Life in colour

The colourized photos in “Grey War No More” in the October-November 2018 issue of Canada’s History connect us to Canadians at war in a deeply personal way.

The unidentified ambulance driver with the confident smile on page thirty-nine is Vancouver’s Grace MacPherson, one of the first women in the city to buy her own car. As a nineteen-year-old, she sent letters in 1914 to the Canadian War Office and the British Red Cross asking to become an ambulance driver. She was flatly rejected.

The carnage at the Battle of the Somme in France changed everything. Male ambulance drivers were needed at the front, so MacPherson and other women were soon transporting wounded Canadians from Vimy, France, to hospitals at Étaples. She became one of the Voluntary Aid Detachment’s best drivers and was an ace at looking after her Canadianmade McLaughlin Buick. A century later, MacPherson’s caring and heroic legacy continues to inspire.

Mark Forsythe Fort Langley, B.C.

During the fur trade era, outposts regularly received “packets” of correspondence. Email your comments to editors@CanadasHistory.ca or write to Canada’s History, Bryce Hall Main Floor, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9 Canada.