Margaret Macdonald

"During an era of separate spheres for men and women, Margaret Macdonald used her nurse's training to gain access to the military and a life of work, travel, and adventure. In the first biography of the head of Canadian military nursing during World War I, Susan Mann traces the life and work of an extraordinary woman from rural Nova Scotia whose sense of duty and ambition found an outlet in the imperialism of Great Britain and the U.S." "In 1906, Macdonald was one of the first two nurses to receive a permanent appointment to the Canadian Army Medical Corps. She became matron-in-chief of Canada's overseas nursing service during World War I with the rank of major - the first such appointment for a woman in the British Empire - and also served as a nurse in the military during the Spanish-American and Boer Wars and in Panama during the construction of the canal." "Mann breaks new ground in military history by weaving the threads of character, ideology, and opportunity into a portrait of Margaret Macdonald and her impact on the professionalization of military nursing."--Jacket.