Spirited Imperialism: The Formation and Command of the First Canadian Expeditionary Force in South Africa

This article explores the role played by Chamberlain, Minto and Hutton in shaping the organizational and command structure of the Canadian expeditionary force that deployed to South Africa. In 1899, the war raised not only the vital question about the kind of imperial war Canada ought to participate in, but also the form of that participation. As this article demonstrates, the British politician, the colonial administrator and the general saw the war as an opportunity to advance their specific agenda, strongly fuelled by imperialist sentiments. In doing so, the ideas that shaped their actions between July and October 1899 provided the base for a succession of seemingly unrelated decisions that had a substantial influence on Canada’s contribution and on the command arrangements in South Africa. The Canadian soldiers who sailed to South Africa were, for the first time, grouped in a national military formation commanded by a Canadian officer, setting a precedent for the country’s participation in future conflicts

British Empire and International Students at the University of Edinburgh, 1880-1914

This thesis is concerned with the response of the University of Edinburgh to the educational challenges and opportunities which arose outside its domestic environment between 1880 and 1914. Focusing mainly on the formal and informal British Empire, it seeks to determine the manner in which the University contributed to wider political, social and economic developments of the period. It examines how the University met the demands posed by the growth in overseas student numbers and by the new opportunities arising from the expansion of British interests abroad. An attempt is made to assess the University's role in the transmission overseas of its educational knowledge and cultural values as well as of its ideas of Empire. Chapter One outlines the background to and context of the study. Quantitative statistics are provided in Chapter Two to show how many individuals born outside the British Isles came to study at Edinburgh University between 1880 and 1914, to establish where they came from and what courses of study they undertook. Chapters Three and Four then discuss some of the wider international dimensions of the University to estimate how far the University engaged with bodies and institutions outside the British Isles, and the extent to which its growing involvement in matters of imperial interest influenced the life of the academic and student community. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis, Chapters Five to Ten consider on a regional basis the employment patterns of those Edinburgh graduates who went abroad during the period. They review the role graduates played in the communities in which they lived and how far the culture and values nurtured by Edinburgh University were promoted abroad, particularly within the British Empire. Through an examination of their involvement with institutions and individuals overseas, the ideas of Empire espoused by Edinburgh graduates of this period, and how these were articulated, are explored. Chapter Eleven summarises the principal conclusions of the thesis and indicates where further research might be undertaken on the impact within the British Empire of ideas, practices and values fostered by Scottish Universities

Accepted in Bella Bella: A historical exemplar of a missionary nursing education, in British Columbia from 1921-1925

This study explores the largely-unknown history of missionary nursing on British Columbia’s Northwest Coast between 1901 and 1925, built around the experience of nurse Doris Nichols. From 1903 until 1935 in the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) village of Wáglísla (Bella Bella) there existed a small but persistent school of nursing within a Methodist mission hospital. The hospital was built with the intention to bring spiritual and physical healing to local Indigenous people, however the medical missionaries served all in need along the central coast, and the nursing school sustained this mission. Nichols arrived at Bella Bella in 1921, where she began her training to become a nurse at the R.W. Large Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses; she was likely one of two (possibly three) student at that time. The educational journey for a student at Bella Bella started with introductions into a tight missionary family and then included a wide range of nursing duties in-hospital, in the community, and even nursing on the water in the medical mission boat. In the 1920s the school was affiliated with the Vancouver General School of Nursing and all student wishing to obtain a Registered Nurse designation competed their third and final year in Vancouver, which was the case with Nichols. This study used the methods of historical research, specifically guided by a social history framework, to critically examine a variety of primary sources to related to the experience of a missionary nursing student—who lived, learned, worked, and worshiped as a part of the Methodist medical mission in Bella Bella and beyond, while giving voice to the under acknowledged presence of nursing. The study reflected on those experiences from the historical intersections of ethnicity, class, region and religion. The exploration concludes that Doris Nichols’ unique opportunity and experience as a missionary student and nurse was interconnected with—and an extension of—the profound experiences of change that occurred for the Heiltsuk, the Methodist missions, nursing education, and Doris herself. The research also found that the Heiltsuk in-specific, and Indigenous people in-general were excluded from the nurses training program in Bella Bella. This is of significant historical relevance to educators and schools of nursing today, in the development of culturally sensitive curricula that acknowledges the historical impact nursing training has had on Indigenous/ settler relations and the role it still has in ensuring inclusive education. Résumé Cette étude explore l’histoire très peu connue des infirmières missionnaires sur la côte nord-ouest de la Colombie-Britannique entre 1901 et 1925, basée sur l’expérience de l’infirmière Doris Nichols. De 1903 à 1935, le village Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) de Wáglísla (Bella Bella) abritait une école de sciences infirmières petite, mais persévérante, dans un hôpital de la mission méthodiste. L’hôpital avait été construit dans le but de soigner les blessures physiques et spirituels des Autochtones locaux; cependant, les missionnaires de l’hôpital ont soigné tous ceux dans le besoin le long de la côte centrale et l’école de sciences infirmières soutenait cette mission. Nichols est arrivée à Bella Bella en 1921, et a commencé sa formation d’infirmière à la R.W. Large Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses; elle y était l’une des deux (peut-être trois) étudiantes à ce moment. Le parcours éducatif d’une étudiante à Bella Bella commençait par les présentations de la « famille » de missionnaires et comprenait une variété de tâches infirmières à l’hôpital, dans la communauté et même sur l’eau, à bord du bateau médical de la mission. Dans les années 1920, l’école était affiliée à la Vancouver General School of Nursing et toutes les étudiantes qui désiraient obtenir le titre d’infirmière autorisée terminaient leur troisième et dernière année à Vancouver, ce qui a été le cas de Nichols. Cette étude utilise les méthodes de recherche historique, guidées par un cadre d’histoire sociale, pour examiner de façon critique une variété de sources primaires pour se rattacher à l’expérience des étudiantes infirmières missionnaires qui ont vécu, appris, travaillé et prié dans le cadre de la Mission méthodiste médicale à Bella Bella et ailleurs tout en donnant une voix à la présence trop ignorée des infirmières. L’étude s’est penchée sur ces expériences en examinant les intersections historiques de l’ethnicité, de la classe, de la région et de la religion. L’exploration conclut que l’opportunité unique et l’expérience de Doris Nichols comme étudiante et infirmière missionnaire étaient reliées aux expériences de changements profonds chez les Heiltsuk, misssions aux méthodistes, à la formation en sciences infirmières, et à Doris elle-même. La recherche a également démontré que les peuples autochtones Heiltsuk et ainsi que les Autchtones en général, étaient exclus des programmes de formation en sciences infirmières à Bella Bella. Cela représente un intérêt historique important pour les éducatrices et les écoles de sciences infirmières actuelles dans le développement de programmes culturellement adaptés et inclusifs qui reconnaissent l’impact historique de la formation des infirmières sur les relations entre les Autochtones et les colonisateurs

Creating the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal

Following the death of James Joseph Sylvester in 1897, contributions were collected in order to mark his life and work by a suitable memorial. This initiative resulted in the Sylvester Medal, which is awarded triennially by the Royal Society for the encouragement of research into pure mathematics. Ironically the main advocate for initiating this medal was not a fellow mathematician but the chemist and naturalist Raphael Meldola. Religion, not mathematics, provided the link between Meldola and Sylvester; they were among the very few Jewish Fellows of the Royal Society. This paper focuses primarily on the politics of the Anglo-Jewish community and why it, together with a number of scientists and mathematicians, supported Meldola in creating the Sylvester Medal

Egyptian Mummies at the Redpath Museum: Unravelling the History of McGill University’s Collection

This article provides the context for the acquisition of the Egyptian Mummies collection at the Redpath Museum through donors such as James Ferrier, Sir Thomas Roddick and the Montreal Natural History Society. Since the 19th century the Mummies have solicited a great deal of public interest and have also been the object of rigorous scientific studies, this paper explores the history of the collection at Redpath and the impact of new technologies on adding to our knowledge of the collection.

“An unsuitable job for a woman? Gender and mental health nursing.”

On the evening of Wednesday 12th May 1920 a demonstration took place in the city of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire. According to the ‘Wakefield Express,’ a large procession with banners flying, and with the city’s band at its head, marched through the streets of Wakefield to the Green Market, where a large crowd had assembled. Two lorries acted as platforms for a series of speakers. Speakers on the platform included union officials, local councillors and representatives from the Discharged Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Association. Mr GW Newsome, secretary of the Wakefield branch of the National Asylum Workers’ Union (NAWU), proposed the following motion, ‘That this mass meeting … deplores the continued employment of female labour in male wards at the West Riding Mental Hospital – work which prior to the war was performed by men.

Patriotic Masculinity and Mutual Benefit Fraternalism in Urban English Canada: The Sons of England, 1874-1900

The Sons of England Benevolent Society was founded in Toronto in 1874 as a mutual benefit association catering exclusively to Protestant Englishmen and their male descendants. Using the Sons of England as a case study, this paper attempts to reconcile British ethnic-national fraternalism with recent work exploring the function of voluntary association as a constitutive element of liberalism. While the political positions of British organizations were often contrary to the tenets of liberalism, these associations nonetheless incorporated core liberal principles such as voluntary initiative, self-help, and democracy as organizational objectives. By developing a concept of English brotherhood, adopting an educational and social ethos, and establishing a public identity as a patriotic society, the Sons of England, like other fraternal societies, helped structure a liberal social order. The society functioned in large part as a resource for the development and performance of patriotic masculinity, a gendered civic ideal that featured Anglo-Protestant men as a representative social category in Canada. La Sons of England Benevolent Society, fondée à Toronto en 1874, était une association d'assistance mutuelle destinée exclusivement aux hommes britanniques protestants et à leurs descendants de sexe masculin. Cet article en fait une étude de cas pour tenter de concilier le fraternalisme ethno-national britannique avec de récents travaux explorant la fonction d'association volontaire en tant qu'élément constitutif du libéralisme. Bien que les positions politiques des organisations britanniques fussent souvent contraires aux doctrines du libéralisme, ces associations n'en intégraient pas moins les principes fondamentaux de ce dernier, comme le bénévolat, la débrouillardise et la démocratie, dans leurs objectifs. Le présent article démontre qu'en édifiant le concept de confrérie britannique, en embrassant un éthos éducationnel et social, et en affichant publiquement ses couleurs patriotiques, la Sons of England était, à l'instar d'autres sociétés fraternelles, un maillon de l'ordre social libéral et faisait en grande partie office d'incubateur et de moteur de la masculinité patriotique, un idéal civique, lié au genre, conférant aux hommes anglo-protestants le statut de catégorie sociale représentative au Canada

Modernizing Midwifery: Managing Childbirth in Ontario and the British Isles, 1900–1950

This dissertation considers the differences, as well as the similarities, between midwifery and childbirth practices in Ontario and in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. Addressing the modernization of medical practices on either side of the Atlantic, the periodization of this project reflects the increasing concerns about maternal and infant morbidity and mortality alongside medical and political attempts to ensure the involvement of trained medical professionals during pregnancy and childbirth. In Britain, the establishment of the 1902 Midwives Act regulated midwifery so that only midwives approved by the Central Midwives’ Board were allowed to practice. British midwives helped to improved maternal and infant health and welfare by making childbirth a co-operative, medically-managed event in conjunction with physicians. The medical training of midwives and physician support meant that British midwives thus participated in, and contributed to, advances in obstetrics through their access to obstetrical medicine and technology. In contrast, physicians in Ontario worked to exclude midwives from participation in the modernization of birth management, emphasizing a physician-exclusive concept of “medicalization”. Under Ontario legislation, only physicians were legally allowed to act as primary attendants during childbirth, and nurses and midwives were prohibited from practicing midwifery. Nurses and midwives in Ontario, unlike their counterparts in Britain, were excluded from developments in obstetrics. This study challenges the medical profession’s claims that the exclusion of midwives in Ontario was necessary for maternal safety or the medicalization of childbirth. The British alternative, where midwives were seen as partners rather than obstacles, illustrates that medicalization in the interest of maternal and infant safety could be integrated, effectively and efficiently, with the work of midwives. By ensuring that midwives were trained medical professionals with access to obstetrical medicine and technology, greater numbers of British women had widespread access to affordable medical attention during childbirth, at an earlier date, than was possible for Ontario mothers having to deal with the physician-centred model. Comparative maternal and infant mortality statistics for the first half of the twentieth century indicate which was the more effective approach in saving mothers and babies