Joan Fitzgerald

Joan was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and graduated from the Halifax Infirmary in 1941. In 1942, she joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps as a Lieutenant Nursing Sister and served in Newfoundland, England, Italy, and Belgium. After the Second World War, as a Nursing Sister in the Royal Canadian Air Force, she trained and served with the United States Air Force as a Flight Nurse during the Korean Conflict.

In 1968, Joan was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became the Matron-in-Chief, Canadian Forces Medical Service. In this role she strongly influenced changes in the Military Medical System that modernized both the education of nursing staff and the care of patients. In 1972, she was promoted to Colonel and served as Director of Nursing of the Canadian Forces until her retirement in 1976. After her retirement, she resided in Halifax.

She is survived by her brother, James Fitzgerald and sister, Nancy (Elliot) Whitby of Halifax.

She was predeceased by her brother, Jack (WWII), and her sisters, Madeline Power and Margaret Bronskill.

Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, September 12, in Canadian Martyrs Church, Inglis Street, followed by burial in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Lower Sackville.