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War brides getting settled - finally

Surrounded by falling bombs, strict rationing and nightly blackouts, a generation of young women found love. They were the war brides: British and European women who married Canadian servicemen in the Second World War. After tearful goodbyes to their families, they embarked on a grueling journey by ship and train to join their husbands and in-laws in a new country. Once they arrived, many war brides had to confront culture shock and desperate homesickness before embracing their new lives in Canada.

Married life is a learning experience for any new bride. But for war bride Jacqueline Bing Hall, it's life in Canada that's been a real education. Calling the butcher by his first name was easy enough, but getting the cut of meat she wanted proved more challenging. Apparently, Canadians don't eat shoulder of mutton. In this 1944 clip from CBC Radio, Mrs. Hall talks about the trials and triumphs of adjusting to life in Canada. 
• Some of the roughest welcomes to Canadian life were for war brides who had grown up in English cities and married prairie farm boys. Many farms had no running water and no electricity. The toilet was an outhouse and the house was heated by a wood stove that was prone to go out if not carefully tended.
• The isolation of these homes was also a shock for brides accustomed to libraries, theatres, movie houses and the local pub.

• One adjustment the brides were glad to make was shopping in stores where nearly everything was available: cosmetics and clothing, fresh fruit, meat, sugar, bread and butter. Even those items that were rationed in Canada were much easier to obtain, and in larger portions.
• Ice cream in particular was popular with war brides. Some recalled getting a banana split — a novelty not seen in Britain — whenever the train stopped.

• Canadian cookbooks and guides helped British war brides learn about Canadian customs and eating habits. Canadian Cook Book for British Brides had this advice: "Feathery light steamed and baked puddings are liked in cold weather but suet pudding you would be wise to avoid unless your man has acquired a taste for it overseas."

• Some war brides remember being terribly offended when their in-laws said they were taking them to another house for a shower. Only when they arrived at the party where they were "showered" with gifts to set up their homes did they discover the Canadian sense of the word.
• Many war brides had no idea what awaited them in Canada. Some admitted to expecting to see "Indians" riding horses alongside the train.

• Some of the greatest culture shock may have been experienced by war brides who married aboriginal Canadians. In the book The War Brides, a Red Cross nurse remembered a war bride who took a taxi to an address that turned out to be a Nova Scotia reservation. "She was greeted warmly by an Indian mother-in-law," the nurse recalled, "but at the end of the year she was ready to go home to London."

• On Aug. 9, 1944, the Globe and Mail published an editorial welcoming the war brides. It praised Ontario's efforts to acclimatize the brides, adding: "It is vital that the British girls who have paid Canada the compliment of selecting husbands from among her young warriors… should be made to feel at home in this country. Canada has a reputation for friendliness and hospitality. These new settlers, of good British stock, deserve the best we can offer."

• Other Canadians weren't so welcoming. One Canadian bride complained to the Toronto Daily Star on Sept. 12, 1946: "When British war brides come here it is right and proper to welcome them, but why should they be made to feel that they are queens, superior to our own girls and waited on hand and foot? Canadians are simply spoiling these girls and won't let them become good wives."
Medium: Radio
Program: Mirror For Women
Broadcast Date: July 17, 1944
Guest(s): Jacqueline Bing Hall
Duration: 4:02
Photo: National Film Board of Canada

Last updated: March 16, 2012

Page consulted on April 2, 2013

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