WALLACE, Olive May
Age at Death: 21
Rank Corporal
Unit Canadian Women’s Army Corps
Service Number W3248
Place of Burial Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa ON
Date of Birth 1922.01.16
Place of Birth Woodrow SK
Enlistment February 17, 1942, Kingston ON
Date of Death 1943.05.11
Daughter of John S. Wallace and Amy Mabel Wallace, of Kingston
Olive grew up with two older brothers, both of whom served in the Army. At the time of her enlistment, she and her parents were living at the British American Hotel in Kingston, where she also worked as a waitress, cook and kitchen helper. During her service, Olive was a storewoman in ordnance. She trained in Winnipeg, where she received her full Corporal stripes, and was later posted in Ottawa, where she became an acting Sergeant.
In April of 1943, Olive, who had been hospitalized the previous spring for appendicitis, was again admitted to hospital after fainting and experiencing acute gastroenteritis; she was also suffering from fever, a hacking cough, and chest pain. Her condition worsened while in treatment; the file reads, “This girl’s course in hospital was very hectic.” She died in May of primary atypical pneumonia, plus a toxic gastric ulcer with haemorrhage.
