“In death we are all equal”

In Wimereux Cemetery not far from the grave of the Lt Col John McRae lies the graves of nurses killed during bombing raids of the hospitals.

After hearing of the death of Captain Nichola Goddard, my thoughts ran to standing in Wimereux by the grave of Sister Lucy Duncan being suprised by the thought of women dying in the Great War. Apparently I wasn’t the only one to put these two thoughts together because in a story on Captain Goddard in the Globe and Mail included the following timeline

1914-1918: Enemy action during the First World War kills 29 Canadian military women.

1988: Canadian Human Rights Tribunal orders the Canadian Forces to achieve complete integration within 10 years.

2006: First Canadian woman in a combat role killed in battle.

We can not think war and sacrifice is either long ago or far away.