 1915. On October 18 of that year, she departed England for the Greek isle of Lemnos on the Royal Mail Ship (R.M.S.) Kildonan Castle.

    Lemnos was a major centre of the Allies' efforts against the Ottoman Empire. It would be the launching point for the Battle of Gallipoli, an ill-fated Allied campaign to capture the Dardanelles Straits. This would allow them to link up with Russian forces on the Black Sea to oppose Turkey.

    Nurses in the Mediterranean dealt with the same heavy workloads as those elsewhere but with the added complications of extreme weather – both hot and cold – and disease outbreaks.

    Colonel G.W.L. Nicholson, the late Deputy Director of the…

    Continue Reading This Article At The Canadian Armed Forces Website

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