Skip to main content

Shirley McCorquodale Lyle Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0116

Scope and Contents

The collection includes an oral history transcript, 6 November 1999; various photographs of Lyle's Army Nurse Corps service, 1943-1955.

Dates

  • circa 1943-1999

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical / Historical

Shirley McCorquodale Lyle (1915-2005) of Franklinville, North Carolina, served in the Army Nurse Corps from December 1939 to January 1960. She spent more than three years in the South Pacific during World War II and was stationed in Germany in the early 1950s.

Shirley McCorquodale Lyle graduated from Franklinville High School in Franklinville, North Carolina, and worked in a local mill office until entering the Virginia School of Nursing in Richmond in 1934. After graduating in 1937, Lyle worked at Children's Orthopedic Hospital in Richmond for one year and then in the pediatrics ward of Cincinnati General Hospital in Ohio for one year.

On 26 December 1939, Lyle joined the Army Nurse Corps as a second lieutenant and went to Fort Benning, Georgia. She worked in the base hospital until March 1942, when she sailed to Australia with the 33rd Surgical Hospital on the Patrick Henry. They set up a hospital in Townsville, Australia, and then Lyle was sent to Mount Isa, in the Australian outback, to start another hospital. She also set up hospitals in Alice Springs, Cloncurry, and Rockhampton. Lyle was later stationed in Mindoro, Philippines, by way of Port Moresby and Dobodura, New Guinea.

In July 1945, she contracted malaria and was flown to California after thirty-nine months overseas. After a few months of leave and rehabilitation and participation in a bond tour in Philadelphia, Lyle was assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland.

In 1949, Lyle was again stationed overseas, at the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. During her three year tour there, she was promoted to major.

In 1952 she was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she met Jim Lyle, an army officer in Darby's Rangers. Lyle was later assigned to Fort Monroe, Virginia, while Jim served in Austria and Italy.

In the fall of 1955, Shirley and Jim Lyle were married in Germany, and in December, she was able to join him in Italy. In late 1957, the couple was assigned to Fort Benning. Lyle retired from the Army Nurse Corps on 1 January 1960. The Lyles lived briefly in San Francisco but moved to Raleigh when Jim retired from the army in 1965.

Extent

0.21 Linear Feet (2 folders )

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.

Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.

Processing Information

Processed by Matthew McCarthy.

Title
Shirley McCorquodale Lyle Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 May
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246