To celebrate Toronto’s Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association’s 100th anniversary, the Ryerson 〈University〉 Archives has decided to focus on the Alumnae Association and its members serving at home and overseas during World War II and to promote an archival collection.
This archival story goes back to 2011 when the Association’s collection was donated to the Ryerson Archives. Included in the donation was a scrapbook compiled by Grace Bolton, member of the Association’s executive, that spotlights the Association’s activities. In the scrapbook are pages detailing the Association’s activities, including the mailing of care packages to nurses serving in the military and alumnae serving overseas in non-military capacities during World War II.
When World War II was declared, the Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing had graduated twenty-five classes. Like their nursing sisters before them (eight of 10 members of Wellesley’s first class of graduates served overseas in World War I), Wellesley Alumnae continued the tradition with many enlisting to serve in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps., the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Navy during World War II. They served in hospitals and casualty clearing stations in Africa, Italy, England, and France between 1940 and 1946.
To view the scrapbook in its entirety or to view other items in the The Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Collection, you must contact the Archives at archives@ryerson.ca or call 416-979-5000 ext. 7027 to make an appointment.
A Ryerson Archives blog post about this collection explains more and shows images from it. At the end of the post is a short list of resources for information on the Canadian Medical Services in World War II.
The Ryerson Archives acts as a resource facility which documents the history of Ryerson University (1948 to the present) and its antecedent institutions at St. James Square, known as the cradle of education in the province of Ontario. These institutions include primarily the Toronto Normal School (1852-1941), the R.C.A.F. No. 6 Initial Training Centre and Dominion-Provincial War Emergency Training Program (1941-1945) and the Toronto Training and Re-establishment Institute (1945-1948).
The Archives also maintains a collection of records and information on Egerton Ryerson (1803-1882), the University’s namesake and founder of Ontario’s educational system, at St. James Square.
