Nancy Malloy
Born
Nancy Malloy

(1945-10-06)October 6, 1945
Brockville, Canada
DiedDecember 17, 1996(1996-12-17) (aged 51)
Novye Atagi, Ichkeria
(now Chechnya, Russia)
NationalityCanadian
Occupation(s)Medical administrator and nurse at the Canadian Red Cross

Nancy Malloy (October 6, 1945 – December 17, 1996) was a medical administrator and nurse for the British Columbian branch of the Canadian Red Cross. She participated in various international missions that took place at remote hospitals, often in dangerous areas. On December 17, 1996 she was murdered together with five of her colleagues when on a mission in Chechnya, Russia. Posthumously, she was awarded both the Florence Nightingale Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.[1]

Life

Born in Brockville, Ontario,[2][3] on October 6, 1945, she studied at the KGH School of Nursing[4] before completing her bachelor's degree in Nursing Science at Queen's University in 1969.[4] After being a teacher in Montreal, she moved to Vancouver in 1979,[3] where she worked as a nurse at Vancouver General Hospital.[5] She joined the local Red Cross branch in 1987.[2][5] Over the course of nine years, she was a director and medical administrator for six outpost hospitals in remote British Columbia.[2][5][4][6] As well, she participated as a medical administrator and nurse during ICRC missions[7] to Ethiopia (1990),[2][5][6] Kuwait[2][5] and Iran (1991),[6] Belgrade (1993),[2][5] Zaire (1995),[2][5] and Chechnya (1996).[2][8]

Murder

In the mission following a peace treaty between Russia and Chechnya, Nancy Malloy, together with six international Red Cross workers were located in a hospital in Novye Atagi,[3][7][9][10] close to Grozny, the capital of the Chechnya region.[11] On December 17, 1996, when the mission had been running for two and a half months, armed men entered the sleeping quarters of the hospital and shot and killed Malloy, together with five of her coworkers.[1][2][4][8][10][11]
In 2010, it was reported that a Russian special forces major had claimed to be part of the group which carried out the shooting, and that their intention was to target Chechen fighters.[8] However, witnesses had claimed soon after the event that they had heard the attackers speaking Chechen, and that the Red Cross staff had been directly targeted.[8]

Honours

A memorial plaque on the fatal attack is present in a school and former hospital in Novye Atagi.[4] Nancy Malloy was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1997 by Governor General Romeo LeBlanc.[7] As well, she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal by the ICRC,[4] while receiving the Order of the Red Cross from the Canadian Red Cross in 2001.[2] In addition, Queen's University's school of nursing administers the Nancy Malloy Memorial Award, handed out by her friends and classmates.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Care, Museum of Health (16 December 2011). "15 years later… Remembering Nancy Malloy". wordpress.com. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Woloschuk, Michael (13 September 1997). "Red Cross to honour murdered nurse". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. p. 5. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b c Gray, Malcolm; Steele, Scott (30 December 1996). "Cold-blooded murder". Maclean's. Vol. 109, no. 53. p. 86. ISSN 0024-9262.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Nancy Malloy Memorial Plaque, Canadian Red Cross". redcross.ca. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Kines, Lindsay (18 December 1996). "Friends remember nurse's presence". The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. pp. 1, 9. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  6. ^ a b c Hawthorn, Tom (28 April 1991). "Vancouver nurse to aid Kurds". The Province. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. p. 10. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  7. ^ a b c McCreery, Christopher (2008). The Beginner's Guide to Canadian Honours. Dundurn. p. 59. ISBN 9781459721029. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d Ward, Olivia (26 November 2010). "Russian major confesses to 1996 Red Cross murders". Toronto Star. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. p. 26. ISSN 0319-0781.
  9. ^ "Killings in Chechnya threaten peace process". The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Los Angeles Times. 18 December 1996. pp. 1, 9. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. ^ a b Bradley, Simon (15 December 2016). "ICRC pays tribute to staff sacrificed in line of duty". SwissInfo. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  11. ^ a b Sens, Allen Gregory; Stoett, Peter John (2002). Global Politics: Origins, Currents, Directions. Nelson Thomson Learning. p. 7. ISBN 9780176169107. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  12. ^ "The Nancy Malloy Memorial Award - Queen's Alumni". www.queensu.ca. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
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