Sponsored by:

Navy Federal Credit Union
Helen
Grace
McClelland
July 25, 1887

–

December 20, 1984

Cemetery:

Wayne Baptist Cemetery

When Beatrice MacDonald and Helen McClelland earned the Distinguished Service Cross on August 17, 1917, they became not only the first two women to receive the award, but the FIRST Americans to earn the newly authorized DSC in World War I. On May 25, 1919, she left the Army Nurse Corps. In 1926, she returned to the Pennsylvania Hospital. From 1933 until 1956, when she retired, McClelland worked as the head of the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Nursing Department. McClelland secured national accreditation for the hospital’s nursing education program. She also designed both a two-year and a four-year program to train nurses.

Awards Received

  • Distinguished Service Cross

    Service:

    United States Army

    Rank:

    Reserve Nurse

    Division:

    Nurse Corps, American Expeditionary Forces (Attached)

    Action Date:

    August 17, 1917
    War Department, General Orders No. 17 (1926)

    The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Reserve Nurse Helen Grace McClelland, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with Nurse Corps, American Expeditionary Forces (Attached), while on duty with the surgical team at British Casualty Clearing Station No. 61, British area, France, 17 August 1917. Nurse McClelland occupied the same tent with Miss Beatrice MacDonald, another reserve nurse, cared for her when wounded, stopped the hemorrhage from her wounds under fire caused by bombs from German aeroplanes.