Sister Soldiers of the Great War

Award-winning author Cynthia Toman brings to life the experiences of Canada’s first women soldiers – nursing sisters who served during the First World War.

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“I am on night duty ... on what is supposed to be the ‘hopeless ward’ so you can imagine, or try to, just what I am doing. I know you cannot really have the faintest idea ...”

In Sister Soldiers of the Great War, award-winning author Cynthia Toman recovers the long-lost history of Canada’s first women soldiers – nursing sisters who enlisted as officers with the Canadian Army Medical Corps. These experienced professional nurses left their friends, families, and jobs to enlist in the army. Granted relative rank and equal pay to men, they had a mandate to salvage as many sick and wounded men as possible for return to the front lines. Nothing prepared them for poor living conditions, the scale of casualties, or the type of wounds they encountered, but their letters and diaries reveal that they were determined to soldier on under all circumstances while still “living as well as possible.”