© 2023, Christian Cassidy
Source: Health Sciences Centre Archives
If you’ve ever visited Winnipeg's Children’s Hospital as a patient or a parent, you owe thanks to Annie A. Bond. The former military nurse and driving force behind the hospital's creation died on this date eighty years ago.
Bond was a well known and respected nurse and philanthropist during her time in Winnipeg, but few realized that she had a very full and adventurous life before she settled in our city in 1903.
Born Annie Alice Crisp in Warwickshire, England in 1854, Bond trained as a nurse and volunteered as a nursing sister in the British Army. She served in the Zulu War, Egypt, and Sudan. In 1884, she moved to New Zealand to establish the county's first school of nursing and become the Lady Superintendent of Auckland Hospital.
That same year, Bond was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal established by Queen Victoria to be awarded to nurses who had "... shown exceptional devotion and competency in the performance of actual nursing duties, over a continuous and long period, or who has performed some very exceptional act of bravery and devotion at her post of duty."
The medal was presented by New Zealand Governor William Jervois who declared that the people the whole country were "to be congratulated that they have amongst them one like Miss Crisp as superintendent of nurses of one of their hospitals".
Bond married New Zealand doctor John Henry Richard Bond in 1886 and the couple soon moved to Chicago. At the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Bond was put in charge of the British Nursing Exhibit at the Women's Building of the British pavilion.
The couple settled in Winnipeg in 1903. By this time they were in their mid-forties with no children.
They purchased a large house at 167 Donald Street where Dr. Bond set up his general practice.
As for Annie, she found the city's medical services for children sorely lacking. They were treated on part of a wing at the General Hospital with no specialized care or equipment for them. In 1906, she began a campaign to create a children's hospital.
May 8, 1908, Winnipeg Tribune
Bond got several medical professionals and local organizations to endorse her plan and in May 1908, she and the Local Council of Women released the basics of what a children's hospital would look like and began a fundraising campaign. (See above)
A provisional board for the children's hospital was established with Bond as president, Mrs. W. S. Grant as secretary, and Mrs. G. H. Walker as treasurer.
Within a year, the women had enough money to begin looking for properties to lease.
The women set their sites on the North End as the location for the new hospital. This part of the city was chosen due to its large number of working class and new immigrant families impacted by diseases related to poverty and poor nutrition. A large house at 2 Beaconsfield Street at Lorne Avenue, (in what is now Michaelle Jean Park), was leased.
The Winnipeg Children's Hospital officially opened on Saturday, February 6, 1909. In its coverage of the opening, the Winnipeg Free Press praised the "unselfish and painstaking efforts of several Winnipeg ladies to establish this institution, the first of its kind in Western Canada."
In 1910, the hospital treated 282 inpatient children with another 546 outpatient cases and performed 114 surgeries. Between three and seven children per day had to be turned away due to a lack of space.
Due to demand and strong financial support from the community, the hospital board was confident that it was ready for a new home. It bought land on Aberdeen Street at Main Street and readied it for construction.
New hospital under construction. June 12, 1911, Winnipeg Tribune
In June 1911, a fundraising campaign was launched to raise $100,000 for the construction of a new, custom-built hospital. James H. Ashdown agreed to head the committee.
The campaign exceeded its fundraising goal in just two weeks and the hospital was able to go ahead with a $40,000 extension that it thought it would have to wait years to add.
The unexpected extension dragged out the construction time, but on July 17, 1912, Prince Andrew, Duke of Connaught and Governor General of Canada, opened the new 110-bed facility.
Bond fell ill in 1943 and in the spring was brought to a special room set up for her at the Children's Hospital. She died there on June 11, 1943 at the age of 89 and is buried in St. John's cemetery.
The Children's Hospital moved to its present location in 1956 and was amalgamated with the newly created health Sciences Centre in 1973. A large addition was added in 1984.
Also see:
The Bond Papers Manitoba Historical Society
Medal rolls of the Victorian wars British Army Nurses
The Founding of the Children's Hospital of Winnipeg HSC Archives
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