Skip to content

November 2017

Nursing sister Mary Agnes McKenzie

Those splendid girls

These are the names of the 14 nurses who died on June 27, 1918 when their Canadian hospital ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ was torpedoed in the Atlantic. Matron Margaret “Pearl” Fraser (New Glasgow NS) Christina Campbell (Victoria BC) Carola Josephine Douglas (Toronto ON) Alexina Dussault (St-Hyacinthe QC) Minnie Asenath Follette (Port Greville NS) Margaret Jane Fortescue (York Factory Man) Minnie Katherine Gallaher (Kingston ON) Jessie Mabel McDiarmid (Ashton ON) Mary Agnes “Nan” McKenzie (Toronto ON) Rena Maude “Bird” McLean (Souris P.E.I.) Mae Belle Sampson (Simcoe ON ) Gladys Irene Sare (Montreal QC) Anna Irene Stamers (Saint John NB) Jean Templeman (Ottawa… Read More »Those splendid girls

Llandovery Castle

The Llandovery Castle

It’s now no secret. I’m writing an opera. The subject is the Canadian hospital ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ and her doomed voyage to Britain in 1918, with 14 Canadian nurses on board. I will tell you more very soon, about how this came about, how I found my librettist Paul Ciufo and collaborating producers of the Bicycle Opera Project, but I just wanted to share this article by Cassandra Szklarski of the National Post because it is so cool and terrifying to have press before we’ve finished writing. Click here to read Cassandra’s excellent write-up. http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/opera-to-focus-on-great-war-nurses-100-years-after-hospital-ship-sinking