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Christina (Tina) Mackay - Nursing Sister

Christina (Tina) Mackay was born on May 16, 1889 at Rogart in Scotland. In 1912, when she was 23 years old the family immigrated to Canada and settled near Innisfail. The family immigrated because Tina and her sister Nellie, who was one year younger than Tina felt there was no future for them in Scotland. Since they were determined to immigrate their parents and ten siblings immigrated as well.

Immediately after the family arrived in Innisfail Tina worked for a short time in a little store in Innisfail which sold groceries, fruit, etc. She had a room in the storekeeper's house which was down the street. The store was open in the evenings and the local boys would come in. Tina said they had lots of fun chatting and joking in the store. The store Tina worked in was next to a drug store. The lady from the drug store convinced Tina to go into nursing she even got the application and sent it in to the General Hospital for Tina.

Soon after they arrived Tina enrolled in nursing at the General Hospital in Calgary, graduating in 1916. In 1917 she went to Europe to be a nursing sister in the armed forces. She had applied to go but was not accepted. Then when one of the nurses who was accepted didn't pass the medical exam Tina was given two days notice to go in her place.

When Tina got to France she was assigned to one hospital where she was asked to fold linen. The next day she was moved to another hospital. Most of the time Tina was in France she lived in tents; the hospitals were tents as well.

Tina remembered spending a night under a bridge in France because there was constant bombing. Another time she went to a big factory where there was a room fixed up for operations (surgery). There was a doctor and a nurse there; a bomb came right through the Red Cross on the roof and exploded. The nurse died of shock, sitting in a chair. The doctor was trapped under the debris from the bomb, he was crying and screaming.

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Christina Mackay, war nurse.
1939

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Christina and Donald Mackay in a formal portrait taken in London.
1945
United Kingdom

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Tina nursed New Zealanders mostly. She was in France but near Belgium. Tina's nursing unit sometimes had to move with 15 minutes notice that included packing all personal effects. Col. Mewburn came to one of the places in France where Tina was; he looked for Tina but she was in bed asleep so he missed her.
Before she went to war Tina nursed Col. Mewburn's brother's wife. The brother was a nice quiet man. The wife had two nurses before Tina. Tina was nursing her when she was called to war.

In France patients were transported away from the front on stretchers. The day the war was over Tina found out from Australian patients who were shouting 'the war is over'.

After the war Tina traveled in Europe. Her first stop was a week of R & R (rest and recreation) on the French Riviera, which was provided to the nursing sisters who saw active duty at the front lines. Tina nursed injured allied soldiers, mainly New Zealanders. Tina also returned to Rogart for a visit after the war before she returned to Canada.

TINA AND COL. MEWBURN

Tina met Col. Mewburn first when she was in training at the General Hospital in Calgary. When she returned from W.W.I she stopped by the General to see if they had any positions; they called her in the next day to replace someone who was sick. Tina stayed at the Calgary General for 3 years. She was in charge of the operating room there. She then thought she would do some post graduate study in the US but when she went there they couldn't understand why she had come since she already knew what they were teaching. Since there didn't seem to be anything for her to learn there Tina returned to Canada and went to Edmonton where she answered an advertisement for nurses at the University Hospital which was just getting going. She stopped by to apply for a position and the matron invited her to dinner (lunch) in the cafeteria. When they were eating Dr. Mewburn came up and shook hands with Tina. Everyone in the cafeteria was shocked as he had a reputation as a real terror around the hospital. Tina started work the next day. After she had been there six months they told her that they wanted her to take her vacation.

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She pointed out that she had only been there six months but the matron said that she wanted to get some of the holidays out of the way. When Tina came back from vacation she was placed in charge of the operating room. She thought that 'the old man' (Dr. Mewburn) had something to do with her rapid promotion. She was in charge of the operating room for 25 years. Dr. Mewburn wanted only Tina to scrub for him when he operated. She always liked him although others were afraid of him. She thought he was 'a nice man'. Tina was the only person at his bedside when he died.

Tina retired to Innisfail in 1952 where she lived until her death on April 10, 1992 at age 102.