Nov. 29, 2002 Remembering war brides

Our gallant military men and women are honoured in books, films and  ceremonies and in our hearts and minds.  I was given a new book recently  about the 48,000 war brides that came to Canada in the late 1940s, bringing  22,000 children with them, and eventually producing some 200, 000 good  Canadian citizens.  While reading the new book (Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes: Stories from Canada's British War Brides by Linda Granfield,  2002), I met a war bride by chance.  While in a photocopy shop I noted a  woman copying newspaper articles on the Queen's visit and information on a  war bride reunion on the Queen Elizabeth II in May 2003.  She was Phyllis  Bailey of North Bay, and I later met with her and her husband Phil to share  their experiences.

Phil and Phyllis Bailey on their wedding day fifty-six years ago.

Phyllis was in uniform in the British Land Army as a bus conductor during  the war, when Phil Bailey arrived in Lancaster on assignment and asked for  directions from Phyllis.  That evening, Phil and some other Canadian  soldiers went to a dance where he saw Phyllis and her twin sister.  Phil and  Phyllis dated, married and began their interesting life together, including  56 years of marriage and the birth of twin boys.  After the war Phil  enlisted in the Air Force and during his twenty-one years there, he and  Phyllis visited her family in England many times.

Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes: Stories from Canada's British War Brides by Linda Granfield,  2002

The book I mentioned and several other war bride books owned by the Baileys,  gave me an insight into the phenomena that "made an indelible stamp on the  social history of Canada."  Books, plays and documentary films have been  made about the joys and sorrows of this dramatic story.  A recent video  production, "The War Brides, From Romance to Reality" was recently shown on  the History Channel and was loaned to me by the Baileys.  A new war brides  musical has been playing in Hamilton and Guelph, and was in Toronto earlier  this month.

Most of the young British men were away fighting when the Canadians arrived,  and the many young English women took an immediate interest in the  fascinating uniformed Canadians, and vice versa.  It was not easy to get  permission to marry, but the first one took place forty-three days after the  first Canadian soldier arrived.  If marriage did not take place, passage to  Canada was not available.  Many of the wives were pregnant when their men  went quickly to war, and over 40,000 Canadian soldiers died.

Many who did return were changed forever, and were different men from those  that had married in youthful exuberance.  The waiting war brides, besides  being lonely, poorly fed, bombed and overworked in England, suffered from  the disapproval of some of their neighbours at home for not waiting for  their English men to come home.  Later, when the war brides came to Canada,  some were treated as outsiders.  Their husbands went home with their units,  and the wives followed in crowded, beat up old troop ships.  A real effort  was made to provide good food and direction, but many were too sea sick and  anxious about their future to enjoy it.

Phyllis Bailey, on her trip to Canada on the "Letitia," remembered the baby  bottles rolling on the floor and breaking, to be replaced by resilient Coke  bottles with nipples.  Phil waited for her in Fredericton New Brunswick, and  Phyllis' boat got in a day early.  Phil talked his way into the compound and  they were soon united.  Now, after all these years of marriage, they look  back on their life positively.  Some others were not so lucky.  Many brides  arrived to find their husbands with someone else and had to return home.   Others ended up in isolated locations, sometimes with an unfriendly  community or an abusive or alcoholic husband, or some other problem they did  not expect.  I recently wrote about the extreme case of Edwin Alonzo Boyd, a  solder who married in England in 1940 and brought his war bride, three  children and a German Luger pistol souvenir home in 1946.  He became  Canada's most famous bank robber, but he was still close to his wife and  children at the time of his death last May.  Generally, it is agreed that  most marriages worked out well.

Most of the wives came from England (44,886 with 21,350 children), while  1886 came from Holland (428 children), 649 from Belgium (131 children), 100  from France, and 26 from Italy, etc.  Eighty percent of the war brides were  army wives, eighteen percent RCAF and two percent Navy.  Many of the  returning military acquired higher education and had professional careers,  and the rest had careers much like other Canadian men.  Many of the war  brides became leaders in their communities along with raising fine families.    There are numerous war bride associations across Canada and many reunions.    The several books written have been supported by these organizations, and  most profile various lives of war brides, making for fascinating reading.   The Internet has numerous references for those interested in learning more  about these marriages.  For more information contact  www.canadianwarbrides.com.

Governor General Adrienne Clarkson shaking hands with Phyllis  Bailey at a war brides reunion in Sudbury in September.

Phyllis Bailey attended the recent war brides reunion in Sudbury, where  among over 300 guests several were from North Bay and area.  Phyllis was  getting on an elevator when Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her  husband John Ralston Saul, and her entourage, arrived.  The Governor General  shook her hand, and did again later at a banquet where she spoke on behalf  of the Queen.  His Excellency Mr. Saul was a hit when, in his speech, he  mentioned that his mother was a war bride and proud of it.  Congratulations  to all of our war brides for their remarkable contributions to our way of  life.