Foreward by the Secretary General of the Canadian Red Cross
The Canadian Red Cross Society has a long and proud history of humanitarian service. An important chapter of that history was written during the Second World War by the Canadian Red Cross Corps Overseas Detachment and the enthusiastic young women who volunteered to serve their country and humanity in a time of dire need. Lois MacDonald Cooper is one of those women. A twenty-three year old resident of Ottawa when she joined the Red Cross to go overseas in August of 1943, Mrs. Cooper was part of a contingent of over six hundred women who served their country with great pride and patriotism. There is indeed little doubt, as Mrs. Cooper notes in her letters, that they went to England as "girls" and returned to Canada as "women."
Mrs. Cooper´s
Wartime Letters Home provides the unique perspective of a young Canadian woman in the Red Cross who had a front row seat on history. She took advantage of the opportunity presented to record the routine of daily life and impressions of tumultuous events unfolding around her in the letters she wrote to her parents.
On a personal level, her letters capture very concisely the spirit of the day; the many quick friendships that arise as people´s lives intersect briefly and the small number of more enduring friendships where similar experiences under difficult circumstances forge life-long bonds. They resonate with anticipation as she and her colleagues await the invasion of Europe, and with sorrow as Canadian casualties mount in the battle for North-West Europe.
Within the Canadian Red Cross Society, there is a bridge between those who have gone before and those now serving. That bridge is the humanitarian principle and the desire to help those who are most vulnerable. Mrs. Cooper and the women who served with her epitomize the very best traditions of the Canadian Red Cross movement. We are indeed proud she is one of us.
Dr. Pierre Duplessis
Secretary General
Canadian Red Cross Society
About the Author
Lois MacDonald Cooper was born in Ottawa in 1920. She was educated at the Ottawa Ladies College, then MacDonald College of McGill University. She enjoyed many sports and loved the outdoors, spending much time in the Gatineau Hills. Her parents, Elwood and Mable MacDonald, were always very supportive. She worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company before going overseas with the Canadian Red Cross.
Soon after her return to Canada Lois married Canadian Naval Officer John Cooper. They settled in North Bay, Ontario, where he worked with the Ontario Northland Railway.
Jack and Lois took great pride and pleasure in their four daughters and enjoyed many activities as a family. In retirement in 1977 they bought a home in Cape Haze, Florida, a small community on the Intra Coastal Waterway south of Englewood. They spent lovely winters there before moving in 1995 to Sarasota, always returning each spring to North Bay and Trout Lake. Lois´s husband Jack passed away in 1997.
