Students uncover forgotten history of WW I nurses stationed on remote Greek island

At the height of the First World War, thousands of young Canadian womenjourneyed to the front lines to care for wounded soldiers. Though the nursing sisters, as they were known,braved harsh conditions and were exposed to many of the same horrors of war as soldiers, history lessons have largely left out their contributions.

A high school history initiative aims to change that.

As part of Project True North, Grade 10 students at Ottawa high school Glebe Collegiate are uncovering their stories like those of Nova Scotia's Jessie Brown Jaggard, who was stationed on the Greek island of Lemnos.

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"Her story is so beautiful. I don't know if anyone knows what she did," said 15-year-old Isabelle Medcof.

Medcof's classmateMaggie Wightman, 14, pored over Jaggard's attestation papers and personal diaries to discover what life was like tending to soldiers in unsanitary conditions and building a makeshift hospital with 500 beds.

"Nurses really gave the best parts of themselves away to the soldiers," said Medcof, shocked to learnhow the prevalence of flies and fleas forced nurses to work in teams of twoto change bandages one to tend to the wounds and the other toswat away insects.

Jaggard died of dysentery while caring for soldiers on the front lines in 1915.

"I just kept wondering, what if I was born in that era?They didn't really know what they're getting into," said Wightman.

'Custodians of a memory'

For teacher Jessica McIntyre, the project helps students understandwhy nurses would volunteer to put themselves in harm's way, but also to bring that era inhistory alive.

"Students become custodians of a memory," said McIntyre. "They open up a file. And they get to learn about someone's grandma, someone's aunt, someone's sisterand they learn about where they enlisted."

Last year, McIntyre's class studied Canada's only all-Black First World War battalion. The No. 2 Construction Battalion served in the forests of southeast France, cutting down trees, taking them to the mills and eventuallyto railway stations.

Though they did not face battle, they were considered a key support in the war effort. For McIntyre, it's important to remember all of those who contributed.

"We never want to take away the importance of soldiers on the front lines, but we're starting to question who supported them," she said.

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Student sleuths

Benjamin Broomand Xander Slavitch, both 15,said they felt like lawyers working a case in a movie, as they wrestled through dozens oforiginal medical documents about nurse Fanny Pugh.

"Because soldiers are more talked about, they're much more well known. We didn't know what to expect when researching nurses. It's such an unexplored territory," said Slavitch.

The students were struck by Pugh's ability to persevere on the front, even after she had an emergencyappendectomy on Lemnos. They said her story has changed the way they think about the First World War.

As part of Project True North, the nurses' experienceswill be added to a database. But these students say Pugh's story will linger.

"Personally, it's going to stay in my head," said Broom, raisinglarger questions aboutwhat other voices are missing from his history book.

"Beyond soldiers and nurses, are there any more perspectives we could look into? There must be more out there," said Slavitch.