Birth record from the County of Kent, in the Archives of Ontario, documents her birth in Ridgetown and gives her name as “Francis Cecile Sutherland Burt” and lists her parents as A. F. Burt and Matilda Sutherland.7 Her baptismal record also lists her as “Frances Cecile Sutherland Burt”. We have her own signature later in life as Frances Cecil Burt so later on the “e” was dropped from Cecile (probably to match the surname of some unknown ancestor since this is also one of her uncle’s middle names).
On her daughter’s birth certificate, Frances’ birthplace is listed as Durham, Ontario but in fact she was 2 years old when they moved to Durham.

The family moved to Shediac Cape where she was childhood friends with the young Harry Givan.

Excerpt from Kathleen Givan’s memoirs:
“I enjoyed listening to my mother's stories about growing up in Shediac. It seemed the idyllic rural Victorian childhood, but I suspect that it was less wonderful that it sounded. Being the minister's children, they were expected to be models of behaviour at all times. Moreover they were the only children with red hair and were taunted for this abnormality. My mother hated her red hair for the rest of her life, although by the time I knew her it had become an attractive dark auburn.
The inspection visits of the bishop were a trial for all. One stuffy bishop was interrupted while attending to his private business in the privy by someone banging on the walls. When little Francie was asked by another bishop whether she spoke French, she replied that she knew a little and demonstrated same by some choice profanities in the Shediac patois.
Reverend Burt kept a garden and one year grew a large sunflower of which he was very proud. One day the sunflower was broken and Francie did not emulate George Washington and the cherry tree, for she claimed that Daisy the cow had eaten it.”4

- see her correspondance with Queen Victoria in 1900 at age 11 in the photo section.
- her book of the Holy Communion is inscribed “Frances C. S. Burt, confirmed Oct. 4th, 1905”
- her Nursing training was in Newton, Massachussets between 1910 and 1915. Two books of the poems of Moore and Keats are inscribed to FCB from DF, one dated 1910 and the other stating “Newton Hospital”.
- she’s listed in the U.S. 1910 census as a nurse in Newton City Hospital on Washington Street which states she came to the U.S. in 1910.10 Later, her passport application stated she came to Newton from New Brunswick in April, 1910.

She was a nurse in WW1 at the western front where she administered the anesthetic. We still have her small trenching shovel. We also have her Army tag engraved “FRANCES C. BURT, Army Nurse Corps, A.E.F. FRANCE 1918” (A.E.F = American Expeditionary Forces) and her Guild of St. Barnabas for Nurses medal.
She was in Unit 55 and assigned to the Base Hospital in Camp Devens in Ayer, MA, west of Boston. Her unit then went to New York and sailed onward to the war zone in Sept, 1918 (see Moncton Transcript article). Her later passport application confirmed that she had been stationed in France from Sep 2, 1918 to Apr 13, 1919.
Carolyn reports being told by her mother that Frances, although part of the American force, wore a Union Jack under her uniform lest she be buried in an American graveyard.
Her post-war questionnaire from the state of Connecticut confirmed she arrived in Brest, France on the U.S.S. Agamemnon on Sep 4, 1918, and her locations included La Grange aux Boix from Sep 26-Oct 30 and Cheppy from Oct 30-Nov 28.13 This coincides exactly with the movements of the Mobile Hospital No. 4 at that time, indicating she must have been assigned to that unit (see photos).
The history of Mobile Hospital No. 4 (with the part relevant to Frances Burt’s experience in bold):
“In July 1918 Base Hospital 21 was requested to furnish the personnel for an auto-chir (mobile hospital), which became Mobile Hospital No. 4, A.E.F. The function of an auto-chir was to receive seriously wounded soldiers close to the front, and give them thorough X-ray examinations and surgical treatment before sending them further to the rear. The hospital, under the command of Lt. Col. Malvern Clopton, mobilized in Paris, where men from other Base Hospitals in the A.E.F. augmented the original 55 members from Base Hospital 21. On September 2, 1918 Mobile Hospital No. 4 moved to the San Mihiel sector and set up at Trondes, where Field Hospital No. 161 and Ambulance Company No. 310 were assigned to the Unit and together these organizations acted as a provisional evacuation hospital.There were very few admissions in this area - only 235. The next move was to La Grange aux Bois, where the unit was set up in a small French camp. This was a more active sector, with over 400 patients treated. The last station was at Cheppy, behind the 5th Army Corps. This was the last phase of the Argonne offensive - many cases were brought in during the first two days, but the line advanced so rapidly that the active period was comparatively short. By the end of the year, the Mobile Hospital No. 4 personnel were redistributed to their parent units and the former members of Base Hospital 21 returned to Rouen.”14
Cheppy was less than 2 km from Varennes-Argonne, and we still have a spent French-made 37 mm shell from Francie engraved “Varennes 1918”. After Mobile Hospital No. 4 was disbanded she was stationed at the Base Hospital No. 55 in Toul, France until Apr 1, 1919.13

- listed in the 1920 census at Waterbury Hospital, Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. Also lists her year of immigration but it’s illegible.15
- travelled to England and Italy for several months in 1922 and did some marvellous small pencil sketches of the historical sites. She returned through New York and is listed on the Passenger manifest for the ship “Aquitania” on the Ellis Island web site. This document reports she was naturalized in May, 1922 in Connecticut.16 Her American passport was was issued at that time prior to her departure for her Europe trip on June 14.
- married in 1929 and moved to Toronto.
- the family had a fox terrier named Zippy whose birthday Jan, 28, 1931 and death on Mar 11, 1944 are recorded in “The Longfellow Birthday Book” where she wrote “Faithful unto Death” and included a lock of his fur.
Friends in Toronto included Mrs. Duncan wife of the Minister of Lands and Forests, Mrs. Bond who gave her the chocolate pudding recipe and the Petries. Mrs. Duncan’s daughter Betty Colter continued to correspond with daughter Kay (Kathleen Givan) every Christmas.

from The Moncton Transcript, Tues. Sept. 24, 1918:
“FORMER SHEDIAC GIRL GOES OVERSEAS.
Miss Frances C. Burt With Nurses’ Unit in War Zone.
The Hartford, Conn., Daily Courant, of September 13, has the following:
Rev. A.F.B. Burt, rector of Trinity Church, Wethersfield, and Mrs. Burt have received news of the safe arrival overseas of their daughter, Miss Frances C. Burt, who is the first Wethersfield nurse to be sent to the front. Miss Burt received her professional training in Newton Hospital, Mass., and on her graduation was immediately given a place on the faculty and night supervisor of the hospital. She was subsequently appointed to a similar position in the Waterbury Hospital, and after serving in that capacity for some two years was called by her alma mater as hospital student to take a special course in pathology and anesthetics in the Boston University Medical School. On the completion of the course she was appointed assistant pathologist at Newton.
Having joined the Red Cross service, she was selected as a member of Unit 55 of the American Army Nursing Corps and sent to Camp Devens where she was placed in charge of the operating room in the military hospital. From Camp Devens she accompanied her unit to New York for special instruction. Her unit - 55 - was given the honor, as the “crack unit,” of bearing the colors on parade, and, in due time sailed from “an Atlantic port” for the other side. ---
Miss Burt was formerly a resident of Shediac, when her father was rector of St. Martins-in-the-Wood. She has been making her home in the United States for some years, where she has met with splendid success. Miss Burt’s many friends in Shediac and also in Moncton, will be interested in the above item, and gratified to learn of the various successes achieved by her.”

They were married in Trinity Church which was on Prospect Street in Waterbury. This church was dissolved in December, 1998. Its 1550 pipe, 1917 E.M. Skinner Organ was donated to a non-profit organization whose mandate is to build a performing arts centre. The organization carefully documented, removed, and stored all the components of the organ and is currently working on cleaning and repairing the components. The plan is to reconfigure the instrument as an interactive display, fully functional, that will be used for performance and educational purposes, hopefully in downtown Waterbury, CT.

The couple honeymooned in New Hampshire before driving on to Quebec, the St. Lawrence and Ontario as documented in the family photo albums.