Canadian Medical Missions in Serbia and the Balkan Front During WWI 1)

spring 1915, the Serbian government appealed to the world, inviting
physicians from abroad to come to Serbia and help rescue the Serb-
ian population from a serious outbreak of typhus epidemic. Canadian
Army Medical Corps regulations at the time excluded female doctors
from war service. Women were relegated to nursing functions only.
Consequently, those women doctors who saw war as an opportunity
to assert themselves and advance their gender rights freelanced as vol-
unteers to Serbia where they were welcomed with open arms. That was
the route that Dr. Irma LeVasseur, Dr. Ella Campbell Scarlett Synge,
Dr. Harriet Cockburn, Dr. Edna Mary Guest, Dr. Honoria Somerville
Keer, and Dr. Catherine H. Travis took.
One of the first practitioners to answer Serbia's appeal was Dr. Irma
LeVasseur, a native of Québec City, who went to Serbia with her three
colleagues: Dr. Albiny Paquette, Dr. Raoul Brault and Dr. Watters.
When Dr. LeVasseur arrived in Serbia in April 1915, the Serbian
Government entrusted her with the running of a Red Cross unit in
Kragujevac and later on she moved to a hospital in Gornji Milanovac.
She survived the Great Retreat across the mountains of Montenegro
and Albania during the winter months 1915-16. Upon her return to
Canada she set up her own medical practice, thus becoming the first
female doctor in the Province of Québec.
Dr. Ella Campbell Scarlett Synge formed her own medical unit,
"the Vancouver Women's Volunteer Reserve", and took it to Serbia.
In Serbia she was given the position of Medical Officer of Health and
was stationed at Batočina, where she had 12 villages under her care. In
December 1915 she refused to accept evacuation orders, choosing to
stay with her patients and moved to the military hospital in Kruševac.
There she faced the invading Austro-Hungarians and Germans and
was taken prisoner of war, to be repatriated several months later.
Dr. Harriet Cockburn, a University of Toronto graduate, was the
first female physician to enter the Ontario Public Service. She was in
Paris when she heard that the Serbian government was appealing to
international physicians to come to Serbia to help combat the typhus
epidemic. She immediately journeyed to London and joined Mrs.
Mabel St. Clair Stobart's Serbian Relief Fund's medical unit which was
preparing to leave to set up a medical facility in Kragujevac. When
Mrs. Stobart decided to set up roadside dispensaries, Dr. Cockburn
was placed in charge of the one in Lapovo. She, too, survived the
exodus on foot with the Serbian army across the mountains of Monte-
negro and Albania in the winter of 1915. She attracted considerable
attention when she returned to Toronto with Konstantin Protić, a six-
teen-year old Serbian orphan whom she found during the retreat. The
newspapers dubbed the youngster "the youngest of European soldiers".
In Canada, she took the responsibility of providing him with care
and support and arranged for his education. Konstantin repaid this
Canadian benevolence by distinguishing himself under the Canadian
troop colours on the battlefields of France during WW II.
In 1917 the British Army General Staff appointed Dr. Edna Mary
Guest, a native of London Ontario, as head of the Scottish Women's
Hospital unit in Ajaccio in Corsica. This hospital was set up to care for
the Serbian refugees who had survived the treacherous trek through
the mountains of Albania and Montenegro.
Dr. Honoria Somerville Keer, a Toronto native, volunteered to
become an Assistant Medical Officer with the Scottish Women's Hos-
pital for Foreign Service, going on to serve with The Girton and Newn-
ham unit in Djevdjelija, Macedonia. In 1918 and 1919 she replaced Dr.
Guest as Chief Medical Officer at L'hôpital des Dames Ecossaise in
Ajaccio in Corsica, for her wartime service she was awarded the Serb-
ian Order of St Sava.
Dr. Catherine H. Travis of Hampton, New Brunswick, was a gradu-
ate of McGill University in Montreal and Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore. She practised medicine in New Britain, Connecticut, for
10 years. In July1915 she was inspired by a passionate lecture given by
Mabel Grujić, American-born wife of Serbia's diplomat, who was on a
mission to the U.S. soliciting help for Serbia. Dr. Travis immediately
signed up with a medical team of the American Red Cross that was
being formed to set up a children's hospital in Niš, Serbia. In Serbia,
Dr. Travis was placed in charge of the "Mabel L. Grouitch Baby Hos-
pital" which operated until the beginning of October 1915 when that
city was occupied by the Bulgarians. Dr. Travis then moved on to
Skoplje, Macedonia, where she joined the Serbian Relief Fund, Unit
No. 1, which was headed by the renowned humanitarian Lady Paget.
Skoplje fell to the Bulgars on October 22 nd 1915, but the unit chose to
stay with their patients and became prisoners of war. They were finally
repatriated in April 1916.
Dr. Albiny Paquette was born in Marieville, Québec, and stud-
ied medicine at the Université de Montréal. Upon reaching Serbia in
April1915 the Serbian government assigned him to the military hospi-
tal in Kumanovo in Macedonia to work on typhus epidemic. He re-
mained there until December when the Bulgarians captured the area
forcing him to follow the Serbian Army on its exodus, walking 400 km
to Valona, Albania, on the Adriatic coast where he was rescued by an
Italian warship.
Dr. Raoul Brault, came from Gaspé, Québec. He joined the Serbian
medical service at Štip, Macedonia, which was one of the first places
to be taken by the Bulgarians in the fall of 1915. He fled to Prilep, and
then to Kavadarci, where he joined the French troops and eventually
evacuated to Paris via Salonika.
Dr. John Joseph Mackenzie was a scientist, civil servant, professor,
and army officer. Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, he graduated in nat-
ural sciences from University of Toronto and became a specialist in
modern pathology. During World War I Mackenzie joined No.4 Can-
adian General Hospital, becoming a captain in April 1915 and head of
its laboratory. From November 1915 to August 1916 Mackenzie served
with that unit at Salonika, where his work on severe dysentery led to
improved treatment. Exposed to taxing field conditions, he contracted
a heart infection that stayed with him when he returned to teaching
in Toronto.
Dr. Duncan Archibald Graham was born on a farm near Ivan,
Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of
Toronto. He was a specialist in pathology at the Toronto General Hos-
pital. In 1915 he enlisted in the University of Toronto No. 4 General
Hospital and served with that unit in Salonika.
The Serbian Royal Legation in London wrote in February 1915 to
Sir Lomer Gollin, the premier of Québec, asking for the names of
Canadian doctors who would volunteer for service in the hospitals of
Serbia. The April issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal
announced that 34 doctors from all across Canada responded to Serb-
ia's plea.
Dr. Victor Bourgeault, a volunteer from this group, left Saskatoon,
reaching Serbia sometime in late May/early June 1915 where he served
for over 6 months: first in Obrenovac for 2 months, and the last 4
months in Preševo, prior to the mass evacuation in the winter of 1915
with the fall of that part of Serbia to the Bulgarian invaders. He met
up with Dr. Paquette and Dr. Watters and retreated on the heels of the
Serbian Army from Preševo, walking to the Adriatic coast where they
were rescued by an Italian warship.
Dr. James Berry, native of Kingston, Ontario, and his British wife
Dr. F. May Dickinson Berry, were in charge of the British Red Cross
hospital in Vrnjačka Banja. They survived the exodus with the Serbian
army across the mountains of Montenegro and Albania in 1915. They
recounted their harrowing experiences in the book The Story of a Red
Cross unit in Serbia, written in order to inform the world of the tra-
gedy that had befallen "the brave and proud Serbian people".
Dr. Howard Green Barrie was born in Peterborough, Ontario. In
1914 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps which designated him
Chief Surgeon of the surgical unit, "the First British Red Cross Mis-
sion", which the RAMC was preparing to send to Serbia. Dr. Barrie
arrived with his unit in Serbia on November 20 th 1914 to find a severe
outbreak of typhus. Consequently, instead of surgery, the unit, which
was stationed in Skoplje, was compelled to devote it energies to fighting
that dreadful disease. His work on the International Sanitary Commis-
sion formed in early spring 1915 for the suppression of typhus epidemic
was invaluable for which he received the Serbian Order of St. Sava. His
work in Serbia ended in October 1915 with the Bulgarian invasion.
Dr. William Harold Graham Aspland, a Toronto native, complet-
ed his medical studies at Trinity College, University of Toronto. The
breakout of the war found him in England where he promptly enlist-
ed with the Royal Army Medical Corps. After a brief assignment to
France, he was dispatched to Serbia in July 1915 where he was designat-
ed as head of the surgical unit of the Wounded Allies Committee, sta-
tioned in Kragujevac. In Kragujevac he undertook the reorganization
of hospital facilities. In October 1915 when the Serbs were forced to re-