Lest We Forget - Volume 6 www.nfld.net/rclnfprovcom 81 Newfoundland & Labrador Command The Royal Canadian Legion Salutes the Canadian War Brides on their 60 th Anniversary The term "war bride" refers to the thousands of young women who met and married Canadian servicemen during the Second World War. These war brides were mostly from Britain, but a few thousand were also from other areas of Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. During the SecondWorldWar, there were an estimated 48,000 war brides and, when the war ended, most of these young women and their children (nearly 22,000) followed their husbands to a new life in Canada. War brides also came to Canada after the First World War. The official Government of Canada history of the First World War reports that an estimated 54,000 relatives accompanied the returning troops during demobilization from Britain to Canada. The story of the Canadian war brides and their journey to Canada is one of the most fascinating and romantic of WorldWar Two. Why nearly 45,000 British and European women would leave behind everything that was familiar to start a new life in post-war Canada is a story worth telling. The war brides came from all over the United Kingdom and from nearly every country on the European continent, but the vast majority (93%) were British - and the reasons are fairly obvious. Canadians were among the first to come to the assistance of Britain after war was declared in 1939 and they spent more time there than any other member of the Allied Forces. In fact, just 43 days after Canadian soldiers arrived in December, 1939, they celebrated the first marriage between a British woman and a Canadian serviceman at Farnborough Church in the Aldershot area. That marriage, and the 48,000 which followed over the next six years, formed part of the most unusual emigrant wave to hit Canada's shores:All women, all of the same generation, and mostly British, these nearly 45,000 war brides are an important part of Canadian history that has gone relatively unnoticed by historians and journalists alike . As a group, the war brides shared many similarities: but far and above the image of a British war bride with her loveable accent and tea cosy, these women represented a diversity of experience that makes them as different from one another as they are to other immigrant groups in the post-war era. But whether they were English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, French, Belgian or Italian, the War Brides have the shared experience of meeting and marrying a Canadian soldier during war time, leaving their home country for a new world by trans-Atlantic ship across the ocean, crossing Canada by war bride train, settling in to their new homes, raising families and adapting to a new culture, language and religion at a time in our history when the future held great promise for new Canadians. We salute this remarkable group of Canadian citizens who, for love, followed their husbands. Where their returning Veterans went, these young women followed – and made their new homes in their young and growing land. These women were welcomed to their new communities and new families. The contributions of these new Canadians would soon extend far beyond the walls of their homes as they entered into the life of their communities and enriched it with their many abilities and hard work. The years following the SecondWorldWar were ones of unprecedented change for Canada and our country's war brides have played an important part in the growth and development of the free and peaceful Canada that we enjoy today. Many Canadian families and communities count themselves the richer for the contributions of the thousands of war brides, both of the First and the Second World War, who have made Canada their home.
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