Evangeline Lydia Emsley

Evangeline Lydia Emsley ARRC (March 1885 – February 21, 1967), sometimes written as Lydia Evangeline Emsley, was a Canadian nurse who was decorated for her service as a member of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps during World War I.

Evangeline Emsley in uniform, from a 1916 publication.

Early life

Evangeline Emsley was born in Lindsay, Ontario, the daughter of Rev. William Henry Emsley and Susan A. Major Emsley. Her father was a Methodist pastor and military chaplain from Barnsley, in Yorkshire.^[1] She trained as a nurse at Columbia Hospital in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1909.^[2][3]

Career

Emsley was appointed Superintendent of Nurses at Kingston General Hospital in Ontario in 1912.^[4] She joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1915.^[5] In England, she worked as night supervisor at the Duchess of Connaught's Canadian Red Cross Hospital in Taplow. She was sent to a base hospital in Boulogne.^[2] In King George V's 1919 Birthday Honours, she was awarded a Royal Red Cross, second class, for her service during the war.^[6] After she returned to Canada in 1919, she resumed a civilian nursing career, working for the health department in Oshawa in 1929.^[7]

Personal life

In 1931, Emsley married Frederick James Donevan (1880-1948), a widowed doctor who had also served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in France and England.^[8] They lived in Oshawa with his daughter Constance Marie Donevan, who also became a nurse.^[9][10]