King's Chapel's Veterans: Helen Homans, World War I Nurse

By Noah Good, Marketing Manager and History Program Educator

Just above the doorway into the sanctuary lies a memorial. Two marble eagles rest on either side of a carved plaque with three names: Hamilton Coolidge, Helen Homans, and Edward Blake Robins Jr. Below their names, an inscription reads “These died leaving an example of noble courage.” All three died in World War I. Coolidge was a Captain in the 94th Aero Squadron and was shot down over Grandpré, France in 1918. He was 23 years old. Robins, a student officer in the first training regiment, died in the Plattsburgh Barracks in New York at the age of 28.

Photo taken by Noah Good.

But who was Helen Homans, the only woman named on this plaque?

​Helen Homans was born on January 26, 1884 to Dr. John Homans and Helen Amory Perkins. She was the fifth of six children. Her family worshiped at King’s Chapel in Pew 26. 

​Her family had a long legacy for practicing medicine in the Boston area, dating back to her great-grandfather Dr. John Homans who was a surgeon during the Revolutionary War. Her father Dr. John Homans (1836-1903) was a surgeon during the Civil War and pushed Massachusetts General Hospital to allow abdominal surgeries.

Helen studied at Miss Winsor’s school and graduated from Radcliffe College. She took an interest in medicine, volunteering at Mass General Hospital.

When World War I broke out, Helen’s brothers Robert, John, and William each served. In February 1915, Helen applied for a passport in order to go to France as a nurse. This was two years before the United States declared war against Germany. Homans traveled to Europe to serve at a time when few Radcliffe alumnae did the same.

Helen left in the spring, to work as a nurse in French hospitals. She returned to Boston for short periods, again volunteering at Mass General. In the last passport application she filled out, Helen made it clear that she wanted to stay in France until the war’s end. Where the form said “I intend to return to the United States within” and left a space for an answer, Helen crossed out “within” and wrote “at end of war.” She said she would return from France “as soon as work is finished.” 

Helen Homan’s 1918 passport application. Courtesy of FamilySearch.

During her time in France, she became close friends with fellow Bostonian Edith Parkman and Canadian Katharine McLennan.

Photograph of Helen, Katharine, and Edith. 1917. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P68.

Letters, photographs, and drawings from Katharine give us a window into what these women’s lives were like during their service. Their work was exhausting and grisly, but Katharine’s letters only briefly mention the horrors of war. Perhaps not wanting to worry her family, she instead wrote about the lighter side of her experience.

When they were off-duty, Helen, Katharine, and Edith would take day trips to the French countryside.

The women also played checkers with each other and the patients.

Photograph of Katharine McLennan at Saint-Valéry. 1916. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P8.

Photograph of Katharine playing checkers with patient Laborde. 1917. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P58.

Katharine sketched the soldiers she treated, both in watercolor portraits and in striking scenes. These sketches allow modern viewers to see a peek of what would have been the daily lives of Helen, Katharine, and Edith.

McLennan, Katharine. Kirchheim. 1916. Drawing, 24 x 17.8 cm. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL 329.

McLennan, Katharine. Gangrène gazeuse. 1917. Drawing. 22.5 x 29.5 cm. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL 325.

In Christmas, the staff decorated the hospital ward and patients and staff alike performed in a festive tableau.

Photograph of hospital ward decorated for Christmas. 1917 or 1918. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P186.

Photograph of a Christmas tableau at l’Hôpital de l’Alliance. 1916. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P50.

During a brutal war, surrounded by patients with gruesome injuries, Helen’s friendships with her fellow nurses must have given her comfort and solace.

​In the fall of 1918, Helen was stationed at l’Hôpital de l’Armée No. 65 in Pontoise, France. The hospital was under bombardment, making her already difficult work all the more grueling. That fall, a deadly version of influenza erupted, resulting in an epidemic that would kill 50 million people worldwide. 

Helen became sick with influenza. Edith Parkman wrote to Helen’s mother and her own, describing Helen’s physical pain and delirium.

At her bedside, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm, a French military decoration honoring bravery. French General Philippe Pétain signed the citation, commending “her absolute devotion to duty.” She passed away on November 5, only six days before the war ended. She was thirty-four years old.

​Katharine McLennan took a photo of Helen’s coffin adorned with flowers. Looking at this photo, we can see the care that the mourners took in decorating her coffin.

Photograph of Helen Homan’s coffin. 1918. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P255.

In a letter, Katharine wrote, “Edith and I feel very queer and lonely without Helen, she had such bounteous energy and always knew first what we ought to do and now it seems almost pointless to go on without her.”

On December 14, Helen’s funeral was held at King’s Chapel. The space was decorated with lilies and French and American flags were placed at the chancel. Her friends raised $21,000 for a nursing scholarship fund in her memory. 

Helen’s friend Edith Parkman married William Homans two years later. If Helen had lived, they would have been sisters-in-law. 

On November 11, 1925 at King’s Chapel, a memorial plaque was dedicated to the memories of Helen Homans, Hamilton Coolidge, and Edward Blake Robins. In 2001, Harvard’s Memorial Church was updated to include a plaque with Helen’s name and those of two other Radcliffe women who died in World War I.

​Volunteer nurses like Helen provided an incredible service during the war. In honor of Helen and two fellow Radcliffe alumnae who died in the war, the 1918 issue of the Radcliffe Quarterly wrote: “They gave their lives for their country and its allies just as surely as if they had met death in the trenches. To those of us who knew them in college there comes a curious feeling that we knew beforehand that each of them had in herself the qualities that command a courageous life and an heroic death.”

Bibliography

Barshes, Neal R., and Michael Belkin. “The Homans Family in American Surgery.” Annals of Surgery 261, no. 2 (2015): 418. https://doi.org/10.1097/SLA.0000000000000706.

The Boston Globe. “Throng at Funeral of Miss Helen Homans.” December 14, 1918. Newspapers.com.

Comeau, George T. “True Tales: Helen Homans, A Hero’s Death.” Canton Citizen, 2013. https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/2013/06/14/true-tales-homans-pt2/.

Encyclopedia Britannica. “Croix de Guerre.” Accessed November 5, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Croix-de-Guerre.

Foote, Henry Wilder, Henry Herbert Edes, John Carroll Perkins, and Winslow Warren. Annals of King’s Chapel from the Puritan Age of New England to the Present Day. With Harold B. Lee Library. Boston : Little, Brown, 1882. http://archive.org/details/annalsofkingscha00byufoot. 24.

Johnston, A.J.B. “Into the Great War: Katharine McLennan Goes Overseas, 1915-1919.” In The Island: New Perspectives on Cape Breton’s History, 1713-1990. Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis, 1990. http://archive.org/details/islandnewperspec0000unse.

Keown, Bridget E. “‘I Think I Was More Pleased to See Her than Any One “Cos She’s so Fine”: Nurses’ Friendships, Trauma, and Resiliency during the First World War.” Family & Community History 21, no. 3 (2018): 151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631180.2018.1555955.

"Massachusetts, State Vital Records, 1638-1927," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BN-23NT-V?cc=1928860 : 24 November 2022), > image 1 of 1; State Archives, Boston.

McGuire, Michael. “A War Generation?: The Radcliffe College Community in the Great War Era, 1914–1926.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 19 (2020). https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S1537781420000146. 

McLennan, Katharine to Grace McLennan, 4 December 1918, MG 12.189.6 U, Beaton Institute Archives. https://www.kmclennan.com/themes/exhibit-item/?theme=wwi&subtheme=correspondence&document=38.   

“Medical Notes.” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 180, no. 13 (1919). 

The National Archives. “The Influenza Epidemic of 1918.” Accessed November 5, 2025. https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/.

Photograph of Edith, Helen, and Katharine. 1917. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P68. https://www.kmclennan.com/themes/exhibit-item/?theme=wwi&subtheme=photograph%20gallery&document=29.   

Photograph of Helen Homan’s coffin. 1918. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P255. https://www.kmclennan.com/themes/exhibit-item/?theme=wwi&subtheme=photograph%20gallery&document=162.  

Photograph of Katharine playing checkers with patient Laborde. 1917. Cape Breton Regional Library, McLennan Collection. CBRL-P58. https://www.kmclennan.com/themes/exhibit-item/?theme=wwi&subtheme=photograph%20gallery&document=27.  

“Plaque Honors Radcliffe Women Who Died in WWI.” Harvard Gazette, November 8, 2001. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/11/plaque-honors-radcliffe-women-who-died-in-wwi/.

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Radcliffe Union, and Radcliffe College. “Radcliffe War Records.” The Radcliffe Quarterly (Cambridge, Mass.) III (December 1918). https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100557898. 9. 

Washburn, Frederic A. “Helen Homans.” The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. 182, no. 17, 1920. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM192004221821701. 

​"United States, Passport Applications, 1795-1925", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5B-62NB : Fri Apr 25 02:51:15 UTC 2025), Entry for Helen Homans, 1918.