General Chat

No not the American GI's apparently, our good friends the Canadian Forces.

Am just reading a book by Melynda Jarratt (War Brides) it is really eye opening stuff........stories & pics of individual couples and the brides who ended up sailing to Canada to join their hubbys after demob. Not sure whether to laugh or cry..........or both at the same time!

What a terrible time some of them had, enduring the harsh weather conditions without warm clothing and ending up in remote parts without sanitation running water etc.. However lots of happy endings as well!!

According to the book Eric Clapton was the son of a Canadian soldier, his mother married another Canadian S.....went to Canada and left poor Eric in the UK!....to be brought up by his grandparents.

A good read ladies for curling up in front of the fire with!

Annx

It was the same for many women who married a GI bride after WWII. The glamour of a nice uniform, stockings, chocolate & money they had (compared to the austerity of the UK at the time). For many didn't match the reality in the US.

Penfold :o)

Don't forget the Canadian accent :) lol

Janey will be after your blood Red. lol :o)))

Surely there's enough Canadians to go around.....surely she can't keep all of them to herself? lol

She can if she googles them........ There'll be no hiding place for em lol :o)))

I suppose she's got the advantage of being closer than I am. Do you think she'd noticed if I smuggled some across here?

Not too sure about the Canadian accent..........a lot of them were French speaking!.......imagine that on top of being away from your family & friends, going to a French speaking location.

Well there were nearly 65,000 UK brides who took the plunge between 1942/46.....over 45,000 of them in 1946 and their 21,000 children!

Annx

PS...........You two had better watch out..........she is looking in over on TTF LOL
Annx

ahhh, she's diverted then Ann...quick lets start smuggling some in......;)

Crikey.........am a bit gobsmacked now........read anothert chapter regarding records kept (War Brides Bureau)relating to Brides refused entry or refusing to enter the country as a bride, very sensitive information.

For example.......wife insane, husband cannot be located, VD symptoms,divorce pending, husband does not want wife etc.

They are actually open to the public!
Annx

That's scary Ann, those records are far too recent to be published if they identify people.

Yes thats what I thought, thinking about our 1911 census and the blanked out last column........for privacy!

Rita that was a good film - watched it twice. Also enoyed her in the Land Girls.

Hello Rita,

That sounds good, might buy that one as I like Brenda Fricker, you should read this book if you enjoyed the film.........I got it from the library.

My mums friend and next door neighbour married an American GI in 1947, my mum and dad went to California to stay with them in 1990! So that marriage survived against all the odds!

I suppose in many cases due to rationing etc...........the grass seems greener...........but in many cases sadly not!

Annx

Well, you can certainly have all the ones in uniform -- I don't want 'em!

There were loads of war brides came to Canada ... although probably not as many as the war babies left behind.

My mum's 80 (born 1930), just a little younger than the war bride age, but in her senior cits' apartment buildings in the last 20 years she's known many English women who married Canadians and came here after the war.

Don't imagine they all ended up in sod huts on the prairies, of course. There were a lot of major cities here, and anyone arriving in Toronto or any other city in southern Ontario would have had all the comforts of home and more.

This bills itself as "the authoritative source of information on the Canadian war brides of WWII" ;)

http://www.canadianwarbrides.com/

if anybody feels like browsing. It has lots of references to Melynda Jaratt.

An official website:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/warbrides

and stories, radio and television clips from the CBC archives:

http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/topics/1542/

Thanks Janey........will take alook at those, am really enjoying the book, and learning a bit of Canadian history to boot!

So far most of the ships seem to have arrived at Halifax, so for a lot of the women & children there were many days travelling from there, if I am correct to Quebec and Ontario.

Annx

lol Janey....thought you may say that.....I was thinking of keeping the Mounties myself rather than the soldiers ;)

Yup Ann -- it's the trip my grandmother made in the late 20s. I haven't quite figured it out yet. How I wish I'd got it straight when she was living -- she was nearly 99 when she died, only 15 years ago, so imagine how I kick myself.

My grandfather seems to have come here first, when he left the military after being in WWI and then Ireland, and sent for her. I do remember her saying she thought she was going to Australia until she got to the dock. And then she got off the boat, got off the train, and found herself in Winnipeg in February. Well, from the passenger record, actually late summer, but it would have been February soon enough. ;)

"Portage and Main in February" (a main corner in Winnipeg) is the dictionary definition of freeze to death in two minutes. I was there once then, I know.

Halifax is the main naval port here; Halifax was a British military post for centuries, and still has the Citadel. It was the site of the (wait for it) Halifax Explosion in 1917, which I think still stands as the highest death count non-natural disaster in history, when a munitions ship exploded.

Oddly, the only person I ever met who was there was my former partner's step-grandfather from California, who was with the US military, and whom I met in Texas about 23 years ago.


As for Mounties, well, I used to deal with 'em through work. Nice enough guys. That Sgt Larry I liaised with for the demonstration many years ago has taken to writing right-wing letters to the editor. I ran into him in an elevator one day, him all dressed up in the full kit (he was always in shirt and tie when I saw him normally). I think he must have been on duty at a Citizenship Court event. I snickered, and said something like "big party?" And he stared straight ahead ... as Mounties are wont to do.

If you like Mounties, and you haven't seen the series Due South, you really do have to find a teenager who knows how to download stuff from the net. ;)

Thanks for the extra info Janey, interesting stuff! Only half way through the book, have not come across anyone travelling to Winnipeg yet! Most have been to the Maritimes and mostly had very hard life at the begining.

Dads mums sister "ran away" to Canada with her hubby and 1 year old, they left the house for the sailing, calling at a photographers and having their photo taken...then having it sent home to their parents saying they were on their way to Canada!

I also have a cousin out there in Kitchener, he left UK in the 60's. As for the cold weather..........just heard on the morning news that it was -17c in parts of Powys (Wales) last night..........very cold for us!

Ann