Bessie Taylor – a little known WWI Southampton heroine

The other morning, I was going through some lists of those from our community who served in WWI. One of those lists is from a small booklet that was done in 1922 when, after 12 years with four empty holes in the clock tower of our town hall, a major fundraising event had found the money to put in clocks and they were installed in memory of those who had died and those who had served in WWI.

I ran down the list of names and one jumped out at me as I had not seen it before about those that served in WWI. The name was B. Taylor. There were 2,449 Canadian soldiers named Taylor who served in WWI so this could end up being a tough one to find unless I got lucky, and I did.

When I went to the online archives for the Bruce County Museum and entered B. Taylor, up popped one tiny news bit from the Southampton Beacon on June 13, 1918, with the name Bessie Taylor. This is the first lady from our town that I have seen who served in WWI. Following is the news story that was included in that article.

The large Canadian hospital in France, which was recently badly wrecked by German bombs, and a number of doctors, nurses, and patients were killed, was the one in which Miss Bessie Taylor is nursing. As no word has since been received from her or the authorities by her parents, it is hopefully thought that she escaped injury

That was all that was in the records, but I immediately thought that all of us need to know the total story about, who I believe is the only local Southampton lady who was at the war front in WWI. So here is what I can tell you …

Bessie Taylor was born in Buckhaven, Wemyss, Scotland on May 20, 1885. About 1890 little Bessie moved to Southampton with her father Thomas and mother Elizabeth and three siblings. Thomas worked as a fisherman.

Three additional children were added to the family in the years that followed.

Bessie chose a life as a professional Nurse and was living and working in Winnipeg in 1917 when she completed her Officers Declaration Papers to enlist in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. Her Attestation Document, for Next of Kin states “Thomas Taylor, Grosvenor Street, Southampton.” She was given the rank of Lieutenant – Nursing Sister and left for England on June 21, 1917.

Bessie served in convalescent hospitals in England until arriving in France on March 26, 1918. She was assigned to the 1st Canadian General Hospital near Etaples France. This hospital had a history going back to August 1914 at Val Cartier Quebec and had travelled with the Canadian First Contingent to England on September 30, 1914. They set up base in Salisbury Plain and served the arriving and wounded Canadians there until moving to Étaples-sur-Mer France on May 14, 1915.

This hospital became the main large Canadian General Hospital in France for the rest of the war. The large complex had to accommodate up to 2,000 patients at a time, with a combination of permanent tented structures and with additional individual large tents as required. Of note is that following major battles like Vimy and Passchendaele patient counts would far exceed 2,000. From there, many soldiers required additional treatment and recovery back in England.

Bessie became part of the medical team and lived the life of caring for the wounded and sick in this massive hospital complex.

Nothing that the hospital had endured in the first three years at Étaples would match what happened on the night of May 19, 1918. The following words were written by Nursing Sister, Edith Alberta Gallagher (1891-1972).

“Shortly after 10:30 p.m. on the brightly moonlit night of May 19, 1918, a German air raid dropped more than 100 bombs on a complex of 10 Canadian and British field hospitals clustered along the rail lines near

Étaples, France. At No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, there were 139 casualties among staff and patients, 66 of whom were killed. Three nursing sisters died in the attack and five more were wounded.”

The Germans bombed two Canadian Hospitals in WWI; this one and the hospital ship Llandovery Castle.

Just over a month later Lieutenant Bessie Taylor was diagnosed with “debility” (lack of strength). This is described as “loss of muscle bulk and reduction in the efficiency of the heart and respiratory system”. The 5’ 3”, 115 lb. Bessie Taylor was totally exhausted.

The following words are from the CONFIDENTIAL MEDICAL BOARD REPORT that relieved her from duty for 2 months. ESSENTIAL FACTS as they were written follows:

This nursing sister is boarded on the above authority. She comes from Kitchener War Hospital in Brighton, where she was admitted on 12/6/18. She was on duty at No. 1 Can. Hosp. on 19/5/18 when that hospital was bombed by enemy aircraft. She remained on duty for several days during which there were other raids. She was very nervous and slept very poorly and was evacuated on 8/6/18.

On 21/8/18, Bessie stated that she had recovered and felt quite fit. She returned to work in treatment and convalescent hospitals in England until the Canadian wounded soldiers had been returned to Canada. She sailed to Canada on July 3, 1919. She was Struck off Strength on July 18th and returned to civilian life.

The September 4th, 1919 Beacon had this story about Bessie being honoured.

Miss Bessie Taylor, recently home from overseas, was the guest of honor of the Girls Overseas Club, at a reception on the lawn of Mr. Wm. Hunt last Saturday afternoon. She was presented with an onyx and diamond ring in appreciation of her services to the soldier boys.

Late in 1919, Bessie returned to Winnipeg. Her siblings had spread out across North America leaving parents Thomas and Elizabeth here in Southampton. A quite distinguished gravestone in our cemetery memorializes Thomas, who died here in 1920, and Elizabeth who passed on in 1934. On the backside of the stone are the names of Bessie’s brother Robert who died in Thunder Bay in 1905 at 22 years of age. Also, remembered on that stone is her 11-year-old sister, Tomisene who had passed away in our town in 1897.

The other siblings of Bessie all left our area. Rubert died in Fort William in 1915 at 29 years of age. Brother James died in Ottawa, date unknown. Her sister Elizabeth married Leo Byrnes in Duluth in 1920 and by 1925 they were living in Baltimore. Bessie joined them and lived out her life there in Baltimore. Sister Charlotte passed away in Maryland in 1964. Brother Ellison lived a long life with his death not being until 1991 at over 90 years of age. He died in Florida.

Bessie had a brother William John Taylor who served in WWI as a dentist in England. He returned to Canada in June of 1919. He had enlisted originally in Toronto. A search for after-war info on his life has not been successful.

Bessie died in Baltimore on September 24, 1968, at age 86. She never married.

There are no known descendants of the Taylor family living in our town.

I am sure that we can all agree that Bessie is our Southampton WWI Heroine.

———————————-

Written, Researched, and Transcribed by:
G. William Streeter April 21, 2024.