Phoebe Elizabeth (Burns) Reynolds

Phoebe Burns was born in England. She took her three years of training for a registered nurse and graduated August 1909, from the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, England.

Phoebe, then at the age of forty, served as a nurse during WWI in France and, with other nurses cared for wounded soldiers in Oxford, England (1914-1915).

For her service during the war, she was decorated with the Medal of the Order of the British Empire, which was presented by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. Each recipient shook hands with the queen who presented each of them with a little black book, The Way of the Red Cross, and a picture.

Phoebe thought the Queen was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen but with very sad eyes. The Queen’s sister, the Czarina of Russia, her husband Nicholas II and their five children had just been murdered on July 17, l918.

Phoebe gave many speeches on faith and religion. She went to Norway in l909 to give a lecture on What are Stars Made of? In 1914, she wrote about the war, a journal of what was happening in her life, in the world and at the hospital. She took lessons and learned how to speak and write in French.

She went to the Belgium Hospital to visit the women and children. In 1918, she visited many places in France arriving back in England on April, 1919. Phoebe went for a holiday in 1926 to France, Austria and Germany. While in Ireland on March 4, 1926, she left for Winnipeg, Canada, via St. John’s. She was fifty-two years old.

Phoebe moved to Mayo because she learned there was a nurse’s station but no doctor or nurse. She nursed at the Mayo hospital for several years and was the Matron from 1926-1930. She took a three-month Obstetrics course finishing in July, 1927, from the General Hospital in Winnipeg. She remarked that sometimes the hospital would run out of meat but that did not stop the cook, Mrs. Erikson. She went out and shot a caribou and carried the meat back to cook for the patients. Phoebe said they lost too may patients in those days due to pneumonia because it took the most meticulous kind of nursing and medical supplies were limited.

Through it all, Phoebe always found time and pleasure in playing the piano. Dolores Cline Brown wrote that the “crashing chords of Wagner’s music drowned out the lonesome wail of the husky but then a serene and lovely Mozart could be heard as her fingers ran nimbly over the keys.” Phoebe loved classical music.

When Treadwell Yukon, the company that paid for the use of the hospital, closed down, there was no doctor in the area from 1942-1947. Phoebe provided assistance in medical emergencies and first aid cases. Later she worked as the district nurse and ran the Red Cross out of her home. Phoebe nursed many patients, some from terrible accidents, mainly men from mining, delivered babies and always did her best for the surrounding communities.

Phoebe met George Reynolds, prospector, in Mayo while she was working at the Mayo hospital. In 1928, they were mining on Ledge Creek with a partner and later bought the partner out in 1932. In 1936, they found a 10¼ ounce nugget. The Reynolds worked the ground until 1949.

In the 1940s, Phoebe and George bought a cabin on Ledge Creek down the southeast arm of Mayo Lake, 32 miles west of Mayo. The cabin was built in the 1920s by Martin Joe Hoyne, a local prospector who had lived in it for twenty years. The cabin was approximately 16x20 with an adjoining shed. The roofing materials were flattened gas cans and the interior had canvas-covered partitions. Phoebe served “high tea” using a silver tea service encrusted with ivory. They lived in the cabin for many years.

Phoebe wrote a series of treatises on a variety of scientific and religious themes. There is also a twenty-chapter autobiographical manuscript by the title of Pills for the Sourdough. The manuscript describes her nursing experience in Mayo and her life “in the bush.” after her marriage. She kept journals of her experience and wrote a long script on their dogs over the years. When she ran out of paper to write on, she would use the back of advertisements and Christmas cards, anything that was blank.

The couple retired to Oliver, B.C. Her husband passed away before her. Phoebe passed away in 1956; she was eighty-two.

Phoebe had a incredible spirit and drive. She accomplished whatever she set out to do. A truly remarkable Yukoner!