Ethel Dickenson

Who was Ethel Dickenson?

Ethel Gertrude Dickenson was an educator and nurse born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. She is noted as been one of the Remarkable Women of Newfoundland and Labrador for her tireless work and death in the care of patients during the outbreak of Spanish influenza at St. John's in 1918.

Dickenson educated at Methodist College, St. John's and McDonald College, Guelph, Ontario, became a volunteer nurse during World War I at the Wandsworth Hospital, London and also the Ascot Hospital. She returned to St. John's for health reasons in 1918. The outbreak of Spanish influenza required that emergency services be set up at the King George the Fifth Institute where Dickenson had once again volunteered her nursing duties to care for the sick.

Dickenson was the only nurse who succumbed to the disease, she died October 26, 1918. A monument to Dickenson stands in Cavendish Square, an octagonal shaft with a Celtic cross at its pinnacle, sculpted from grey Aberdeen granite. The monument was unveiled by Lady and Governor Sir Charles Harris on October 26, 1920. Inscriptions on two opposite sides read as follows

This shaft, surmounted by the world emblem of sacrifice, is set up by a grateful public in memory of Ethel Dickenson volunteer nurse who in the great epidemic of 1918 gave her life while tending patients at the King George the Fifth Institute, St. John's. In honour also of those who nursed with her in the imminent shadow of death.