Book launch held in Souris
— Rena McLean was on her way home to P.E.I. after completing numerous tours of duty at the front.
In 1914, the Souris woman was with the very first Canadian medical contingent to serve on military hospitals and ships in both France and England.
Despite surviving the slaughter of Salonika in Greece, she never made it back.
She was killed on her way home when her ship, the Llandovery Castle, was sunk by a German submarine.
Her fascinating life was celebrated by the town of Souris recently as part of the launch of a new book called Those Splendid Girls.
Author and former nurse Katherine Dewar penned the book that focuses on P.E.I. military nurses in the Great War.
“I’ve always wanted to redress a 100-year-old wrong,” says Dewar. “And that is the absence in the historical narratives of both Prince Edward Island and Canada of nurses’ experiences in the Great War.”
Rena was the daughter of John McLean, a partner in the Matthew and McLean store that dominated the local economy here, and in northeastern P.E.I., during the early 1900s.
The ceremony for Lieut. Nursing Sister Rena McLean was held in her father’s old store, now a town information and gathering centre. A large monument to Rena is located in the Souris West Cemetery.
Dewar taught for 22 years at the P.E.I. School of Nursing and the Summerside native turned her focus to history upon retiring. She is the recipient of a P.E.I. Museum and Heritage award of honour for outstanding contribution to Island heritage.