25 August 2014

Sister Heroines and the Llandovery Castle

I've been dipping into Sister Heroines, a 2002 book by Marjorie Barron Norris. As explained in the preface the book "makes accessible the hidden records of women who were Canadian nursing sisters (during World War I). Bringing together official records, personal memoirs, newspapers and interviews, she has given to us an account of courage and compassion that has too often been neglected. Most importantly, she has managed to bring the people she writes about to vivid life."

Interest for genealogists is packed in with names and lists, including one for the nursing sisters who lost their lives in the torpedoing of the Llandovery Castle on 27 June 1918. I'd been aware that one nurse from Ottawa, Minnie Katherine Gallagher, was a victim and is memorialized at Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery. I was not aware that two other nurses from the area, Jean Templeman and Jesse Mabel McDiarmid were also victims

Jean Templeman was born on 16, 1885. She enlisted in Montreal on May 21, 1915 giving her home address as 43 Arlington Avenue, Ottawa. She is also memorialized on a family gravestone at Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery.

Jessie Mabel McDiarmid, known as Mabel, born 14 Aug 1880 the daughter of John and Janie McDiarmid, is mentioned on a family stone at Dewar Cemetery, Beckwith Township, Lanark County, Ontario

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