Hilda Fisher Mitcheltree

Hilda Fisher Mitcheltree, War Bride
1916 – 1993

Hilda Fisher was born in London and raised in Irchester, Northamptonshire. She obtained her LCST (Licentiate of the College of Speech Therapists) in 1939 from the program jointly held at the University of London and the West End Hospital for Neurological Diseases. Hilda then worked as a speech therapist in the brain injuries unit at the Bangour Hospital near Edinburgh until her marriage on May 2, 1942 to Lt. Harry Lionel Mitcheltree RCE. Harry was from Calgary, Alberta, had arrived in England in the spring 1940 and met Hilda in London later that year.

Following her wedding, Hilda transferred to the Sheffield Hospital, again treating patients who had experienced strokes and brain injuries. In the spring of 1944 she was recruited by Dr William Baillie, head of neuropsychiatry at the Christie Street Veterans Hospital in Toronto. He was establishing a speech treatment centre for brain injured Canadian servicemen and women. At that time Harry was engaged in the Allied campaign in Sicily and Italy.

In late September 1944, Hilda embarked from Liverpool on a camouflaged former passenger liner (Mauritania 1) which was under control of the RCAF. She traveled with servicemen traveling back to Canada as well as other dependents of Canadians fighting abroad. Hilda reported that the salons and lounges were full of hammocks for the servicemen and the women and children were accommodated in rooms containing 4 double bunks. These rooms had previously held two berths.

Hilda Fisher arrived from England in October 1944; they disembarked at Pier 21 in Halifax where a military band was playing and airmen waited to board for their trip to the war zone. Hilda recorded that several of the women including herself sat on mail bags tagged OUT OF BOUNDS TO ALL RANKS, while waiting to be processed by immigration officials!

Hilda traveled by train to Montreal, then took another train to Ottawa where she reported to the chief neuropsychiatrist for DVA. Her room in the Lord Elgin Hotel offered the first comfortable sleep in almost 2 weeks. After traveling by train to Toronto Hilda assumed her position at the Christie St Veterans Hospital. Her caseload consisted of service personnel with brain injuries and facial maxillary injuries. At that time only one other speech pathologist was working in Toronto.

Her husband Major Harry L Mitcheltree returned from overseas in September 1945, disembarking at Pier 21, and traveled by train to Ottawa where the returning servicemen and women reunited with families at a football stadium. He was posted to Corps Headquarters in Ottawa. For the next year Hilda treated patients from Dept Veterans Affairs and others in her private practice. Hilda did not work professionally between October 1946 and 1950 during which time her daughter Deborah and son Paul were born.

In early 1950 Harry was posted to Calgary where Hilda was pressured to open a private practice which quickly drew patients from Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan. Her nearest colleagues, both British trained, were in Regina and Victoria.

In 1952 Major Harry Mitcheltree was posted to Halifax where Hilda focused on family and community and did not work professionally. In 1956 their final posting was to Ottawa where Hilda worked part time at the Rehabilitation Unit in St Vincent’s Hospital and part time in the Ottawa Rehabilitation Institute. Following Harry’s retirement in 1960 the family settled in Halifax where Hilda worked for a short period in the mid ‘60s when the NS Hearing and Speech Clinic had significant staffing shortage.

In the years following her arrival at Pier 21, Hilda was one of the pioneers in the field of communication disorders in Canada. Colleagues were few, at times a province away, and the demand for assistance was great. Hilda was one of the founding members of the Canadian Speech and Hearing Association and also the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Association.

Deborah, daughter
Paul, son
Also taken from: The War Brides, edited by Joyce Hibbert