Elizabeth Lawrie Smellie (March 22, 1884 – March 5, 1968) was a Canadian nurse and the first woman to be promoted to the rank of colonel in the Canadian Army. Early life Smellie was born at Port Arthur, Ontario to Thomas Smellie, Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for Fort William and Lake of the Woods from 1905–1911, and Janet Eleanor ( Lawrie). She trained at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. To her family and friends, she was known as "Beth". Nursing career In August 1914, Smellie applied to be a Red Cross nurse; she was told to report to Ottawa 25 January 1915. During World War I, she was posted at Cliveden, Lady Astor's estate, and became matron of the Moore Barracks Hospital at Shorncliffe Army Camp where thousands of Canadian soldiers were treated. In 1917 she was decorated by King George V at Buckingham Palace with the first class Royal Red Cross. After further post-war training in Boston, she taught public health nursing for two years at McGill University, Montreal. She was Chief Superintendent of the Victorian Order of Nurses from January 1924 to May 1947, except during World War II, when she was recalled up into the Canadian army as Colonel and Matron-in-chief of the Canadian Women's Army Medical Corps from 1940 until 1944. She was the first woman to achieve the rank of colonel in the Canadian army. A portrait of Smellie, painted by Kenneth Forbes, was unveiled by her successor in Ottawa in 1944. Smellie was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1934. She frequently enjoyed getting back together with her nurse colleagues. For instance, on 29 May 1963, the Winnipeg Free Press published a picture of Smellie along with her three other wartime nursing sisters at a supper party. The supper party was organized in honor of Elizabeth by the Canadian Nursing Sisters Association in Deer Lodge Hospital nurses' lounge. The three nursing sisters with Smellie were Katherine Morton, Evelyn Pepper of Ottawa and Mrs. Alex Noble. She died in Toronto in 1968 at the age of 83 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Thunder Bay, Ontario. Legacy A historical marker to Smellie was erected by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, and stands in Waverley Park, Thunder Bay, Ontario. It reads: This celebrated Canadian army nurse and public health authority was born