Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing, Class of 1901

Clara Hood, Class of 1901

Clara May Hood was born in Goderich, Ontario on [December 14, 1876] to Mr. and Mrs. William Hood. She and her parents moved to Manitoba in 1878 and settled outside of Morden. She graduated from the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing in 1901.

Clara enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in May 1915 and served in England and France. She was posted to the No. 15 Canadian General Hospital (Duchess of Connaught’s Red Cross Hospital), Clivedon, for two years before being transferred to No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station in May 1917. She was then posted at No. 2 Canadian General Hospital, Le Treport, France, before her last posting in 1918 at Granville Special Hospital, Buxton. Nursing sister Hood was decorated at Buckingham Palace with the Royal Red Cross 1st Class on February 27, 1917.

After returning from active service, she married Dr. John Francis “Frank” Morrison on April 22, 1922 in Winnipeg. She engaged in private duty nursing in Winnipeg and was twice president of the Manitoba Association of Registered Nurses. She died in Winnipeg in April 1948.

Below is a transcript of a letter written by Clara Hood, while she was stationed at No. 15 Canadian General Hospital (Duchess of Connaught’s Red Cross Hospital), December 3, 1915.

Letter from a nurse [Clara Hood] on active service [published in January 1916 Nurses’ Alumnae Journal]:

Canadian Hospital

Clivedon, Dec. 3, 1915

I was just delighted with my stocking, and it was so kind f you all to remember us in such a nice way. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and so does every Canadian over here. We know all you’re doing. There is not a day goes by that someone doesn’t say, “The Canadians have done so much; they are simply wonderful.” And while I smile and answer, “Oh yes, they are doing what they can,” my heart jumps within me at the very name of Canada, and I am proud of every one of you. It is wonderful the amount of stuff that comes over and keeps coming. There is no end of homemade jam, cigarettes, gum, sweets, and surgical supplies of all kinds.

This Hospital hands more patients than any other Canadian Hospital; over eight hundred patients all the time. So that takes some looking after.

We got 150 patients today, 95 stretchers and the rest sitters and walkers. Poor boys, they look like old men, but after they are here a week will lose that tired and starved look. The greater part of them today were medical cases. There is not much fighting just now, but the weather is cold and so many get sick. Besides a number have “trench feet.”

We are busy getting ready for Christmas, and all the patients are so interested. The up ones are really doing the work, and making all kinds of things out of paper. It is beginning to look quite like Christmas. The wards are mostly long, holding forty-eight beds, and so are very easy to make look nice. I went into town this morning to buy flags and paper, and they were not long getting busy. Each ward is trying to make theirs look the best. There is plenty of holly and evergreen. We intend having a tree in each ward in the centre on the table, and every patient will get one or more parcels, though the Canadians will fare best, for so many are having stuff sent to them from Canada. We had a nice box of maple leaves made into wreaths sent over last week, and they will help to make it look home-like. You know the men are simply wild over the maple leaf and the Canadian flag. So that in spite of all the sad things that are around us, we are going to try our best to make it a Happy Christmas for the men and by doing so we will be happy too.

Yesterday Miss Forrest paid a visit here; she is looking much better than when we came over. I had a wire from Ada Ross today; she is on leave in London for a few days, so I will see her tomorrow, as I have asked her to come out for tea and stay to dinner. It is so nice that there are so many of us over here, for we never seem alone. Just now there is only Miss Whittick, Miss Corelli and myself here, but at one time there were eleven W.G.H. sisters at Cleveden.

And now, with my very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the W.G.H. nurses at home. Thanking you once again, I am yours sincerely,

C. M. Hood