Assistant angels: Canadian voluntary aid detachment nurses in the Great War

Canada's Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses of the Great War have yet to be recognized in Canadian nursing history. This article offers a synopsis of the evidence traced thus far in the search to recover their history, and presents some of the issues that history addresses. Comparisons to the much larger and well-documented British VADs of the era testify to similarities in social origin from among the more privileged Protestant, middle and upper classes from across Canada. Yet significant distinctions have been found in both the academic and employment profile of Canada's VADs. The research addresses conflicts that surrounded issues in the professionalization of nursing, the gendered dimensions of nursing as "women's work," both in peace and war, and tensions deriving from the juxtaposition of both volunteer and career nurses in the hospital environment. The postwar effects of VAD nursing are also addressed, both from the perspective of the women themselves and the emerging Canadian society witnessing the evolution of the "working girl" and the voting woman. While stil incomplete, this research promises to recover a dynamic community of Canadian women, contributing new insights into women's history, medical history, and Canada's history.