A view of Lord Shaughnessy in conversation with Matron Rayside of the Moore Barracks Military Hospital in Shorncliffe, England.
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Samuel Benfield Steele was born at Purbrook, Medonte, County Simcoe, Ontario on 5 January 1848 to Captain Elmes Steele and Anne MacIan Macdonald. His father served under Nelson and other Admirals in the Napoleonic Wars, moving to Canada in 1832, with his first wife and family. After the death of his first wife, Captain Steele married Sam's mother, and they had six children, Sam being the eldest.
Edith Catherine Rayside was born on January 26th, 1872 and enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps at the outbreak of World War I; she was stationed at hospitals in France and England. In 1919, Edith Rayside was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from the University of Toronto, November 11th, 1919. After the war, Nurse Rayside returned to Canada and took up duties as superintendent of military hospitals in Canada. She was awarded Commander of the British Empire - 1934.
She is buried at St. Andrews Presbyterian, South Lancaster, Ontario.
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