Christina Mary Watling was born Nov 22, 1874, in Chatham, New Brunswick. The oldest of 12 children, Christina graduated as a nurse from the Montreal General Hospital in 1909. With the exception of her 4 years of war service, she spent all of her career living and working in Montreal.

Christina enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps in Montreal on April 22, 1915. A month later, she arrived overseas and was posted to a hospital in France. During the war, she served in France, England and Canada; she was awarded the “Royal Red Cross”—a military decoration for “exceptional services in military nursing”—by King George V. Watling was discharged on June 26, 1919 by reason of general demobilization.

After the war, she resumed her career in Montreal, working until just a few months before her death in 1943. She served as president of several organizations including her alumnae association; the Montreal Unit of the Overseas Nursing Sisters and the Montreal Graduate Nurses Association. Several years before her death she was appointed home sister of her own school, where she mothered hundreds of young student nurses. Christina died Nov 13, 1943 in Montreal, Quebec. She never married or had any children.

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