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Captured hearts: New Brunswick war brides by Melynda Jarrat
This book is about those young women who married Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen and went to live with them in New Brunswick.
New Brunswick is in Eastern Canada and is one of the Atlantic provinces at the mouth of the St Lawrence River and the upper reaches of the Bay Of Fundy. Many of the communities make their livings from farming, fishing and forestry and in the 1940s it was a remote and difficult area in which to live.
War wives and children began arriving in New Brunswick in 1942. At first the numbers were very small as these people had to make their own way there with no government assistance and the journey was often very difficult. In August 1944, with the end of the war in Europe in sight a decision was made to give available space on troopships to servicemen’s wives. From then on the numbers of dependents making their way to Canada began to rise steadily. In 1946, when all the men had been repatriated home , the trickle of war brides turned into a flood.
By March 1948 43,454 war brides and 20,997 children were brought to Canada. New Brunswick is one of the smallest provinces but it’s servicemen married more than 1800 war brides who brought 900 children to the province. Most came from England and Scotland; a few came from Ireland and Wales; fewer from Western Europe such as The Netherlands and Belgium; and fewer from Italy and Austria. They were all young, many just teenagers and despite attempts by the forces to prevent, or slow down the rate of marriage by creating rules which gave the soldiers a cooling off period between falling in love and getting married, and other devices , the number of marriages increased.
The reason for so many marriages to Canadian troops were varied, but there were some recurring themes. The Canadian troops were the first Americans to come to Europe. They came first to Britain and many were here for a long time. They were all over the country in a variety of jobs and were able to travel about the country freely and easily. This was a time when most British men were away fighting in Europe; family life was disrupted and life was full of uncertainties. The country was suffering all sorts of hardship from rationing to bombing and into this depressed situation came these fresh faced troops with their cheeky attitudes and plenty of money; and access to luxuries unavailable to local people. The unsettled nature of wartime life in Britain put a premium on living for the moment. Dancing was probably the most popular pastime , and dance halls were a great place to meet the opposite sex, though people met in all sorts of places and under all sorts of circumstances. The funniest one described took place in a cinema. A young lady was sitting on her own watching a film. Elsewhere in the auditorium was a Canadian serviceman on his own. The air raid siren sounded but because there were so many false alarms no one moved. A bomb hit the cinema and the young lady was thrown into the air and landed on the serviceman’s lap, and that was the beginning of that romance.
The length and intensity of the Second World War created a time when people threw caution to the winds. The spirit of living for the day led to short, intense and very passionate relationships, some hasty marriages, and equally sudden pregnancies.
As mentioned already, the obstacles thrown in their way did nothing to stem the number of marriages and the flow of war brides across the Atlantic. As the years went on travel became easier and more comfortable. The Canadian Wives Bureau was set up to deal with information, welfare and civilian repatriation. War brides clubs were set up to give people a chance to meet one another and to learn about Canada. Members of Volunteer Aid Detachments such as the Canadian Red Cross helped out on the Atlantic voyage. The women and children were well cared for. Once they reached Canada special trains transported them to all parts of the country. Wives heading for New Brunswick had a short trip of about half a day and an overnight stop before they were taken to the more remote parts of the province.
Many of these young women had no idea of what kind of life faced them in Canada. Most had come from towns and cities and went to rural settlements where the house had no running water, no electricity, no inside toilet and a wood burning stove. That took a lot of adjusting to, but most of them did make the adjustment. They were welcomed into the local community. They stuck at it and learned to live off the land, storing up food to last through the long severe Canadian winter and bringing up large families. Many were homesick at first but most got over it and learned to enjoy their life in Canada. There was no question of divorce for most people in those days. The social stigma would have been awful and there would have been no way of bringing up their families on their own.
Not all marriages were a success and some wives had to flee abusive and drunken husbands. Others just stuck it out. Many of these ex-servicemen were suffering from what are now known as operational stress disorders, but this was not recognised as such then. There were no social support services for the wives and families for many years and neither was there the support of the wives‘ extended families as they were too far away, so they had to struggle on on their own. Some did make their way back to Britain, but most were stuck in Canada.
The early interest in the war brides waned as the years went by and the meetings and parties which were arranged in the later 1940s became fewer and fewer. The ties that bound these women together weakened over the years. Weekly meetings shifted to monthly and later to yearly before they petered out altogether. There was a resurgence of interest in the 1970s with the publication of a book entitled “The War Brides” by Joyce Hibbert who was the first to tell their stories; both the good and the bad. 2006 was designated as the Year of the War Bride, but their numbers are dwindling in every province and those who remain are in their late 80s. Their children and grandchildren realise that it is important to get their stories about such an unusual chapter in the history of the country before they die and the stories are lost.
