November 2018
Agnes Wrightman Wilkie, a WWII Nursing Sister with local connections, has been in the news this Remembrance Day. Agnes’ grandparents homesteaded on SW 6-7-7w near Roseisle in 1887. Agnes graduated from high school in Carman then completed her Nursing program with distinction at Misericordia General Hospital.
She joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a Nursing Sister. She died when the S.S. Caribou on which she was returning to duty in St. John’s, Newfoundland after visiting her parents in Carman was struck by an enemy torpedo in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Agnes was the only Nursing Sister killed by enemy action in WWII. She was buried with full military honours.
Read more about her bravery and compassion and the many ways in which she has been honoured in Newfoundland, Carman and at Misericordia Hospital in a Facebook article by Dr. Barbara Paterson, chair of the MGH heritage collection.
Agnes Wightman Wilkie
October 14, 2022 marked the 80th anniversary of the death of Naval Nursing Sister Agnes Wightman Wilkie, the only Canadian Nursing Sister in military service who died by enemy action during WWII.
Nursing Sister Agnes Wilkie,
RCN Grave in St. John’s, Nfld.
[Photos: War memorial site]
Agnes was named after her grandmother, Agnes Wightman Wilkie. Her grandparents, Tom and Agnes Wilkie, came to Canada from Roxboroughshire, Scotland, in 1885 with six of their seven children. After a year at Campbellville, they homesteaded on SW 32-6-7w near Roseisle. [History of the RM of Dufferin, 1880–1980, p. 17] The grandparents are buried in Roseisle Cemetery.
Agnes Wilkie’s parents, John and Helen (Usher) Wilkie, farmed at Oak Bluff (where she was born) and in the Carman/Dufferin area. Agnes graduated from high school in Carman. For more on the Wilkie family, see [History of the R.M.of Dufferin in Manitoba, 1880–1980, pp. 798–800].
In 1924, Agnes Wilkie was admitted to the Misericordia General Hospital (MGH) School of Nursing. She graduated with distinction in 1927. After working in Winnipeg as an operating room supervisor then as a private duty nurse, in January 1942, Agnes enlisted as a Nursing Sister in the Royal Canadian Navy. She was one of 343 nursing sisters in the Royal Canadian Naval Medical Service.
Agnes had been on leave, visiting her family in Carman. She was returning to duty as assistant matron on the RCNH (naval hospital) Avalon when the ferry she was travelling on from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques Nflld. was sunk by an enemy torpedo. Agnes Wilkie was one of 106 passengers and 31 crew members who died in the attack.
.jpg)
Nursing Sister Agnes Wilkie
Royal Canadian Navy
Wilkie plot in Greenwood
Cemetery In memory of
Agnes Wilkie [IB]
Agnes was buried with full military honours in Newfoundland in St. John’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery. [see The Canadian Virtual War Memorial]. She is commemorated locally on the family grave marker in Greenwood Cemetery.
Read more about more about this local hero—her bravery, compassion, her final ordeal, and the ways in which she has been honoured—in a 2018 CBC News story.