Page 26 - March2020

WD or Nursing Sister Book of the Month
by Judith Grierson

It is hard this many years later to understand the role
of the nursing sister in the different services. ‘Sister’
was an honorific granted to nurses which paid tribute
to the first nurse who were nuns. During WWI, 3,141
women served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical
Corps.

John Alexander Iverach was born in 1917 at Rossburn
Manitoba and moved to Winnipeg with his family and
During WWII, however, the nursing service was
was enrolled in a charted accountant’s course at the
expanded to all three branches of the military: navy,
University of Manitoba when WWII started. Mr.
army and air force. Each branch had its own
distinctive uniform and working dress, while all wore Iverach joined the Royal Canadian Airforce in May
1940 and after training in Canada was posted as a
the Nursing Sisters’ white veil. They were respectfully
addressed as “Sister” or “Ma’am” because they were navigator to No. 240 squadron Royal Airforce at
Stranraer Scotland.
all commissioned officers. The Royal Canadian Air
Force was authorized in November 1940.; where as Mr. Iverach’s book is a very good and can be found on
the Women Division did not come into being until Amazon at https://www.amazon.ca/Chronicles-
1941. Nervous-Navigator-Aiken-Iverach/dp/1550561782 or
by googling “Chronicles of a “Nervous Navigator” on
A qualified nurse, it appears, could join the ‘WD’s as a
‘nursing sister’. She would not have to go through the the internet.
regular training and immediately gained the rank of
an officer. The rank had little meaning until May of
1942 when an Order in Council gave the Nursing
sisters the authority of their rank. The question of
saluting compliments was settled in March of 1943
when it was established that nursing sister would
compliment ‘by turning the head and eyes and
bowing the head in the direction indicated’

Of the 17, 038 WD’s, 481 were nursing sisters. Two
died in service. 66 served overseas.
After the War, 30 R.C.A.F sisters joined the
permanent force and served at military
establishments across the country; many more
staffed the Department of Veterans Affairs’ hospitals
to care for hundreds of returning Veterans.