Georgina Fane Pope

woman in a nursing uniform

Georgina Fane Pope. A.G. Pittaway, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

‘A Woman of Firsts’: The Military Legacy of Georgina Pope

Georgina Fane Pope (1862 – 1938) was born in Charlottetown, PEI, the daughter of Father of Confederation, William Pope. She could have lived a life of privilege but left the island to study nursing in New York, graduating in 1885. She remained in New York until 1899, when she returned to Canada to volunteer as a nurse with the Canadian troops in South Africa.

She achieved many ‘firsts’ as a Canadian military nurse:

• the first nurse appointed to serve during the South African War (1899-1902)

• the first non-permanent nurse with the Army (1904)

• the first permanent nurse in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC, 1906)

• the first Matron of the CAMC nursing service (1908)

• the first Canadian military nurse to receive the Royal Red Cross Class 1 medal (1903). Florence Nightingale was the first recipient.

The Canadian Army Medical Corps was the only nursing service in the world whose nurses were commissioned as officers – earning them the respect and envy of other nursing services. Pope also recommended that the nursing sisters’ khaki uniform be changed to blue uniforms that became highly recognizable among the Allied forces. She is commonly referred to as the ‘Florence Nightingale of PEI’.

Existing plaque:  33 Summer Street, Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Born in Charlottetown, Georgina Pope chose nursing as a career. After training and working in the United States, she was selected in 1899 to superintend Canada's military nurses in the South African War. She was the first Canadian to receive the Royal Red Cross. Appointed to the permanent Army Medical Corps in 1906, two years later she became Canada's first Nursing Matron, having charge of all Canadian military nurses. Stationed principally at Halifax, Matron Pope served overseas briefly during World War I, but was invalided home in 1918 and retired the following year. She died in Charlottetown.

References:

Toman, C. (2016). Georgina Fane Pope. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/georgina-fane-pope

Image:
Plaque: Pope, Georgina Fane National Historic Person. Parks Canada. https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=1337