Olive Craigie Whitby

Rank:

Nursing Sister

Unit at enlistment:

Canadian Army Medical Corps

Force:

C.E.F.

Volunteered or conscripted:

Volunteered

Survived the war:

Yes

Cemetery:

Paris Cemetery, Paris, Ontario

Commemorated at:

St. James Anglican Church (Paris), Paris District High School Honour Roll

Birth country:

Canada

Birth county:

Brant

Birth city:

Paris, Ontario

Address at enlistment:

Paris, Ontario

Next of kin address:

Paris, Ontario

Trade or calling:

Nurse

Religious denominations:

Church of England

Marital status:

Single

Age at enlistment:

Letters and documents

Miscellaneous

BX August 17, 1916

Paris Nurse for Overseas – Miss Olive Whitby Given Farewell

PARIS, Aug. 17 – Miss Olive Craigie Whitby, daughter of Mr. O.R. Whitby, has been accepted as a nurse for overseas duty, and left last week with a contingent for overseas. A large number of friends and citizens were at the station to wish her Godspeed and wish her a safe return. On behalf of the municipality, Mayor Patterson presented her with the usual $10 for those leaving to serve the Empire, while the Women’s Patriotic League gave her a nurse’s chatelaine, and the Daughters of the Empire remembered Miss Whitby with three gold pieces. Short addresses were given by the mayor and Reverends B.B. Williams and R.J. Seton-Adamson, and as the train pulled out three hearty cheers were given for Nurse Whitby.

BX April 2, 1919

Warm Welcome for Returned Nursing Sister – Miss Olive Whitby had Been Overseas for Over Two Years

PARIS NEWS NOTES

PARIS, April 2 – Miss Olive Whitby has been warmly welcomed home by Paris friends. Miss Whitby went overseas I August, 1916 and since then she has been on continuous duty in France. She was stationed at Le Treport, No. 2 Canadian General Hospital, and now after two years’ service, she is full of vim and enthusiasm and decidedly impressed by her experiences.

“I didn’t belong to any unit,” Miss Whitby remarked, in response to questioning. “I am a reinforcement, and I am glad.”

She said she was not yet discharged but she would not have to return to France, of course. Miss Whitby is just recovering from an illness which kept her in an English hospital for two months and which obliged her to return to Canada as a patient herself on a hospital ship which docked at Portland, Maine, a week ago last Sunday. Miss Whitby will go to Toronto for weekly treatment for some time.

“Our hospital, said Miss Whitby, was wonderfully situated on a cliff 400 feet height. Because of the fine air we were sent the worst gas cases. The poison of that mustard gas was awful,” she said, “the boys often lived only three or four days.

“Like all the rest, our hospital was a hut hospital,” continued Miss Whitby. “When I went there we had accommodation for 1,800 patients, but we soon had to increase that. We were on the direct Amiens road, so we were at times used as a casualty clearing station, the boys coming in to us with trench mud still on their cloths. For a week at a time we often served meals for 2,800 men a day. Sometimes we had to put up cots everywhere, even in in the dining-room end of the Red Cross hut.”

Miss Whitby told about the good times arranged for the boys at Christmas each year, and especially this last year. The “flu” had been had where they were; however, she did not think as many died there as in Canada. The soldiers had it at the same time.

BX August 14, 1974

WHITBY, Olive – At the Willett Hospital, Paris, on Tuesday, August 13, 1974, Olive Craigie Whitby of 4 Charlotte Street, Paris; dear sister of Grenville R. Whitby of Paris and Harry O. Whitby of Woodbridge. Resting at the William Kipp Funeral Home, 11 Jury Street, Paris, from 7 p.m. Wednesday. Services will be private with interment in Paris Cemetery. Flowers gratefully declined.