Edith Campbell

Edith Campbell, (12 December 1871 – 1951) was a Canadian nurse. She was one of the first Canadian nurses to arrive in England to assist in the establishment of the Duchess of Connaught Canadian Red Cross Hospital, a field hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, and serve during the First World War in both England and France, earning a number of medals including the Royal Red Cross, first class, and the Military Medal. She was also twice mentioned in dispatches. After the war, she was superintendent of the Toronto Branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses. Her medals and a number of her personal items are held by the Canadian War Museum. Early life Edith Campbell was born in 1871 in Montreal, Quebec. She was from a 'medical family'; her grandfather - Francis Wayland Campbell - was dean of the Medical Faculty of Bishop's College and her father and uncle were both physicians. She was known as "Daisy" at home. In 1907 she graduated from the school of nursing at New York's Presbyterian Hospital and subsequently worked in Manhattan and Montreal. First World War Campbell enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in September 1914 at the age of 42. She arrived in the United Kingdom on 24 October 1914 on the HMT Franconia. She and her Canadian Army Nursing Service peers were known as "bluebirds" due to their blue nursing uniforms.