Delphine Rose Alexander [nee Fletcher] 1896-1980
Biographical History
Delphine Rose Alexander was born February 2, 1896, in Kaslo, B.C. She was educated here and in Marysville, B.C., later attending a Catholic girls' school in Pincher Creek, Alberta. In 1913 Alexander entered nursing school at the Kootenay Lake General Hospital in Nelson, B.C. She graduated with a diploma in nursing in 1916 after completing the three year program.
On May 16, 1917 Alexander joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps in Victoria, B.C. After serving for a short time in Canada, she went overseas, serving as a nursing sister in England and France. While she was serving at the No. 1 Canadian Hospital in Etaples, France, the hospital was bombed by German forces four times on May 19, 1918, killing three nursing sisters, and many patients and orderlies.
Following her discharge from service on July 18, 1919 in Montreal, Quebec, she returned to British Columbia. She obtained her R.N. status in 1920, and took a course in surgery at the Vancouver General Hospital. After working in B.C. for a few months, she moved to Oregon State, and then to Los Angeles, where she worked for several years. It was during this time that she married S.T. Alexander, a Canadian soldier whom she had nursed in a field hospital in France in 1918. When the Alexanders moved to Kimberly, B.C. in 1926, she stopped nursing. She died in Victoria, B.C. on September 10, 1980.
Scope and Content
The fonds consist of a centimeter of material relating to the nursing career of Delphine Rose Alexander. Most of it concerns her service in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in World War I, although some later information is available. It includes photocopies of forms and photographs relating to Alexander's service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI, including a group of fifteen photocopied photographs depicting the aftermath of four German air raids on the No. 1 Canadian hospital in Etaples, France on May 18, 1918. Biographical information has been supplied by her son.
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