Josephine Heffernan
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Josephine Heffernan | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 11 March 1876[1] Dublin, United Kingdom |
| Died | 1962[2] |
| Occupation | Registered Nurse |
| Years active | 1913–1935 |
| Known for | Chief Nurse U.S. Army Nurse Corps |
Josephine E. Heffernan (11 March 1876 – 1962) was an Irish-American nurse who served during the First World War. She was born in Dublin and immigrated to the US in 1906, where she joined the United States Army in 1913. She served as a nurse in California and Mississippi, before being stationed at the American hospital at Rimaucourt, France. After the war, Heffernan went on to see service in China, the Philippines, and Pearl Harbor.
In 2002, a bracelet belonging to Heffernan was discovered by a schoolboy in Rimaucourt, who enlisted the aid of his teacher to return the piece to Heffernan's family. The efforts to identify Heffernan and return the bracelet were the subject of a 2017 film documentary which first aired in January 2018.
Career and later life
Heffernan joined the United States Army Nurse Corps in 1913.[2][4][5] In 1917, she became the chief nurse at a hospital at Fort McDowell on Angel Island in California.[6]: 123 She was later transferred to Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.[6]: 124 She arrived to find Shelby in a state of emergency, with 240 patients and facing shortages of both supplies and staff. She recalled:
We all worked together. Nurses during those days did not spare labor. Meanwhile, time-slips, hadn't any use for them. Nurses stayed on duty until relieved by others ... Marvelous what one can do when emergency calls.[6]: 124
In 1918, Heffernan was appointed Chief Nurse of U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 59 at the army's Rimaucourt Hospital Center.[2][4][5] After the First World War, Heffernan continued her career in the Army Nurse Corps at stations in the U.S., China, the Philippines, and Hawai'i.[2] In 1920, she was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant, the basic rank for nurses.[3]
Heffernan retired in 1935,[2] and moved back to Bray in 1943.[5] She never married or had children.[5] Heffernan died in 1962.[5]
