Description
Ms. Orford describes the protocol for women sailing overseas, and describes her trip to England aboard the first Canadian hospital ship, HMCS Lady Nelson.
Elizabeth Orford
Elizabeth Orford was born on April 14, 1923 in Toronto, Ontario. She chose physiotherapy as a career and graduated from the University of Toronto in June, 1943. Ms. Orford interned at the Children's Memorial Hospital, dealing with victims of polio. When asked to join the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, she accepted, enlisting in Montreal. Ms. Orford first served in Canadian military hospitals, dealing with infantry and flight training injuries. She went overseas, and worked in #9 Canadian hospital, Horsham, then moved to #24 Canadian hospital, Horley. There, Ms. Orford treated many amputees and burn victims. After returning home, she worked at the Christie Street Veterans Hospital in Toronto.
Transcript
They wouldn’t send one female alone so I had to wait until some other females came along. Well eventually there was a draft of medical doctors that were sent to Windsor, Nova Scotia where the medical officers went while waiting to go overseas and amongst those people there were two female medical officers and so it was those two ladies, delightful ladies that I went overseas with eventually. I went down to Halifax by train and I met with these ladies and we boarded the Lady Nelson, the first Canadian hospital ship. It was all white with three big red cross’s on the side and a big red cross on the top that was all flood lit at night, it was all flood lit at night but the Lady Nelson didn’t travel in convoy, it went alone and, of course, according to the Geneva Convention, it was under protection but you still didn’t know whether it might be boarded. However, it wasn’t. But these two ladies and myself, we got along very nicely and we were put in a huge ward with sort of metal cots that like hammocks, really, that swung back and forth and of course there was a washroom but you couldn’t lock the doors, you couldn't lock any of the doors so you had a bath and tried to make soap in salt water hoping that nobody would walk through, an orderly or somebody, but anyway, it was quite an experience. And the Lady Nelson only traveled, only carried non-combatant troops – padres, administrative people, medical personnel so there was a large group of doctors and quite a few wonderful padres on board.