Verna Grant Darrach was born in New Haven, Prince Edward Island in 1906, the youngest of ten children of Angus Neil Darrach and Margaret Nicholson. Prior to her nursing training Verna taught school for over 6 years in Bonshaw, DeSable, Hampton and Brookfield, P.E.I. Following graduation from the PEI Hospital School of Nursing in 1937, she did private nursing for one year and then was the first nurse to be appointed Director of the Junior Red Cross and was also in charge of the Red Cross crippled children's work.

In 1943 she enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. Following six months basic training in Debert N.S., she served as a nursing sister with the rank of Lieutenant in England, France, Holland and Germany with No. 21 Canadian General Hospital. In May 1945 she transferred to No. 16 Canadian General Hospital in Germany caring for prisoners of war. Returning to Canada she served briefly at the Veterans' Hospital in Cornwallis, but returned to the Red Cross in Prince Edward Island when the polio crisis developed in 1946. She organized a polio treatment centre at the Provincial Sanatorium, organized loan cupboards of sick room supplies across the province, and set up a number of home nursing courses. In 1952 she was made Director of Nursing Services for the province, a position she held until 1958.

For the next ten years Verna and her sister Laura managed the Parkview Motel in Moncton and the Kirkwood Motel in Charlottetown, both owned by Capt. Carl Burke. At the age of 62 Verna took a course in psychiatric nursing at Riverside Hospital and was employed in this capacity for fifteen months.

Verna received the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, War Medal 1939-1945 and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and Clasp. The Zonta Club named her an outstanding woman of PEI and she received a Certificat as an Honorary Member of the Nurse Alumnae.

Verna Grant Darrach died on 10 March 1995.