Topic: CEF
Matron Katherine Osborne MacLatchy
No. 3 Canadian General Hospital
Katherine Osborne MacLatchy was born at Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, on 15 February, 1874. She was serving with the Permanent Army Medical Corps at Montreal when she attestedt for overseas service on 4 March, 1915. proceeding overseas with No. 3 Canadian General Hospital, which was raised at McGill University, she served as Matron with No. 3 C.G.H. throughout the war.
Matron MacLatchy was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, and was Mentioned in Despatches twice (London Gazette # 31089 and 29422).
Katherine MacLatchy can be found in the Soldiers of the First World War Database at Library and Archives Canada:
- Name: MacLatchy, Katherine Osborne
- Rank: NS
- Date of Birth: 15/02/1874
- Reference: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 7020 – 31
No. 3 (McGill University) Canadian General Hospital
Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War; The Medical Services, by Sir Andrew MacPhail, 1925
- Organized Montreal, 5 Mar 1915
- Shornecliffe, 16 Mat 1915 to 16 Jun 1915
- Dannes-Camiers, 19 Jun 1915 to 5 Jan 1915
- Boulogne, 6 Jan 1916 to 29 May 1919
- Officers Commanding: H.S. Birkett, J.M. Elder, L. Drum
- Matron: K.O. MacLatchy
Notes from the Genealogical Forum "nsroots"
[nsroots] Matron Katherine Osborne MacLatchy born Grand Pre, NS in 1874
Matron Katherine Osborne MacLatchy of the of the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia (founded in 1909 as the Graduate Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia — changed to Registered Nurses Association of Nova Scotia, and now the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia) — … is a recipient of one of the College's Centennial Award of Distinction that was presented on May 13, 2009, when the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia celebrated 100 years. The awards were presented to 100 current/former registered nurses (10 per decade) whose significant accomplishments have influenced the advancement of the nursing profession. In 1910, an Act to Incorporate the Graduate Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia (original name) was passed so we have celebrations from 2009-2010.
This is a short profile that we have on file:
Katherine Osborne MacLatchy
Katherine MacLatchy was born in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, February 15, 1874. Katherine graduated from the Saint John General Public Hospital in Saint John, NB in 1898. She enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (Over-Seas Expeditionary Force) in Montreal as a trained nurse in 1915. She held the position of Matron, at the Cogswell Street Military Hospital and Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax. Katherine was Vice-President of Graduate Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia (GNANS) in 1921, and Honorary President, (member of the executive) of GNANS in 1922. Katherine registered with the Association in 1923 and remained a member until 1932. During her term on the executive of the Graduate Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia, the Act to Incorporate the Graduate Nurses' Association of Nova Scotia was amended, and passed on April 29, 1922.
I have received the following information from the Archives at Acadia University — "Kate and Fran McLatchy both of whom served as nurses in WW1 returned home to Grand Pre. They lived in the Borden house next door to the Covenanter Church for years. Kate died in 1969 at age 95, and is buried in the graveyard that surrounds the Covenanter Church. Neither married and Fran outlived Kate. As far as relatives—nieces nephews- K and F had a brother my sources felt that there were some but they did not know where they were."
The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs, by Brian Tennyson
1158. MacLatchy, Katherine Osborne [1874-1969]. "No. 3 Canadian General Hospital." Canadian Nurse and Hospital Reviews,18:7 (July 1922): 414-18. ISSN 00084581. AMICUS 7505937. OONL. Reprinted as "Matron MacLatchy's Recollections" in Clare Gass, The War Diaries of Clare Gass, ed. Susan Mann, Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, c2000, xlvii, 306 p.: ill., bibl., maps, 22 cm., 243-47. McGill-Queen's/Hannah Institute Studies in the History of Medicine, Health and Society 9. ISBN 0773521267. AMICUS 26573404. NSHD. Brief memoir, 1915 to 1918. Born at Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, MacLatchy was a niece of Sir Robert Borden. She studied nirsing in Montreal and was working there when she joined No. 3 (McGill) Canadian general Hospital as matron in May 1915. After the war she served as matron of Camp Hill Hospital in halifax from 1918 to 1920, when she moved to New York. She later retired to Grand Pré.