Mabel Berry, RN

I was looking through the photos I took at Arlington National Cemetery last May and was thinking about doing a layout about the various nurses' memorials when I came across a photo of a headstone for a nurse from World War I. I had taken the photo because the nurse was born in Canada. Instantly an idea for this layout began to form in my head so I set out to find out what I could about Mabel Berry. The Internet is an amazing tool and I found out a lot - enough to do another layout with her history.

Mabel Berry was born on March 18, 1885, not 1886 as her headstone states. She was the daughter of Robert Henry Berry and his wife Caroline Kay Berry. They married in Georgina Township, North York, Ontario on October 27, 1866; the groom was 28 and his bride only 17. Mabel's father was a carriage maker, originally from England. There were other children in the family, including Rose Ada (born 1867), John Thomas (born January 2, 1872) and Lillian Edith (born June 5, 1879). Mabel's father died a widower in Parry Sound, Ontario on January 10, 1908.

On April 2, 1908, Mabel crossed the border at Bloomington, Illinois on her way to Tucson, Arizona where she planned to work as a nurse. On November 27, 1911 she was appointed 2nd Lt as an army nurse. Her first posting was Fort Sam Houston in Texas, followed by Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont, then a variety of camp hospitals in the US and Europe. She was named chief nurse of Base Hospital 53 in Langres, Haute Marne, France on March 27, 1919 and remained the chief nursing officer until the hospital closed on july 7 of the same year. From there she went to Plattsburg Barracks in New York, then to Fort McPherson, Georgia (where she was enumerated in the 1920 census), on to Hot Springs, Arkansas, followed by Carleston Fields, Florida and finally Fort Benjamin, Georgia. She never married. Her death was recorded in Darien, Connecticut in March 1960. She was interred at Arlington on March 14, 1960 in the section reserved for military nurses. I just know her life was much more interesting than this narrative suggests.