Canadian sailor Edgar Foreman works on a Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve crest while recovering in hospital.

Hospitals offered a variety of crafts to help patients pass the time or as part of rehabilitation following wounds or injury. Canada's navy began the Second World War without hospital facilities, and had to build up establishments like this to treat the sick, injured, and wounded that inevitably accompanied a massive expansion in personnel, extensive naval operations, and combat with the enemy. During the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy's medical branch handled some 150,000 hospital admissions.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19860341-002_10