Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 12: A major award

Margaret MacDonald grew up in Nova Scotia, but moved to New York to study nursing. After graduating in 1895, she went to Panama and cared for workers on the Panama Canal. She would become one of the first military nurses during the Spanish-American War, when she worked on a hospital ship caring for American soldiers. She would also serve as a nurse during the Boer War in South Africa.

Upon returning to Canada she was named the head nurse of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, where she insisted on implementing professional standards to military nursing. Her dedication to military nursing would pay off when, on April 11, 1914, she would be named Matron in Chief and became the first woman to rise to the rank of major in any military service related to the British empire.

Her service in World War I focused more on leadership than practical nursing, and in making military nursing a realistic career opportunity for women. She would return to Canada in 1919 and was involved in the reorganization of Canada's military medical service until her retirement the following year.