WWI Nurse at Vancouver Archives

Recently I was at the Vancouver Archives to do some research for a book I am working on. I was surprised to see, sitting in front of me, a bust of a Canadian First World War nurse (see photo). The woman turned out to be Nursing Sister Emily Eliza Edwardes, who later married J. S. Matthews, with whom she co-founded the Vancouver City Archives. Edwardes left a number of photos and other records of her WWI service to the Archives. These records reveal that she was one of the survivors of the German sinking of the Braemar Castle, a Red Cross hospital ship torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea. During her service in the CAMC (1914-1919), she served in Salonika, Egypt and England. Edwardes, who was born in 1875) was a graduate of the nursing program at the Vancouver City Hospital (1904). Nurse Edwardes' files are only one of a number of WWI nurse records at the City Archives. For more information, contact 604-736-8561 or go to www.vancouver.ca/archives. The staff are helpful and friendly.