Women Overseas: Memoirs of the Canadian Red Cross Corps

Cynthia R. Comacchio is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University and the author of Nations Are Built of Babies: Saving
Ontario’s Mothers and Children.

Women Overseas is a compilation of 31 oral testimonies from members of
the 641-member Canadian Red Cross Corps, volunteers who served overseas
during World War II and the Korean War. The editors, two of whom may be
familiar to readers for their earlier collection of Canadian war bride
stories (Blackouts to Bright Lights, 1995), have provided a clear
historical introduction that contextualizes the women’s memories. The
Corps was established by the National Council of the Canadian Red Cross
Society in June 1940 after the collapse of the French army, when the war
in Europe appeared to be going very badly for the Allied forces. In late
1941, overseas postings were organized, and the Corps remained
thereafter the sole women-only volunteer force overseas. Although the
women wore uniforms and were given the courtesy of officers’ rank,
their work—often involving arduous tasks, long hours, and horrific
conditions—was strictly voluntary. The Society offered each woman a
five-dollar weekly allowance, but the Corps was otherwise
self-supporting.

Much of what makes this collection so interesting is the fact that
despite their common background and training, their patriotism, and
their sense of duty and sacrifice, the women experienced the war in very
different ways. Some were responsible for driving duties during bombings
and blackouts, while others cooked in officers’ clubs, and still
others worked high-stress shifts in hospitals and emergency-aid
situations. The last selection recounts Claire Watson Fisher’s
memories of serving in the Red Cross’s Civilian Relief Programme in
Normandy, which was established to distribute clothing and supplies to
residents of that devastated area. Several of the Corps members were
instrumental in the development of blood donation services in the
aftermath of World War II. Three of the memoirs describe events during
and after the Korean War, which began in 1949; unlike the previous
volunteers, those posted in Japan and Korea were actually paid a nominal
salary.

This collection will be valuable to historians of women and war. The
editors have addressed the usual concerns about memory as a historical
source by integrating information from other sources, including
interviews that they conducted, personal correspondence to and from
Corps members overseas, and photographs, all of which have added crucial
detail and important information. Ultimately, the women’s stories
speak for themselves as testimonies of courage and endurance too easily
forgotten when we focus on the “official” war histories, where the
dominant parts are played by men.