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Tag: 1940s vintage images

Vintage Images of 1940s Canadian War Brides

The other day I was reading a vintage magazine I had been gifted and there was a very interesting article about “What life was like for young war brides”. It was really fascinating to read the interviews and hear them talking about knowing that while life was so uncertain at that time, they knew that they were in love and would do anything to just marry their soldier and worry about the rest later.

Then later while browsing the internet to read a bit more on this subject I stumbled upon a very interesting site called “Canadian War Brides” and as I was reading the stories, looking thru pictures I thought that this was a great idea for a blog post, that I think you would all enjoy.

Here are some of the wonderful goodies…..

Vintage Images of 1940s Canadian War Brides

War Bride Definition:

The term “war bride” refers to the estimated 48,000 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 (Source).

Nearly 48,000 Canadian servicemen who married overseas during World War II. Between 1942 and 1947, the government brought 47 783 war brides and their 21 950 children to Canada. Relatively few came before the wars end (Source).

Meet Annie Barnes Anderson Coyle and George Alfred Brown who were married on February 10, 1945 at South Leith Parish Church, in Scotland. George was from Earlton, Ontario and Annie from Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Annie was in the Womens Land Army during the Second World War and George was a tank gunner with the Canadian Grenadier Guards.

1940s vintage photo of a young couple who were married in scotland on Feb 10th, 1945. George was Canadian and Annie was a Scottish War Bride.
Source: Canadian War Bride

1940’s Wedding Dresses:

In many photos (like the one above) you will see that the bride is not wearing a wedding dress as clothes rationing and shortages of materials made this very difficult (as well as shortage on time in many bride and grooms cases). Many times you will see her in a best suit or in her service uniform.

I even read about the ultimate rationing….a wedding dress (pictured below) that was worn by 15 brides in Britain. Isn’t it stunning?!

1940s wedding gown - The floor-skimming gown was made from floral-patterned pre-war silk, originally intended for making petticoats.

It was first worn by Evelyn Higginson when she married sailor Charles Butterfield on 18 September 1943. Read all about the other 14 women who wore the dress by clicking the image of the dress.
Source: Express

Here is CSM Wm. Lyster and Wren Coral Eswyn Ellinor on August 21st 1943. St. Richard’s Church, Aldwick, Sussex. So young and so in love.

1940s Canadian War Bride -CSM Wm. Lyster and Wren Coral Eswyn Ellinor on August 21st 1943. St. Richard's Church, Aldwick, Sussex. What a stunning 1940s wedding dress, veil, crown and of course the flowers. And our young soldier in his kilt uniform.
Source: ESWYN LYSTER’S STORY & HER BOOK

Right before getting married, William sent a Telegraph to Canada requesting funds from his savings. I think this is really cool piece of history.

1940s Canadian Pacific Telegraph, telegram about fund needed for getting married during WW2.
Source: ESWYN LYSTER’S STORY & HER BOOK

This wedding below looks to be several weddings, but I believe the others ladies are bridesmaids, hence the shorter veils. The middle couple is War Bride Rose Boulay and her husband Horace Boulay of Belledune, New Brunswick.

1940s Canadian War Bride wedding -War Bride Rose Boulay and her husband Horace Boulay of Belledune, New Brunswick. Stunning 1940s wedding dress and 1940s bridesmaid dresses.
Source: Canadian War Brides-FB Page

Nothing thrills me more than seeing vintage images in colour like the wedding of war bride Cathie Elliot to her very handsome Canadian Solider-Glen. They were married on Christmas Eve, 1940, Aberdeen, Scotland. As you can see she is not wearing a traditional white dress.

The paper Horseshoe. In many photos I saw of Canadians and non Canadians the women were carrying a paper horseshoe. What exactly for? For good luck! What a fun idea.

1940s vintage photo of a War Bride and her Solider-Coloured photo.  war bride Cathie Elliot to her very handsome Canadian Solider-Glen. They were married on Christmas Eve, 1940, Aberdeen, Scotland. As you can see she is not wearing a traditional white dress.
Source: Canadian War Brides-FB Page

Now for the wedding of all weddings…The Marriage of English War Bride Olive Cochrane to Saskatchewan Native Lloyd Cochrane. The Bouquets in all these photos are just stunning and must weigh a ton.

1940s vintage photo of a 1940s WW2 War Bride Wedding. The image features the 1940s bride and her groom and all the wedding guests and bridesmaids.
Source: Canadian War Brides-FB Page

A war bride and child arrive at Bonaventure Station in Montreal, Quebec, on 4 March 1946. The mother and child had travelled across the ocean on board the SS Aquitania (Source).

1940s Vintage Photo: A war bride and child arrive at Bonaventure Station in Montreal, Quebec, on 4 March 1946. The mother and child had travelled across the ocean on board the SS Aquitania.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia

Coming to Canada

After the wedding the brides eventually had to make the trip to Canada.

Here is an image of War Brides with their Children arriving in Halifax-Pier 21. Upon their arrival they were supplied with a cookbook and then sent on their way.

Most then boarded special trains that took them to their final destinations in communities located across the country. Many of the war brides were unprepared for the conditions they found in Canada, but most stayed and adjusted to a new way of life (Source).

1940s photo of War brides and their children arriving in Halifax, Canada from overseas.
Source: Public Archives of NS

I have a feeling that making this trip to an unknown country to a family you don’t know and maybe a husband you barely remember must bring these women together in a way that nobody thought possible.

1940s Canadian War Brides Coming to their new home. 1940s Fashions on display-Coats, hair scarfs and kids.
Source: Canadian Army

Canadian war brides on board the aircraft carrier Reaper as it enters the Sydney Harbour, NS. On a fashion side, I love the hair and the peep toe shoes.

1940s vintage photo of Canadian War Brides on a bunk bed in 1940s fashions waiting to get off the boat in Sydney Harbour, NS.
Source: CBC Radio

War brides and their children en route to Canada. Photo taken in England, 17 April 1944.

1940s vintage photo of War brides and their children en route to Canada. Photo taken in England, 17 April 1944.

Source: Canadian Encyclopedia

For further reading please check out:

Liz 🙂

“WW2 Air Force Uniforms for Canadian Women”-Guest Blog Post

Today’s Guest blogger is Elinor Florence, author of a new Canadian wartime novel calledBird’s Eye View.

Bird's Eye View-1940s Fiction novel

Bird’s Eye View tells the story of a young woman from the prairies whose home town becomes an air training base. Fired with patriotism, she joins the air force herself – one of 50,000 Canadian women who enlisted to support the fighting men.

Rose Jolliffe travels overseas and becomes an interpreter of aerial photographs, spying on the enemy from the sky, searching out bomb targets on the continent.

She keeps in touch with the home front through frequent letters from her mother. And throughout the war, she has a bird’s eye view of the Canadian experience — at Dieppe, in the skies over Germany, on the beaches of Normandy — and finally, when our country shared in the Allied victory.

This novel will appeal to vintage-lovers everywhere, because it’s just loaded with 1940s atmosphere. Since I know that Elinor did masses of research for her novel — gathering data on music, lifestyle, food, speech habits, and clothing — I asked her to describe what her heroine wore which is the bases of today’s post.

Guest Post By Elinor Florence

My heroine Rose Jolliffe is in the Air Force, so she naturally wears a uniform throughout the book.

But not just one uniform. She wears first the British, and then the Canadian air force uniform.

There’s a good reason for that. When war was declared in 1939, the Canadian government didn’t allow women to join the armed forces. It took two long years of lobbying before Parliament finally caved in and allowed women to join up.

But for the purposes of my novel, I wanted Rose to be in England before this happened, so I concocted a way for her to join the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force instead.

So the first uniform that Rose wears in the book is a WAAF uniform. It looked like this: an air force blue serge jacket and skirt, with a pale blue shirt and black tie. The hat was also made of serge in the same colour.

WAAF uniforms, Royal Air Force Museum
(Photo Credit: Royal Air Force Museum).

Modelled after the men’s Royal Air Force uniforms, they weren’t particularly flattering unless you were tall and slender. You can see from the photo that the wide belt cinched around the waist and the patch pockets made some girls look like a sack of potatoes. If you had money, you could take your uniform to a tailor and have it altered. But most of the women just had to suffer.

Not only was it bulky, but the woollen fabric was thick and scratchy. Some girls sewed silk linings into their uniforms so they wouldn’t chafe.

The women wore blue-grey cotton stockings and black lace-up shoes. And they had to carry their gas mask bag at all times. (Some girls secretly ditched the gas mask after the bombing raids petered out, and used the bags for makeup and cigarettes).

The hat was also an object of derision. It was often called “the old pie crust” and was gathered on the top in full pleats. (I’ve never understood why they would want to waste fabric in this way, when clothing rations were in effect – but perhaps wool didn’t count since it didn’t have to be imported).

1940s vintage photo of a ww2 womens miltary hat, a pie crust
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

The underwear was equally unattractive. I couldn’t find a photograph, but it consisted of  a cotton brassiere, a woolen undervest, and a pair of bloomers with elastic legs that the girls labeled “passion-killers,” or “blackouts.” Again many of the girls flouted the rules and wore their own underwear.

As my novel progresses, my heroine Rose transfers into the Royal Canadian Air Force, Women’s Division (called WDs for short).

Here’s how that came about: After Canada agreed to set up dozens of air bases across the country to train Commonwealth air crews, the British government requested permission to send WAAFs to Canada to work in our stations.

At that point the Canadian government reluctantly gave in and agreed that if there were going to be women on air bases, they might as well be Canadian!

So Parliament passed an act in July 1941 to allow women to join the RCAF – the first branch of the armed forces to accept women. (The army followed a month later, and then the navy a year later, in July 1942).

Naturally the Canadian branch modelled their uniforms after their British sisters, meaning at first they had a very similar uniform and hat to the WAAFs.

-Here’s a photograph of the RCAF pie crust, worn by Edna Bryanton in Toronto in January 1942.

1940s vintage photo of Edna Bryanton wearing a RCAF pie crust hat
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

And here’s a photograph of Dorothy Chapman (nicknamed “Chappy’) looking elegant in her WD uniform and pie crust hat – only someone so lovely could carry it off!

1940s vintage photo of Dorothy Chapman-WAAF pie crust hat
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

Their overshoes were sarcastically called “glamour boots,” because they were nothing more than hideous galoshes. Their shoes were serviceable black leather that had to be kept polished at all times.

One of the Canadian women named Doris Mae “Squeaky” McMullin remembers: “We used to polish the toes of our shoes with the back of our stockings when we were on parade. If there was a little dust, you’d see everybody, first one foot and then the other, go behind their leg to dust off the dust, make sure the polish was there!”

There were no pantyhose in those days, so the women had to wear garter belts to hold up those thick stockings. Since rubber was rationed, people had a hard time keeping their stockings up. I interviewed one veteran from Alberta named Lou Pound, who recalled the time her belt gave way and her stockings slid slowly to her ankles – while she was standing at attention on parade!

1940s vintage photo of ww2 Canadian women in the service-WD's

Since Canada is so cold much of the year, they were issued with some very nice warm greatcoats, like the ones shown here.

1940s vintage photo of Canadian Women in WW2 Uniforms -Greycoats

The women weren’t expected to wear their woollen uniforms all year round, so naturally they were eager to get their summer uniforms. These were not a great improvement – a lightweight cotton shirtwaist dress that had to be ironed, worn with the old pie crust!

-Here’s a photo of Laurie Theobald on the left and friends during basic training in Rockliffe, Ontario, in July 1943.

RCAF WDs in summer uniforms. Here’s a 1940s photo of Laurie Theobald on the left and friends during basic training in Rockliffe, Ontario, in July 1943.
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

Fortunately, if they were working outside, they were allowed to wear their teddy bear suits – khaki overalls – like these four photographers heading off with their ridiculously heavy cameras.

1940s photo of RCAF WDS in Teddy Bear Suits -khaki overalls – like these four photographers heading off with their ridiculously heavy cameras.

Finally, the RCAF realized that the women’s morale was being affected by their unappealing uniforms. So they came up with a more stylish version, announced in January 1943: “The new uniform, planned and executed with the aid of Canada’s foremost dress designers, offers pointers in wartime chic, practicality and fabric thrift to every well-dressed woman.”

A pleat was added to the greatcoat, skirts were made in six gores, and the pleated patch pockets on the tunics were replaced by flat patch pockets. Compensating for the storage lost by the smaller pockets was a smart new leatherette shoulder bag.

The skirts allowed for more movement, as shown in this photo of unidentified telephone room personnel at work in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

1940s photo of RCAF WDs in skirts answering phones in WW 2 uniforms for Canadian women
(Photo Credit: Gerald Milne, Library and Archives Canada)

Certainly Beryl McPhee looks a lot more glamorous in this photo taken at No. 6 Bombing and Gunnery School, RCAF Mountain View, near Belleville, Ontario.

WW2 Uniforms for Canadian Women-RCAF WD - lBeryl McPhee ooks a lot more glamorous in this photo taken at No. 6 Bombing and Gunnery School, RCAF Mountain View, near Belleville, Ontario

But best of all was a new hat – smooth and trim, with a deep visor. Here’s a photo of an RCAF member named Louise Soles – you will agree that the hat is a vast improvement!

1940s vintage photo of RCAF member named Louise Soles in a WW2 Uniform for Canadian Women a hat with a smooth & trim and with a deep visor.

Once the Canadian government realized that women in the armed forces were an asset to the war effort, they began to recruit them actively. Altogether, more than seventeen thousand Canadian women served in the air force. Here’s a recruiting poster showing the new hat.

RCAF poster-WW2 / 1940s Vintage Advertising

And after women in uniform became accepted by the general population, magazines like the Toronto Star Weekly began to feature illustrations on their covers, like this one from December 11, 1943. Note the snappy new hat!

1940s Vintage Magazine Cover - Star Weekly December 11th 1943 featuring a Canadian Woman in Uniform on the cover.

When the RCAF first began to send women to England (and there were precious few of them, which was a sore point with Canadian women in uniform), they also allowed Canadians who were serving in the WAAFs overseas to transfer into the RCAF.

So naturally my heroine Rose jumps at the opportunity to serve with her own countrywomen. As an added bonus, she was also able to swap out her WAAF uniform for the smart new Canadian uniform!

And she couldn’t have been prouder – as were all the Canadian women, including this one named Nancy Lee from British Columbia – to wear the Canada badge on her shoulder, with the props underneath.

WW2 Uniforms for Women-RCAF Nancy Lee from British Columbia – wearing the Canada badge on her shoulder, with the props underneath.

My heroine really did earn her props! As for her adventures overseas, both with the British and the Canadian Air Forces, you will just have to read the book to find out more.

*****

To read an excerpt of Elinor’s book, which she published on her own Wartime Wednesdays blog, click here:   Bird’s Eye View Excerpt

About the Author:

Elinor Florence author, Portrait

Elinor Florence grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, a former World War Two training airfield. She worked as a newspaper and magazine editor, and was a regular writer for Reader’s Digest before turning to fiction. Married with three grown daughters, Elinor lives in the tiny perfect mountain resort of Invermere, British Columbia. She loves village life, thrift stores, antiques, and old houses. You can read more about her at www.elinorflorence.com.

Further Reading: