118 Community Rena Maude McLean , daughter of Senator John McLean , was on staff in the operating room at Heywood Memorial Hospital in Gardiner, Massachu¬ setts when war broke out. She sailed with the Canadian Contingent from Quebec on October 3,1914.™ Shortly after her arrival in England and before the end of 1914, she and 34 other Canadian nurses were sent to Le Touquet where the l'Hotel de Golf was converted into the first all-Canadian staffed hospital in Europe. In April, 1915, the hospital received the message: "Empty every possible bed. Ship all patients to England ...have your accommodation for patients doubled in twenty-four hours." The Canadians were in their first battle—one of the most frightful of the war—Ypres. The story will long be told of how the First Canadian Division "saved the day" in that great battle in which the Germans first used mustard gas.79 Twenty thousand wounded were received at Boulogne in one week. The hospital at Le Touquet became a clearing station as eleven hundred wounded passed through its wards in a few days. Army nurses, who had learned to care for many types of wounds, now faced a new kind of tragedy: the mustard gas victims, men blinded, burnt and blistered all over, who fought for breath in terrible agony. Nursing Sister Rena McLean served in Salonika, Greece, from October, 1916 until the autumn of 1917 when all nurses were returned from the Mediterranean. In June, 1918 the unarmed hospital ship was returning to England , after carrying wounded soldiers back to . Off the coast of Ireland, she was torpedoed by a German submarine. The crew and medical staff were able to evacuate the ship but were again fired on by the Germans. Only one boat escaped to tell the story. Fourteen Canadian Nursing Sisters, including Rena McLean , lost their lives.80 Prior to 1914, the 37th Field Artillery Battery functioned between Souris and Montague. The Armory in Souris was located on , south of the railway track, opposite the present Deveau home. It was afterwards used as an exhibition building. At the outbreak of War I, on August 4, 1914, Major A.F. MacKay of Montague, who was later killed in active service, was the Commanding Officer . Six members of the Battery from Eastern Kings immediately enlisted and proceeded overseas in September, 1914 as part of the First Canadian Expeditionary Force. In February, 1915, six more members of this Unit, along with Lieut. D.N. MacEachern , were accepted for overseas service.81 No. 11 Field Artillery (Howitzer) Brigade Ammunition Column was recruited in Charlottetown by Lieut. Colonel D.A. MacKinnon , who spent his youth in Souris . Marcus Mooney of Souris was the only eastern member of this Unit.82 In the summer of 1915, the 98th Siege Battery was recruited under com¬ mand of Colonel Arthur G . Peake. In this Unit, eleven ranks from Eastern Kings , along with Lieut. W.J. Cheverie and Lieut. J.F. Sterns , went to England for training. Prior to going to Western Canada c. 1910, Major H.H. Sterns of Souris had been in charge of this Battery. In War I, he commanded No. 202 Battalion from and was later Presi¬ dent of the Canadian Artillery Association.83 Draft for Reinforcement of No. 5 Siege Battery In October, 1916, Head Office of the Department of National Defense authorized the formation of a draft of 50 men from King's County as a