Evening star., 1943-12-12
Woman Awarded Army Medal,
Noted Authority on Nurse Corps
Miss Elizabeth Edes
Has Many Citotions
For World War Work
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.


Miss Elizabeth Edes. senior rank
ing civilian employe in the Office of
the Army surgeon general. who re-
ceived one of the Army emblems
for ''meritorious civilian service
within and beyond the call of duty"
at the first presentation of these
civilian awards last Wednesday, has
been an employe of the War De-
partment for As years.
A native Washington Miss
Edes is the great-great-niece of
Daniel Webster, and is the fourth
generation of her family to claim
Washington as its residence. She
is the recognized specialist in the
office of the surgeon general on all
regulations concerning the Army
Nurse Corps.
After legislation becomes law.
Miss Edes so familiarizes herself
with it that she is a letter. perfect
authority on every phase of the
regulations by which the corps is
governed. The Army Nurse Corps
functions directly under the sur
geon general and the Secretary of
War. In this respect it differs from
any other branch of the military
establishment.
knowledge Historic.
Her accurate knowledge of detail
concerning the Army Nurse Corps
is panoramic. 1t swings easily from
the records of the first official re-
quest for nursing care for the sick
and wounded of our Continental
Armies to today's facts and figures
concerning the some $4,000 Army
nurses assigned with United States
troops around the world
Her general clerical service in the
office of the surgeon general dates
back to May %, 1898, and she has
been member of the clerical force
of the Army Nurse Corps Division
since 1928
In her long employment in this
one bureau of the War Department.,
she has worked under 10 surgeons
general, from Maj Gen. Gorge M.
Sternberg to the present surgeon
general, Maj Gen. Norman T. Kirk,
She has known personally each of
the seven Superintendents of the
Army Nurse Corps from Mrs. Dita
Kinney to Col. Florence A. Blanch-
field, under whom she is now serv-
ing. Miss Edes points out that
from official records, the late DR..
Anita NeWcomb Magee. acting as
SiStant surgeon of the Navy at the
outbreak Of the war with Spain,
presented to the surgeons general of
both the Army and the Navy the
first concrete plan for the pro-
curement Of trained women nurses
for these services.
Five Were Veterans.
The first of the five trained nurses
to serve under this set-up, Miss
Edes recalls, was Miss Ella Gillen,
who is buried in Arlington National
Cemetery. The other four were
Mary A. Lease. Alice Patton Lyon.
Mrs. j. D. Sawyer and Margaret E.
Shaffer. who executed their con-
tracts, May 10, 1898, and were i'm.
assigned to duty On the
hospital ship Relief.
1t was proud day on February
s. 1901, Miss Edes remembers
when by act of Congress. the little
group of contract nurses became the
nucleus of the Army Nurse Corps.
which is .functioning SO valorouslv
today on every Allied battle front. ;
She contrasts the 1868 nurses
who served during the, Spanish
American War, with the present
roster of some. 5000 additional
nurses which the Army has set as
its quota by June 30, 1914.
Another Of her recollections is the
birth of the Army Air Corps at Fort
Myer in 1908, under Gen. Allen.