Frances Dalrymple Redmond

(Text from the Anglican Archives)

Social Service work had its beginning in Vancouver in 1888, with the arrival of Frances Dalrymple Redmond (nee Byron), nurse, mid-wife, and deaconess. Coming from a family which had served in the Royal Navy for many years, she moved with her husband and two sons to Winnipeg. After she separated from her husband, she entered the University of Laval, Montreal, to train as a nurse and mid-wife. On completion of this course she took further training as a deaconess. She undertook her life of service in nursing and religious devotion under the name of Sister Frances.

In 1887, Father Henry G. Fiennes Clinton proposed that Sister Frances come to the west coast as nurse and deaconess. She arrived in 1888. There were no hospital in Vancouver at that time. Through the joint efforts of Father Clinton and sister Frances a seven-bed hospital was built on ground adjacent to St. James' Church, on Oppenheimer Street, later renamed Cordova Street (Vancouver, B.C.). The new hospital, dedicated to St. Luke and known as St. Luke's Home, was originally intended as a maternity hospital. However, as the only other accommodation for patients was a three-bed hospital maintained by the C.P.R. for men only, all general cases had to be cared for at St. Luke's Home.

The hospital was built adjacent to St. James, and was closely linked to the parish. In 1898 St. Luke's was incorporated under the Charitable Institutions Act. Sister Frances also made numerous trips up and down the coast and into the interior of the province. In many of these isolated places nursing centres were established with one or sometimes two nurses in charge. Sister Frances established also the first training school for nurses. It was not long, however, before other training schools for nurses were opened. The city opened a brick building on Cambie Street which later became Vancouver General Hospital. Shortly after this, the Sisters of Charity of Providence opened a three-storey building on Burrard Street, the beginning of the present St. Paul's Hospital. With substantial financial backing and with new equipment provided, these two new institutions superseded St. Luke's Home. This small hospital gradually ceased to function as a training school. Eventually it reopened later as a women's hostel or guest home.

In 1930 Sister Frances was proclaimed the "Good Citizen" of Vancouver. In the spring of 1932 the health of the dedicated nurse and deaconess began to fail. After a painful illness, she passed away at the age of seventy-eight. She was buried in Mountain View Cemetery. In 1935, when the wooden building of St. James' Church was demolished to make room for the present concrete structure, the Guild of St. Agatha collected funds towards the building of the chapel of Blessed Sacrament, a memorial to the pioneer nurse.