A poppy from Vimy Ridge
Canadian nurse from P.E.I. became first American casualty
All hell seemed to break loose… we realized the great offensive had started.” These were the words of Nurse Beatrice MacDonald of North Bedeque, P.E.I.
Although she was a Canadian, she was serving in the American Army but was attached to a British Casualty Clearing Station during the Battle of Passchendaele. This Canadian nurse became the first American casualty of the Great War. She would also become the most decorated nurse of any country in the Great War.
On the night of Aug. 17, 1917, having worked straight out for 22 hours, she struggled back to her tent for a much-needed rest. She could hear enemy planes, the sky lit up from anti-aircraft guns, she heard explosions near- by, which caused her to remark to her tent mate that “I believe they are out to get us.”
As a precaution, she picked up her helmet, but before she could get it on her head the tent was struck with shrapnel and to her surprise blood began to run down her face.
She was teken by hospital train to Paris for the removal of the shrapnel from her eye and face. Unfortunately, the doctors were unable to save her eye. When her brother, Capt. Donald MacDonald, a medical officer in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, along with her Commanding Officer (CO) Dr. Brewer, came to visit, she was worried about her future in the army. She exacted a promise from her CO that she would not be sent home. Satisfied that she was in good hands, both her brother and her CO returned to duty.
On their way back to their units, her brother, who was proud of the Canadian success at Vimy Ridge only four months before, decided to show his American officer friend the battlefield at Vimy. While standing on that historic ridge, both officers also thought of Beatrice, and they picked a poppy from Vimy Ridge, which Dr. Brewer later delivered to her.
Ninety-six years after the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the wounding of Beatrice MacDonald, her scrapbook came to light at the Schlesinger library in the Harvard University archives. And there, among its pages, is the faded but perfectly preserved poppy given to her by her brother and Dr. Brewer.
After all these years it still carries the implied message that if the Canadians could take Vimy Ridge against great odds, she, too, would prevail. And prevail she did. This article, which has been provided by Katherine Dewar of Charlottetown, will run in The Guardian on one Saturday each month. Dewar’s book, “Those Splendid Girls The Heroic Service of Prince Edward Island Nurses in the Great War”, was recently published by Island Studies Press. Check out thosesplendidgirls.ca or email dewar.katherine3@gmail.com.