Elizabeth Smellie  (see also Pauline Vanier) Date of issue of stamp: January 17, 2000 Designed by: Margaret Susan Issenman The stamp features oval portraits of Pauline Vanier (top) and Elizabeth Smellie with a background activity vignette of a nurse caring for a patient. Series : Millennium Collection , Humanitarians and Peacekeepers. 1,000,000 copies of the stamp were printed by Ashton-Potter Ltd.

© Canada Post Corporation Reproduced with permission

Elizabeth Lawrie Smellie Born Port Arthur, Ontario March 22, 1884  Died March 5, 1968. Trained as a nurse she served in both world wars. She was a builder of the Victoria Order of Nurses, helping it to become a nationwide organization and was its chief superintendent from 1923-1947. She was granted leave from the VON to serve as matron in chief in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corp from 1941 till 1955. In 1941 she laid the foundations for the establishment of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. In 1944 she was the first woman to become a colonel in the Canadian Army.