Called to Serve

GEORGINA POPE: Canadian Military Nursing Heroine

by Katherine Dewar
8-page color insert highlighting Pope’s career

Georgina Pope is one of the 14 Valiants whose bronze bust at Confederation Square, Ottawa is viewed by thousands of people every day. The Canadian Mint issued a $5 coin bearing her image. How does a young woman, born in 1862 into privileged circumstances in Prince Edward Island, rise to the top echelons of Canadian military nursing leadership and become a national hero?
Called to Serve details Pope’s path to power through the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th. It addresses the significance of her privileged and powerful lineage, the influence of her parents on her world view, and the inspiration of Florence Nightingale who invoked in Pope a “burning desire” to become an “army nurse” in a faraway land.
The story takes us from Georgie’s sheltered life in Victorian Prince Edward Island to the ‘Boston States’; to the dangerous and primitive conditions she experienced as Superintendent of nurses in two South African Wars; to her work in the formation of the nursing component of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC); and to the battlefields of Europe during the First World War where she  developed shell shock from the bombing and was invalided home, her career over.

This long overdue biography delivers powerful history on the risk and rewards of military nursing in the early 20th century.

Featuring photos from Georgina Pope’s personal photo album with handwritten notes illustrating her wartime experiences
PLUS biographies of the Pope family

Katherine Dewar is the award-winning author of Those Splendid Girls: The Heroic Service of PEI Nurses in the Great War. She has received the PEI Museum and Heritage Award of Honour for her oustanding contribution to the heritage of Prince Edward Island. She lives in Charlottetown, PEI.

6.5 X 9.5, 264 pages with photos, plus 8-page color insert
Endnotes, bibliography, and index
ISBN 978-1-988692-03-6
$27.95
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

NEWS

Called to Serve Wins Publication of the Year Award 2018

Celebration of Service November 1, 2018