After spending up to two weeks at sea, the vast majority of War Brides and their children arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, the principal gateway to Canada for returning servicemen and their dependents during and after the war.
From the ship, they were escorted into a waiting area in Pier 21 where Red Cross personnel would care for the children while the wives were processed through Immigration. From Halifax, the next step of their journey began with trains called War Bride Specials, equipped and staffed by military personnel and Red Cross Escort Officers. At every whistle stop across Canada, these War Bride trains brought dependents to their husbands and new families from Cape Breton to British Columbia. Thus marked the end of the fairytale and the beginning of real life in Canada.
Settling In
After the initial shock of arrival wore off, the War Brides settled into the regular ebb and flow of life in Canada. At the beginning, War Brides’ groups formed in towns and cities with the help of the local YMCA or the Red Cross and women tried to help each other with a friendly network of support. But the fact was, with new babies arriving one after the other, there was little time to go to War Bride meetings and most of these groups soon disbanded.29
In retrospect, had some War Brides known what was in store for them in Canada, they probably would have turned around and gone straight back home to their parents. But it wasn’t so easy in 1946 to just get up and leave and even if it had been, many still would have decided to stay. ‘You made your bed, now you have to lie in it’ was a saying that reflected the social expectations of women for whom marriage was supposed to be forever: divorce was simply not an option.
In response to concerns raised in the media about the fate of British War Brides, in May 1947 Canada’s Department of Veterans Affairs released the results of a cross-country survey of War Brides that intended to show how they were faring in their marriages to Canadian servicemen. Using New Brunswick as the example, the study found that the majority of these marriages were ‘as successful as even the most optimistic could expect’,30 and it offered up statistics showing that the War Brides’ marriages were no less likely to fail than any other Canadian union.
The reason the DVA released the report had as much to do with public perception that some War Brides had been lured to Canada with false promises as it did with the reality that others were in fact returning to their homelands after their marriages had failed.31
We will never know how many women went back home to Britain and Europe after coming to Canada as War Brides. Once the war emergency was over, Immigration no longer counted these women as a distinct group so they blended into the statistics for outward migration. We can only imagine how many War Brides would have liked to go back but they did not have the financial resources to do so and there was no help from the Canadian government.
Correspondence in the Canadian Wives Bureau files shows the difficulties some War Brides had in adapting to life in Canada and the kind of help they could expect from Canadian authorities. Some clearly wanted an escape, but not all War Brides were planning to leave their husbands behind. As this January 1947 letter to the Canadian Wives Bureau shows, there were also economic reasons for going back home:
My husband, baby and myself wish to return to England. My husband has been offered a good position out there but we haven’t the money to pay both our fares. I am a War Bride and I haven’t lived in Canada over a year. Two people told me I can apply for my fare through the government because of this. Is this true and if so would you be so kind as to give me the necessary information …32
There were as many reasons why a bride would want to leave as there were reasons to stay and whether she acted upon it depended on a whole set of circumstances unique to her situation. We do know, however, that the majority stayed in Canada. As any married couple will attest, it isn’t easy starting out, and so it was for the War Brides in the postwar years.
With so many returning veterans, jobs were scarce and it was difficult, if not impossible, to find adequate housing. Cultural differences, language, ethnicity and religion caused problems for many women as they tried to fit in. English War Bride Henrietta Pronovost couldn’t speak French when she arrived in St Gabriel de Brandon, Quebec but she says she knew enough ‘to tell when they were talking about me’.33
And although outhouses were a normal part of Canadian life, they certainly weren’t for city slickers used to plumbing and electricity in big cities like London. How many women found themselves facing down an angry barnyard rooster on the way to the ‘biffy’ is impossible to tell, but at least they can laugh about it now. British War Bride Betty Campbell came from Plymouth, England to Arthurette, New Brunswick. She had a run in with a rooster named Jimmy Duke who took a disliking to her.
We lived six miles out in the woods in Birch Ridge. The outside toilet was 400 feet from the house and my sister-in-law had a very ugly rooster named Jimmy Duke. One day I had to go out there. When I opened the door to come out, there stood Jimmy Duke. My sister-in-law was wondering what had happened to me so she came out to see if I was okay. There she stood, laughing at Jimmy Duke and me inside, crying. Any time I came home from somewhere or stepped outside, he came running as soon as he saw me or heard my voice, so I had to learn to keep my mouth shut. And guess what? I always had to have an escort to go outside.34
Added to the mix was the fact that many of the husbands had been repatriated ahead of their wives and had spent the last six months or more back in their home towns, hanging around with their war buddies at the Legion, drinking and reliving the good times – and the bad – overseas. Others suffered what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder which was exacerbated when their wives and young children arrived in Canada.
‘He wasn’t the same man I married,’ is a saying that was heard often among the War Brides. Hopes and dreams of a happy life in Canada were sometimes buried under infidelity, poverty, unemployment, alcoholism and debt. For these War Brides, returning back home to Britain was not only an admission of failure, but it was financially impossible, especially if there were children involved.
Undoubtedly, rural life was a shock for women raised in cities with modern transportation and communications systems: dirt roads that turned into mud in the spring, no electricity or telephones and lack of access to education and healthcare were all important concerns. But if your husband treated you well and you were in love, nothing else really mattered.
The War Brides Today
It would be impossible to tell the story of every Canadian War Bride in this short volume: every woman’s experience was unique, ranging from the ‘idyllic to the tragic’.35 They shared much in common: meeting and falling in love with a Canadian soldier in Britain, marrying and coming to Canada, settling into a new culture and adapting to a new way of life. But far from the stereotypical War Bride with her tea-cosy and loveable accent, the War Brides are as different from one another as they are to any other immigrant group.
Without question, there are couples who probably should never have married. But behind the sordid tales of unhappy War Brides is anecdotal evidence which shows these women have had mainly successful marriages, filled with happiness and plenty of love to pass down to their own children and on to the next generation.
And no matter what happened in their personal lives, if you ask the War Brides today if they would do it all over again, most will give a resounding ‘Yes!’ For many, their lives were enriched both materially and emotionally by coming to Canada and the list of their accomplishments is lengthy: a loving husband; a good home; fine well-educated children and grandchildren; as well as a standard of living far better than what they might have had in their homeland.
Many played important roles in their communities, first as volunteers with their children’s schools and later, as the children grew up, taking leadership roles in organizations, service groups, arts, culture, religion and even politics.
Many wives worked outside the home, providing a second income to make ends meet while gaining a wider circle of friends and deeper ties to their community. Others became famous in their own right; English War Bride Joan Walker won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 1954 for her book Pardon