Annandale NHS Launches Online Historical Series About Blue Bird Nurses

Tuesday, 4 May 2021 06:27

Photo Credit: Annandale NHS Facebook page

The Annandale National Historic Site is looking to educate the public about the brave women who served as nurses during the first World War.

TILLSONBURG -The Annandale National Historic Site is looking to shine a light on the Blue Birds of World War I.

They were the Canadian women who served as nurses during the war, and they got their name from the blue and white uniform they used to wear. Annandale knows of five Blue Bird nurses from Tillsonburg and there were others from Woodstock, Ingersoll and Norwich.

Heritage and Program Coordinator Kathleen Watkin got the idea for the online historical series after talking to her sister who is a nurse.

"She was talking about how important it was for her to serve in the COVID vaccination and COVID testing centres and it really got me thinking about why people choose jobs that put them at risk. I was talking to Laurel Beechey and she suggested that we look at the Tillsonburg Blue Birds because nurses are so important now and they were so important during the war years."

Volunteer Historian Laurel Beechey says a lot of people may not realize what it was like for the Blue Bird nurses during the war, adding they didn't have electricity or antibiotics.

"The time period is so foreign to us that the whole Blue Birds in World War I is just a phenomenal story to see how our lives changed because of that war. I think most people today don't have any idea."

Beechey adds the nurses did their best to provide comfort to the dying soldiers in their final moments.

"The soldiers wanted to see their girls, their Blue Birds. They were there for them, they took care for them and they became a mother, a sister and sometimes even a sweetheart for them. When people were dying and hallucinating they would often think a nurse was their sweetheart so the girls would often play along and pretend they were their sweetheart so the boys would have their comfort."

Watkin was very shocked when she heard about some of the things these nurses had to go through, especially on the battlefront in the Mediterranean.

"They had to take daily kerosene baths because it was the only way for them to get the viruses and bacteria off their body every day. I just think that would be really smelly and also very scary to have to do every day because you could easily be lit on fire after one of those baths."

The Annandale National Historic Site will be sharing stories about the Blue Birds on it's Facebook page every morning at 10:30 a.m. for the rest of the week.