THE WOUNDED AND DECORATED WOMEN OF WWI

Researched and Edited by J Perkins and Jessica Waszak

In April 1917, the British Army requested medical assistance in the form of personnel, equipment, and supplies for the conflict in Europe. As part of the U.S. National Defense Act of July 1916, the Department of Military Relief was formed and worked with the American Red Cross to organize fifty base hospitals from civilian university hospitals throughout the United States. After the United States declared war on April 6, 1917, six of these units sailed to England and thence to France. Among them were Base Hospitals # 2, Presbyterian Hospital, New York, # 5, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and # 10, Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia.

Professionally the American nurses were trained to the highest standards of the time. They served in several roles, including as members of operating teams in more forward casualty clearing stations. Julia Stimson stated, “Only the most competent and dependable nurses were with mobile units in forward areas ” The staff from the hospital units arriving from the United States were “lent” to the British Army; thus, American nurses staffed British hospitals and Casualty Clearing Stations

Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS), located several miles behind the frontlines, were the conduit to base hospitals These were the mobile units Julia Stimson referred to when looking at the most competent nurses The CCSs were grouped into two or three; one could handle sick patients before transport, while the other could receive battle casualties The clearing stations were never long-term care facilities, and the staff worked long hours to stabilize patients to return to the battlefield or travel to a hospital in the rear. In this type of facility, caught in the crossfire of World War I, three U.S. Army Nurses and one Red Cross Nurse were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), America’s second highest award for combat military service.

BEATRICE MARY MacDONALD

Beatrice Mary MacDonald was born on September 27, 1881, in North Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She immigrated to the United States in 1902 and, in 1905, was at the Metropolitan Training School for Nurses on Blackwell Island, New York. Beatrice trained as a surgeon’s aide. In 1915, she traveled to France, where she was a civilian, volunteered for four months with American Ambulances in Juilly, and returned to New York on September 16, 1915.

On May 13, 1917, she was called to active duty from civil life and sailed to France. She was at Base Hospital # 2 until July 22, 1917, and went to Casualty Clearing Station 61, near Ypres, Belgium On the night of August 17, 1917, the Germans bombed the hospital, and shrapnel blinded Beatrice when it hit her in the face and right eye Helen McClellan saved her life by stopping the hemorrhage from Beatrice’s wound Eventually, Beatrice was evacuated to England with the other patients

BEATRICE MARY MacDONALD

Once recovered, Beatrice returned to care for soldiers in Belgium and France, stating, “I’ve only started my bit.” Beatrice was overseas from May 14, 1917, to February 9, 1919. Beatrice MacDonald was the first woman to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) on February 28, 1919. “A special act of Congress was necessary in order to confer this honor upon a woman.” The newspapers put Beatrice and another ANC member, Eva Jean Parmelee, at the same hospital because they were both from Massachusetts.

Both women received wounds in German air-raids; however, Parmelee was at Base Hospital # 5, where she was slightly wounded but not awarded a DSC.[v] The British Army awarded each of them the British Military Medal and Royal Red Cross Medal 2nd Class. Additionally, Beatrice would receive the French Croix de Guerre and, in 1936, become the first American female nurse to receive the newly reinstated Purple Heart.

HELEN GRACE McCLELLAND

Helen Grace McClelland was born in Austinburg, Ohio July 25, 1887, and graduated from the Pennsylvania Hospital of Nursing in 1912 In November 1915, she went to France to work at the American Hospital at Neuilly She volunteered for field service and spent eleven weeks at Casualty Clearing Station # 61 with British forces at Ypres, Belgium Sir Douglas Haig awarded Helen the British Royal Red Cross 1st Class medal for her excellent service In 1915, she returned to Philadelphia and resumed work at the hospital

On May 9, 1917, Helen was called up from civil life as a Reserve Nurse of the Army Nurse Corps and sailed with the Pennsylvania Hospital, Base Hospital #10 After several days of travel, Helen arrived at casualty clearing station # 61 two years after her first experience there. The next afternoon, Beatrice MacDonald arrived at the same station; “From the way we greeted each other, the British sisters [nurses] thought we were old friends, but we had not known of each other’s existence until we met there at the front”. When asked about saving Miss MacDonald’s life, Helen responded, “It was nothing really. Anybody would have done what I did. These actions and her unwavering duty to the Casualty Clearing Station while under fire earned Helen the DSC in July 1919. After returning from the war, Helen went to Protestant Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, and served as assistant superintendent until 1926, then returned to her Pennsylvania Hospital roots, holding a similar position. She died December 20, 1984, the last of the WWI nurses honored with the Distinguished Service Cross. Her gravesite can be accessed through findagrave.com, as are the other three recipient’s resting places.

Jane Isabelle Stambaugh

Jane Isabelle Stambaugh was born on August 15, 1879, in Mifflintown, Juniata, Pennsylvania. Isabelle, as she called herself, graduated from Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia in 1908, where she would later work for most of her career. She was also an “Army Nurse Corps Reserve” nurse and, in 1916, was on the Mexican Border with ten other nurses during the Mexican Expedition. On May 4, 1917, she was recalled from Base Hospital #4 at Eagle Pass, Texas, with orders to sail to France with Base Hospital #10. She sailed aboard the transport ship S.S St. Paul from New York City with Hellen McClelland.

Isabelle was sent forward from Base Hospital # 10 as a member of British Casualty Clearing Station # 32. When the big German drive on March 21, 1918, pushed the British back, she got lost in the evacuation and attached herself to Number 2 Stationary Hospital near Amiens. There, she was seriously wounded in the left leg by shrapnel. She was sent to England with the other wounded and returned to duty four months later at Base Hospital 10.

Isabelle left the embarkation port at Brest, France, on April 3, 1919, as a patient still not recovered from her original injury. She again sailed with Helen McClelland and arrived at Hoboken, New Jersey. Upon arrival, Isabelle went to the General Hospital at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, for further recovery On June 4, 1919, after her wounds healed, she traveled to Washington, D C, to receive the DSC The British later awarded her the British Royal Red Cross Medal 2nd Class

Jane Jeffery

Jane Jeffery was born in Newmarket, England, on September 28, 1881. Her aunt lived in Massachusetts, and she went there to learn nursing. Jane graduated in 1905 and attended various hospitals in New York for postgraduate internships between 1906 and 1909. On December 6, 1910, she became a Massachusetts Registered Nurse.

In 1916 she applied for Foreign Service with the American Red Cross, and by October 26, 1917, Jane was in Paris, assigned to the Children’s Bureau. On June 18, 1918, Jane requested a new assignment to be of greater service. She was sent to American Red Cross Hospital No.107 in Jouy-sur-Morin (Sein-et-Marne).[iii] In 1918 there was a shortage of trained nurses to help stem the tide of casualties pouring into the British Hospitals.

Jane Jeffery

The Red Cross in Paris had to approve nurses to move, which could take up to ten days, while the American Army could make transfers in a matter of hours:

“At this time when the Red Cross Nurses in France were placed in hospitals under military control, they were all given the opportunity to become definitely attached to the military service… a number of them were sworn in, and they came immediately under military control and were paid by the Army. Miss Jeffery was one of several who did not care to do so. It is doubtful whether at the time, it was explained that if they did not take the oath and become part of the army, they would not be entitled to compensations and benefits, should they become disabled."

On July 15, 1918, German aircraft bombed the hospital. According to the Asbury Park Press, “Miss Jane Jeffery, the only Red Cross nurse who was wounded, was struck near the spine by a piece of metal…Miss Jeffery is not seriously hurt” However, Jane was severely injured by shrapnel in her back, as the passing years would show. The following day she was transported to the American Hospital of Paris, where she spent a year receiving treatment. On June 2, 1919, she was awarded the DSC, in France, by Brig. Gen. William Harts, and one month later, she was released from duty and returned to New York City.

Jane attempted to work for the next several years but could not perform her duties due to her injuries overseas During this time, correspondence went back and forth between the Red Cross and the U S Surgeon General’s office to get compensation for her injuries She never got a settlement

In many ways, these four distinguished women were all women of firsts. Their battlefield experiences, combat awards, and even their losses were some of the first notable experiences for women during World War I and as members of the Army Nurse Corps and the Red Cross. The distinction earned by Beatrice, Helen, Jane, and Isabelle is listed in the American Decorations Book of 1926, enriches the history of the U.S. military experience in WWI, and deepens our appreciation for women earning combat awards in the early twentieth century.

Jeffery Map

List of Resources

Mary T. Sarnecky. A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

Ibid, 98.

“Evacuation of the wounded in World War I.” The History Press. https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/evacuation-of-the-wounded-inworld-war-i/. (Accessed June 2022).

“VA #Veteran of the Day; Beatrice Mary MacDonald.” 14 June 2021. https://blogs.va.gov/VAntage/85060. (Accessed June 2022) www.newspapers.com/image/613469013 www.newspapers.com/image/82736626 Oakland Tribune www.newspapers.com/image/174222528 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Statement of service Card. www.fold3.com/image/591187463. (Accessed June 2022).

Gladys Moon Jones. “Women Who Won the D.S.C.” McAllen Daily Press, April 8, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/291680154/? terms=Nurse%20MacDonald&match=1. (Accessed June 2022).

New York State Parks. “Front Line Nurse: A Tale of Sacrifice.” May 12, 2020. https://nystateparks.blog/2020/05/12/front-line-nurse-a-taleof-sacrifice/. (Accessed June 2022).

Red Cross Bulletin 10, March 1919 P. 12 accessed on Google Books.

Letter from Harvey Cushing, 13 September 1918, “Base Hospital No. 5 attacked”. Eva Jean Parmelee Family Tree LZTY-6DZ. www.familysearch.com. (Accessed June 2022).

Red Cross Bulletin 10, March 1919 and www.newspapers.com/image/436360334 The Rock Island Argus (Rock Island, Illinois) Friday March 7, 1919.

Saturday, December 22, 1984. Page 41 Obituary

Jones at www.newspapers.com/image/764425526 www.newspapers.com/image/636488199 The Miami Herald (Miami. Florida) Thursday, August 6, 1970. P. 99 “Valor Singles Her Out”. https://www.findagrave.com/ memorial #2740995, Canada #205743437, #22452683, #154466349, 96699680. (Accessed June 2022). www.ancestry.com/sharing/29743493 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Veteran’s Compensation www.newspapers.com/image/143292421 Asbury Park Press (Asbury Park, New Jersey) Tuesday, July 16, 1918. P.1 “Americans Killed as Germans Bomb Hospital at Jouy” and ARC Jeffery File Frames # 125 & 126 www.newspapers.com/image/828879491 Lewiston Evening Journal (Lewiston, Maine) Saturday, March 31, 1928. P.4 “Sunlit Trail with Maine Folks” {Mrs. Jane Jeffery Ricker}

Ibid.

Application 8 February 1924.

Jones www.newspapers.com/image/764426137 Evansville Press (Evansville, Indiana) Sunday, April 2, 1928. Page 42.

Ibid.

ARC Jeffery File Frame #62. U.S., American Red Cross Nurse Files, 1916 – 1959. www.ancestry.com/sharing/29744796. (Accessed June 2022).

ARC Jeffery File Frame # 62. U.S., American Red Cross Nurse Files, 1916 – 1959. www.ancestry.com/sharing/29744796. (Accessed June 2022).

ARC Jeffery File Frame # 64. U.S., American Red Cross Nurse Files, 1916 – 1959. www.ancestry.com/sharing/29744796. (Accessed June 2022).

ARC Jeffery File Frame # 123. U.S., American Red Cross Nurse Files, 1916 – 1959. www.ancestry.com/sharing/29744796. (Accessed June 2022).

ARC Jeffery File # 162, 163, 165, 182 “General Order No. 71, June 2, 1919, PP. 31 and 32.” and www.newspapers.com/image/828345109

The Lewiston Daily Sun (Lewiston, Maine) Thursday, May 22, 1919. Page 8 “Mass. Nurse Awarded Service Cross for Extreme Bravery” www.ancestry.com/sharing/29744435 S.S. Imperator

AMERICAN DECORATIONS A List of Awards of the Congressional Medal of Honor the Distinguished-Service Cross and the DistinguishedService Medal Award under the Authority of the Congress of the United States 1862- 1926. Compiled in the Office of the Adjutant General of the Army. Washington DC: Secretary of War United States Government Printing Office, 1927. Pg. 363, 419, 422, 577.