Born in Souris, Prince Edward Island, on 14 June 1880, Rena Maude MacLean graduated from the Rhode Island Hospital School of Nursing in 1908. She enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps as a Nursing Sister at Quebec City on 28 September 1914, becoming one of the earliest Canadian nursing officers to volunteer for overseas service. Library and Archives Canada service record

MacLean sailed for England in October 1914 and served overseas for nearly four years in Canada, England, France, and Greece. Her wartime service included postings to Canadian and British military hospitals at Rouen, the Duchess of Connaught’s Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Taplow, No. 1 Canadian Stationary Hospital at Salonika, and No. 16 Canadian General Hospital at Orpington. Beginning in 1916, she also undertook transport duty, escorting wounded soldiers between Britain and Canada aboard hospital and troop ships. In February 1918 she was posted to the hospital ship HMHS Araguaya before returning briefly to No. 16 Canadian General Hospital. In March 1918 she joined the Canadian hospital ship HMHS Llandovery Castle.

Despite years of demanding service, MacLean remained optimistic. In a letter written aboard Llandovery Castle on 16 June 1918, she wrote:

Voices of Service

Here we are once more approaching Halifax, but still as far from home as ever… This trip more than half our patients are amputation cases and would make you heartsick only they are so cheerful and happy themselves… This may be my last trip over and, if it is, that means that I don’t get home until dear knows when, for as soon as I get to England I am going to put in for France and once there it will be hard enough to get away.

Rena Maude MacLean, RRC Nursing Sister, HMHS Llandovery Castle 1918

On the night of 27 June 1918, while sailing from Halifax to Liverpool, HMHS Llandovery Castle was torpedoed by the German submarine U-86 off the coast of Ireland, despite being clearly marked as a hospital ship protected under international law. Only 24 of the 258 people on board survived. All fourteen Canadian Nursing Sisters aboard, including Rena MacLean, were lost. Her service record records her simply as “Missing, presumed drowned, 27 June 1918.” She was 38 years old.