Major-General John Wilmer Browning Barr CMM, KStJ, CD, QHP, MD, CM, DHA (7 December 1916 – 25 April 2007) was the 25th Canadian Surgeon General.
[7] Shortly after Barr joined the 23rd, the unit was moved to Camp Derbert, in Nova Scotia and the following year, was sent overseas to England.
Though, the following year, he was posted to "Headquarters, 3 Canadian Infantry Division, as the Staff Learner in the Office of the [Assistant Director of Medical Services (Army)].
Barr contextualizes his reasoning for this decision within his autobiography, From Barnyard to Battlefield and Beyond: The Story of a Military Medical Officer, when he states that: "If I stayed [in the position at the office of the Assistant Director of Medical Services (Army)] I would never know [what went on at the front], and the war might end without my ever experiencing the task for which I had joined the Army – to aid the soldiers directly.
"[12] In February 1945, Barr was promoted to major and posted back to the 23rd Field Ambulance as a company commander; and was quickly placed in the position of Second-in-Command (2/IC) of the unit.
Marion had also joined the RCAMC, though in 1942, in the rank of lieutenant, and she served with several units during the war, including the 12th Canadian General Hospital.
Barr set this bursary up in 1993 and is to be "awarded on the basis of financial need to a student in the final year of the Bachelor of Nursing Science program.