Nurse, doctor’s wife.
Born at Edinburgh, Scotland on 18 April 1893, daughter of John Esslemont and Margaret Napier (1868-1950), she came to Hamiota with her family in 1908. She took nursing training at Neepawa, graduating in 1914, after which she worked at the Brandon Mental Health Centre. On 16 July 1918, she married Dr. F. K. Purdie and the pair moved to Griswold to practice medicine. The Spanish Influenza hit Griswold in 1918 and the Griswold School was turned into a hospital to accommodate the many patients. For three weeks she nursed the patients, then went on to Alexander to help set up an emergency hospital there. During the epidemic, she helped to treat 200 people, only two of whom died. She died at Brandon on 8 May 1991 and was buried in the Brandon Cemetery.
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Voices of Yesteryear [Audiocassette], 1982. Westman Oral History Collection by the Westman Oral History Association (Effie McPhail, Chair). S. J. McKee Archives.
Brandon Cemetery, Online Search.
This page was prepared by Angela Graham and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 August 2022
Memorable Manitobans
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