Remembering Paris Nursing Sister Dorothy Baldwin

Nursing Sister Dorothy Baldwin, a Paris resident who served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War, died from injuries sustained when German aircraft bombed the No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Doullens, France, in May 1918.

Neil Edwards

Paris Independent Contributor

Dorothy Baldwin was born in Toronto on October 10, 1893. She was the daughter of Robert and Mary Baldwin. Robert was a farmer. The family later moved to Warwick Street in Paris.  Along with her parents, who are buried in the Paris Anglican Cemetery, Dorothy was a member of St. James Anglican Church. 

Dorothy had graduated as a nurse and enlisted as a nursing sister in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in Toronto on May 2, 1917. Upon her arrival on June 8, 1917, she was immediately posted to the No. 16 Canadian General (Ontario Military) Hospital in Orpington, Kent. Almost two months later, Dorothy was transferred to No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in Doullens, France, beginning work on July 28, 1917.

Dorothy was on duty in the officer’s ward of No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Doullens on May 29, 1918 when German aircraft dropped bombs on the hospital, completely destroying the north wing. Nursing Sister Dorothy Baldwin was injured in the attack, and she died the following day. Two other Canadian nursing sisters, Agnes MacPherson and Eden Pringle, were also killed during that raid. At 23 years of age, Pringle was the youngest Canadian nurse to die during the war. Dorothy Baldwin was buried with other victims of the attack — including MacPherson and Pringle, who lie next to her — on May 31, 1918, in Bagneux British Cemetery, in France. 

A total of more than 2,800 Nursing Sisters served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps during the First World War and 2,504 of those served overseas in England, France and the Eastern Mediterranean. By the end of the war, approximately 45 Nursing Sisters had given their lives, though only seven died from enemy bombing attacks on a hospital. The other German air raid, on the hospital complex at Étaples, France in May 1918, killed four nursing sisters. Overall, at least 58 Canadian nursing sisters died in service during the First World War from enemy action, disease, or drowning (such as the sinking of the hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle). Their sacrifice is commemorated by a memorial in the Hall of Honour in the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario.

 In an interesting but tragic coincidence, another casualty of the bombing of the hospital complex in Etaples was James Findlay, also from Paris. He had emigrated from Yorkshire, England and worked as a machinist in Penmans No. 1 Mill. He was wounded in November, 1916 and returned to the firing line in the 13th Battalion of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. James was 24 years of age when he was killed in the bombing raid that killed the four Nursing Sisters. He is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery.

When we think of war, especially the brutal, dehumanizing, horrific First World War, we might think of the men who fought and died in the muddy trenches of the Somme or Ypres or Passchendaele. Or perhaps we think of the victory at Vimy Ridge which has since become an important symbol for Canada, the place where Canadians from across the country delivered an unprecedented victory, all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fighting together for the first time in the war. And we might forget that over 10,000 Canadians  were killed and wounded to achieve that victory. 

And even more rarely do we think of the individual men and women who grew up in Paris or immigrated here. Who went to school and worked here. 

Who raised families here. These individual men and women from Paris are the ones that Homes of Heroes wants you to think about. That is why we want to collect and share their stories and place signs in front of the houses where they lived. Whether they were killed in action or killed trying to save others. Or even whether they came back to Paris to their families and their jobs and their ordinary lives. They were people who walked the same streets that we walk today. And lived in some of the same homes. Paris is a home of heroes. Can you add to a story? Then contact us at info@homesofheroes.ca and let us share it. If you can’t help to tell a story, then read their stories on our website, www.homesofheroes.ca. 

All our veterans, whether they died in battle or died trying to save others, or even came home to Paris unscathed, they all deserve to be remembered and honoured.