Carola Douglas Revisited

In several past blogs, I have been reconstructing the life of Carola Douglas through research and contributions by family members. However, family historian Anne Douglas has gone even farther. She has done extensive research on Carola and has come up with information that really casts light on this adventurous woman. With her kind permission, I am providing you with an excerpt of her account, along with photographs from her husband's family collection. As Anne writes:

"Carola Josephine Douglas was born in Costa Rica in 1874. One of four children born to Captain Andrew Trew Douglas and his wife Juanita...Andrew was 12 years old when he emigrated from Co. Armagh, in Ireland, with his parents and eight siblings in 1844.

He learned to be an engineer and a sea captain on the Great Lakes of his new land. He then left Canada to sail the oceans of South America, and led a very adventurous life. It was in Panama that he met his wife to be, Juanita Lanus(Lasas), a lady of Spanish descent.

Andrew and Juanita’s first two children, John Taylor and Elise were born in Panama in1868 and 1871.Then Andrew became very successful using his engineering skills, consulting on many ventures in South America including the Panama railroad and the French attempt to build the Panama Canal. This eventually led the family to projects in Costa Rica, and it was here that Carola Josephine was born in 1874 and then another brother, Arthur, my husband’s grandfather in 1877. It has been said that the whole family were fluent in the Spanish and English language. [The couple also had two other children, John Taylor, Elise, and Arthur--Anne's husband's grandfather.]

In May 1884 Andrew, Juanita and their children travelled from Panama to New York...A few days after their arrival, Andrew became gravely ill and died. Within a couple of days Juanita also died leaving their children as orphans."

The Douglas children were taken in by family members in Toronto and Winnipeg. From there on, their early origins were forgotten (at least in census records) and they were listed as Canadian born and their ages were also often incorrectly recorded. According to Anne Douglas, "Carola’s nursing career began at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia," and the young woman was a frequent traveller, living in New York, but visiting places as far afield as Bermuda, Yugoslavia, Panama, England and Scotland.

In 1915, "Carola’s trip to Australia was cut short, when she heard that war had broken out in Europe. She travelled to Canada, presumably to the home of her sister Elise, who lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba," writes Anne Douglas. "It was here that Carola then enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps [Toronto Star Obituary

On the 18th of February, 1915 Carola arrived at Liverpool, England aboard the S.S. Zeeland. Her sailing companions were the brave men and women of the first contingent of the C.A.M.C. Netheravon House in Wiltshire was Carola’s first destination. This was a convalescent home for wounded Canadian troops, and it was here that Carola’s attestation papers were signed on March 4th 1915."

The rest of Carola's story you will find in previous blogs on this site. However, Anne Douglas's closing remarks should be shared: "Nursing Sister Carola Josephine Douglas, fulfilled her destiny, and is remembered forever for her love, and courage in the line of duty." Thanks Anne!

Note: Please look at the photograph "Canadian Nurses." It is from Carola Douglas' album, and Anne Douglas would love to be able to identify the women pictured. If you might have information, please email me at the contact information provided on my blog.

News and Views on First World War Nurses

I've been on the run the past few months and haven't noted some of the correspondence I've been receiving regarding this blog. I want to acknowledge the helpful input of Dr. Stephen Davies, the Project Director of the Canadian Letters and Images Project, a site that hosts a wealth of wonderful images and letters written by Canadians during the First World War. If you haven't visited that site, do check it out-- http://www.canadianletters.ca. Recently, Stephen sent me a correction for a photo I posted. I thought it belonged to NS Munro, but in fact, it belonged to a Margaret Munro who was engaged to Canadian soldier Wellington Murray Dennis, who was killed in 1918. My apologies for that mistake--I have taken the image off of the blog. Thanks Stephen!

I've also received correspondence from Anne Douglas, a descendant of Carola Douglas. Anne is doing a lot of research into Carola's life and will send us an update in the near future.





Finally, through researcher Tighe McManus and Annette Fulford, I've had contact with Todd Tifft, whose grandfather was Robert Hastings Miller, a Sgt. in the A.E.F. 641st Aero Supply Squadron. Robert was stationed at the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun, France. He also kept a photo album which is now in Todd's hands. In that album are photos of the grave of Marion Overend, a Canadian who served as a nursing sister in the American Military Nursing Corps. I wrote about Marion in an earlier blog, and Todd has kindly given me permission to reproduce the photos of Marion's grave--likely taken soon after her funeral. As Todd writes: "The grave is for Canadian Nursing sister Marion L. Overend who died in an airplane crash at the 3rd Air Instruction Center at Issoudun, France. An unnamed Captain was seriously injured in this crash. Almost all of the A.E.F. soldiers attended this funeral. Marion must have been quite brave and adventurous to have gone for a ride in one of these aircraft. I would guess that all nurses were held in high esteem by the doughboys serving in France and the tragic loss of Marion would have touched them deeply." Thanks Todd for sharing your photos with Finding the Forty-Seven!

More on Carola Douglas

I recently received an email from Martha Jackson, Project Coordinator of For King and Country, a project to transcribe the war memorials in Toronto Schools (there are 26,498 memorials covering both world wars). She told me that Carola Douglas was a graduate of Harbord Collegiate, in Toronto. A memorial photograph of Douglas still hangs in the school today. To visit the For King and Country site and learn about the women and men they remember, visit:

http://torontofamilyhistory.org/kingandcountry/

Finding the Fallen & Carola Douglas

Happy new year to all the readers of Finding the Forty-Seven. During the holidays, I caught the tail-end of another continuation of the Finding the Fallen television series. Once again, the team was on the hunt for another fallen soldier of the First World War. The show is really well done and I'm glad it is being continued. However, I felt again the great lack of interest shown by producers of such programs in the experience of the women of the First World War--especially those who served in various capacities during the conflict. According to Arthur Marwick's excellent book Women at War 1914-1918, there were over 7,000 women served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the war. Nearly 8,000 served in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps. Over 2,400 served as nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Not to mention, of course, the tens of thousands of women worldwide who worked in munitions factories. Some of these women gave their lives (munitions workers often died later of chemical related causes). Yet television producers seem strangely uninterested in their experience. A colleague who pitches shows to History Channel recently told me that those in charge of the channel believe that women aren't interested in history, so it's unlikely that they will produce programs related to women and the first war any time soon. Such a view is wrong on all kinds of levels. I have taught history on a number of occasions and often have more women than men in my classes. I also believe that women aren't the only ones interested in women's contributions to war. Information for the following story about a nurse from the Great War, for instance, has been contributed by a male reader, David Smith.

Carola Douglas Revisited

Le Treport, France, August 28, 1915. It was a scorching hot afternoon at the Canadian General Hospital in Le Treport, France. Twenty-three-year-old William Henry "Harry" Patrick had been returned to his ward following surgery. Patrick had been a Nottingham miner before the war and was now a private in “C” Company of the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Forresters. He had suffered terrible wounds and was anxious that his family should know how he was doing. Nursing Sister Carola Douglas was sitting beside him, YMCA letterhead on her knee, preparing a letter home on his behalf:

Dear Mrs. and Mr. Patrick and family:
I am writing these few lines for your son who was operated on this morning and is feeling rather upset. He had some shrapnel taken out of his leg. His condition this morning is a little serious as it always is after an operation, it will hurt. But in a few days he will be feeling much more able to write for himself. In the meantime I shall drop you a line every day. He is a good patient. It will be my pleasure to see that he wants for nothing. Will you kindly tell his wife. I am,
Very sincerely
Carola J. Douglas
Nursing Sister

Unfortunately, Harry died on August 31st. Carola Douglas also died during the war. However, the story does have a hopeful twist. Harry had married on May 24, 1915. During his short honeymoon, a child was conceived. That child was contributor David Smith’s grandmother!

Thanks to David for sharing this story and a copy of the original letter from Carola Douglas. If any other readers have stories they’d like to share about nurses of the first war, please forward them to me and I will be glad to post them. I am gathering more information on other fallen nurses and hope to do another blog before then end of the month.

Remembering Carola Douglas and Anna Stamers

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! The research materials I ordered have now arrived and I am able to catch up on my entries for Canadian nurses who died during the First World War. As I wasn't able to provide a nurse biography last month, this month I am providing two. Both nurses died on the Llandovery Castle (see earlier blogs). The two nurses had many things in common beyond the manner of their deaths. As I've discovered with many of the nurses who died on the Castle, they had both provided exemplary service to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. In fact, it was this high level of service and the fact that both were exhausted from the work that they had done, that likely led to them being given the posting to the Llandovery Castle. Authorities would have recognized that their duties on board the hospital ship would have been much more limited than the work they had done previously and the trip to Canada would allow them a much-needed break and opportunity to visit family and friends.

Anna Irene Stamers
The military file on Anna Irene Stamers is a thick one. It describes a slender brown haired woman with blue eyes, standing 5' 6 1/2 inches tall. Anna was from St. John, New Brunswick. At the time of enlistment on June 3, 1915, she was living at 171 Waterloo Street with her widowed mother, Sarah Stamers. Her service record describes Anna as having been assigned to No. 1 General Hospital in Etaples, France. It wasn't an easy assignment. Located near railway lines and with a training camp attached to it, Etaples was often the target for German boming raids. Nurses also faced the risk of catching illnesses from the patients they served. Just four months after being taken on strength, she was a patient at another hospital at Etaples (No. 24 General), suffering from some sort of infection. (Her illness was described as "inflam. ext. aud.meatus. slt." I'd be happy to hear from any readers as to what this illness might have been.)She was later transferred to a convalescent home in Paris Plage. In July she returned to duty and there seems to have been no lasting effects from her illness.

In January 1917, Anna was given two weeks leave. In May 1917--perhaps ready for a less adventurous posting--she was tranferred back to England and ultimately posted to the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent. In March 1918, she was transferred to the llandovery Castle. After an uneventful journey to Canada, caring for wounded men returning home, she enjoyed a short leave. In July, she boarded the ship for the return journey. Sadly, she didn't make it back to England. The ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-86, on June 27. None of the nurses on board survived. Her records are stamped "Missing Believed Drowned." The War Service Gratuity form in her file lists her mother as her dependant and says "not eligible no S.A. paid." I would be interested if any readers know if this meant that her mother did not receive a gratuity and if not, why not?


Carola Josephine Douglas
Carola Josephine Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 7, 1887. At the time of her enlistment on March 2, 1915, she does not provide a home address, but does say that the address of her next of kin was Straw River, Manitoba. She was listed as having a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair and was five feet four inches tall. Like Anna Stamers, she was assigned to Etaples, where she worked at No. 2 Canadian General Hospital. In October 1915 she was assigned to the No. 2 British Stationary Hospital at Abbeville for short term temporary duty there. She was returned to Etaple and given three days leave. In November 1916, she was transferred to duty with No. 5 Canadian General Hospital in Salonika. In March 1917, she suffered from badly infected fingers--a potentially life-threatening injury at this time. She recovered and returned to duty. However, by October 1917, she was exhausted from overwork and stress. She was sent back to England, where she was admitted to the Canadian Red Cross Special Hospital in Basingstoke to rest and recuperate. After her health was restored, Carola (like Anna Stamers) was attached to No. 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington, Kent. In March 1918, she too was transferred to the Llandovery Castle, sharing the same fate as the other nursing sisters on that ship.

I am following up on some further research on Carola Douglas and hope to have more information about her for my next post. Please let me know if you have any information you would like to share about any of the nurses on this blog.