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History World War I

This Small Army of Women

Canadian Volunteer Nurses and the First World War

by (author) Linda J. Quiney

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
May 2017
Category
World War I, Canada, Women
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774830713
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $95.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774830744
    Publish Date
    May 2017
    List Price
    $34.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774830720
    Publish Date
    Jan 2018
    List Price
    $34.95

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Description

With her soft linen head scarf and white apron emblazoned with a red cross, the Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, or VAD, has become a romantic emblem of the First World War. This Small Army of Women draws on diaries, letters, and interviews to tell the forgotten story of the nearly two thousand women from Canada and Newfoundland who volunteered to “do their bit” at home and overseas.

 

Middle-class and well-educated but largely untrained, VADs were excluded from Canadian military hospitals overseas (the realm of the professional nurse) but helped solve Britain’s nursing deficit and filled gaps in Canada’s domestic nursing ranks. Their dedication and struggle to secure a place at their brothers’ bedsides reveals much about women’s contributions to the war effort, the tensions between amateur and professional nurses, and women’s evolving role outside the home.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Linda J. Quiney is a historian and retired lecturer and serves as an affiliate with the Consortium for Nursing History Inquiry at the University of British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

Linda Quiney has written a carefully researched, lively, and accessible book. Both historians and general readers will value its compelling story of a group of courageous women whose accomplishments have been largely neglected in histories of the First World War.

Michigan War Review Studies

Linda J Quiney’s This Small Army of Women documents the Canadian and Newfoundland volunteer nurses in WW1. The book is an interesting mix of facts, figures and analysis, interspersed with personal stories of these Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses – VADs. This Small Army of Women is another good addition to the recent scholarship on the role of medical women in the war.

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