No.7 Canadian General Hospital was origionally formed as No. 5 Stationary Hospital. It was first established as a project of Queen’s Faculty of Medicine, Kingston, Canada, The staff of the hospital consisted of ten men – eight medical officers, a Dental Surgeon and a Quarter-Master. Six of these officers were members of Queen’s Faculty of Medicine. Ninety-four men and thirty-five nursing sisters, was recruited in just over two weeks to man a 200 bed hospital. The Unit left Montreal by sea on the 6th of May 1915 and ten days later debarked at Plymouth Harbour, England to establish a 400 bed hospital at St. Martin’s Plain in England. In July the unit, along with Forty-five additional staff who had volunteered from Kingston, was ordered to establish a 400 bed hospital at Cairo. In January 1916, the unit became No. 7 Canadian General Hospital with an increase to 1,040 beds. Between 26th August1915 and 23rd March 1916, 4,140 patients were treated with only 28 deaths occuring. After the end of the Gallipoli campaign, having treated some 10,000 patients at the Cairo hospital, on the 10th of April 1916, the unit set sail for Etaples, France to set up a tent hospital. The tented hospital proved inadequate during the harsh winter and in November 1916, moved to a more permanent site with 35 wooden huts. By March 1917 the number of beds had increased to 2,290, a number which was maintained until the end of hostilities. The Queen's students who worked at the hospital gained a vast amount of valuable practical experience, as were able to continue academic study under some of the professors who were with the hospital.
