By Montanna Mills
In a letter to the editor published in the October 22nd edition of the Victoria Times, one female reader expressed her excitement at finally being able to join the war effort which she had since had to watch from the sidelines:
“Many of the young ladies regretted that this is a man’s war, and oft expressed the wish to ‘slackers’ that they might have an equal opportunity to be a help to humanity.
The time has arrived! We see where nurses are needed badly. Now is our time to put words into deeds.”[1]
While the tone of this letter may seem callous considering the circumstances, it speaks to the desire of many young women to be more actively involved in the war effort. For some of them, the arrival of the influenza virus provided that opportunity.
While women had been involved in the war effort on the home front in a variety of ways. These measures, while important, did not usually require direct involvement in the war effort. Women’s contributions on the home front before the arrival of the flu included things like assisting with farm work and conserving food resources so that items in short supply such as meat, wheat, and dairy could be exported overseas.[2] Red Cross volunteers also assisted with the war effort by knitting socks and sweaters, and fundraising. href=”#_edn3″ name=”_ednref3″>[3] However, the arrival of the flu in Victoria meant that women could be more directly involved in the war effort. Women who had not become ill with the virus helped in several ways. Those who were qualified worked as volunteer nurses. Women could sign up to volunteer through the Women’s Aid Department, which was established nationwide on October 4, 1918 (2 days after the first case of influenza was reported in Victoria).[4]
The Women’s Aid Department had a few different divisions – one could volunteer as a nurse, a masseuse, or as a clerk, stenographer, or other office staff. The Women’s Aid Department was originally intended to assist in military hospitals throughout Canada, but as the influenza outbreak worsened, the Victoria Nursing Division volunteered their services to help take care of civilians.[5]
Women were also instrumental in entertaining quarantined soldiers at Willows Camp. The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE) solicited reading material donations for the Willows Camp library.[6] While this sort of work is very similar to the type of fundraising and sock-knitting done through the Red Cross during the war, it differs in at least one important way – the women of the IODE were able to see immediately the impact they were having. Unlike fundraising or restricting consumption, becoming a volunteer nurse or doing book drives for soldiers at Willows Camp offered the instant gratification of being able to see the people being helped. While fundraising, knitting socks, or eating cereal instead of wheat helped the war effort in the abstract, assisting flu-stricken soldiers in Victoria was a much more tangible contribution to the war effort.
1 ‘Hopeful.’ “For Duration of the Flu.” Victoria Times, October 22, 1918, 4.
2Library and Archives Canada, “Fight With Food Poster,” ARCHIVED – Canada and the First World War. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-2100.006-e.html
3The Government of Canada, “The Canadian Red Cross,” Veterans Affairs Canada, http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/those-who-served/red-cross (accessed April 7, 2014).
4“New Women’s Aid Department Formed.” Victoria Times,October 4, 1918, 3.
5“Nurses Required to Deal With Influenza Cases,” Victoria Times, October 10, 1918, 9.
6”Reading Matter For Quarantined Soldiers.” Victoria Times, October 16, 1918, 9.