By the end of WW1, the Canadian Association of Trained Nurses, now the Canadian Nurses Association, looked for a way and place to commemorate the army nurses who lost their lives during the war. Their memorial committee fundraised $38,000 from Canadian nurses, received government approval to place it on Parliament Hill, and chose the Canadian sculptor, George William Hill. Hill created the 6 tons relief sculpture from a single piece of white Italian Carrera marble in Italy and shipped it to Canada in 1926; it was unveiled on August 24th, 1926.
The memorial presents the history of nurses in Canada, from the arrival of the sisters from France to found Hôtel Dieu in Québec City in 1639 to the end of the First World War.
The memorial is the biggest piece hung on the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block, which resides between the House of Commons and the Senate.
The plaque at the base of the memorial, which is also called the Nurses of Canada Memorial, reads:
“Erected by the nurses of Canada in remembrance of their sisters who gave their lives in the Great War, Nineteen Fourteen-Eighteen, and to perpetuate a noble tradition in the relations of the old world and the new.
Led by the Spirit of Humanity across the seas woman, by her tender ministrations to those in need, has given to the world the example of heroic service embracing three centuries of Canadian history.”
Also on Parliament Hill is the monument Women Are Persons, commemorating the Famous Five, who led the campaign for equal voting rights for women in Canada in general and the fight to allow women to get elected to the Canadian Senate in particular. Read more about it here.
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