More Bluebirds

Bessie Maud Hanna second from the left. "The London Advertiser, July 20, 1916". Others are not identified.

This photo was sent to the “London Advertiser” by Bessie Maude Hanna, a nursing sister who served at the Ontario Hospital, Orpington, Kent, England.

Library and Archives Canada

In 1915 the Ontario Government donated $2 million dollars to build a treatment center for soldiers wounded on the Western Front. Fully staffed, it treated over 15,000 soldiers from 1915 to 1919. There were 182 who died. Most are buried in the “Canadian Corner” of the All Saints churchyard . Not only Canadian soldiers but all soldiers in the British Expeditionary Force were treated. Advances in plastic surgery, and occupational therapy for shell shock victims, were pioneered here. Renamed the 16^th. Canadian General Hospital during the war the building was torn down in the 1980’s. It has been replaced by a modern hospital.

C.B.C Archives, prefab unit 16th. General Hospital