I spent some time over the past few days updating the list of nursing sisters, adding in the links to their individual records. This is a manual exercise, and really not a lot of fun. I’ll have to look at a better way of keeping this list updated.

But what I found as I was doing this astounded me. Duguid, in his Official History of the Canadian Forces in The Great War put the number of Nursing Sisters that served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps at 2,854. As of this morning, there are 2,616 that have been entered into the Canadian Great War Project.

Dion Loach entered 190 Nursing Sisters as he was transcribing Nominal Rolls, and Marika Pirie entered an astounding 2,164. Many thanks to two for this incredible task.

This allows us to paint a picture of the women who served. They were predominantly Canadian born (82%), typically 5 foot 5 inches in height and the average age was 30, with some of the Matrons as old as 56 and Minnie Lisk being only 15 years old! They were largely protestant, 63% being either Church of England or Presbyterian. Approximately 60 of them died as a result of the war, the youngest being Eden Lyal Pringle who died in May 1918 at the age of 23.

Thanks again to Marika and Dion for their work in entering the details of all of these women.