During the war, over 600,000 men joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and 424,000 went overseas to fight in Europe or were housed at military training camps in England. A large percentage of the wounded soldiers spent time at hospitals in the British Isles or traveled there while on leave. Many soldiers fell in love with the women they met during their extended stay. By war's end, Canadian soldiers were marrying British and European women at the rate of 1000 per month.
Thousands of war brides came to Canada after the First World War in an immigration scheme that was paid for by the Canadian government. In January 1919, the Government of Canada passed an Order in Council offering the dependents of Canadian soldiers free third class passage from their home in Europe to their final destination in Canada. The majority of the dependents lived in the United Kingdom.
The Department of Immigration and Colonization repatriated over 54,500 soldiers' dependents to Canada in all. Approximately 17,000 returned to Canada between July 1917 and November 1918. After the armistice a further 37, 748 came to Canada by the end of 1919. Those who traveled between 1917 and mid-January 1919 were not given free transportation but were offered a special rate on a secure ship. By the end of 1919, they could be reimbursed for their passage based on 3rd class rates by applying to the government.
These statistics, however, are for the number of soldiers' dependents that arrived in Canada after WWI. A large number of the dependents were the wives of Canadian soldiers who traveled to Britain to be near their soldier husbands. Many of these dependents were British-born and had recently immigrated to Canada before the war. A number of Canadian wives also traveled to the UK after their husbands were injured.
There are no official figures given for the total number of Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers who married abroad and returned to Canada with a war bride and/or children. A number of former soldiers returned to the British Isles or France to marry the women they met during the war. Also not included are the many young women who traveled to Canada after the war to be married at their own expense.
It has been difficult to ascertain just how many women came to Canada as war brides during this era. By November 1918 reports in the Canadian press estimated that there were at least 20,000 women who had never been to Canada before. By mid-August 1919 that number swelled to 35,000.
Many families traveled to Canada together on troop ships, known as dependents ships, but were berthed in separate locations on the ship. They would meet on deck in the morning, attend activities and if possible, take all their meals together. Later, if the weather permitted, they would spend time on deck. Many wartime romances were rekindled with dancing on deck "C".
My grandmother, Grace Clark was just one of the many war brides who came to Canada in 1919 on board a troopship. Each day she would write about the daily activities on board the RMS Melita. You can read the letter she wrote to her parents back home in England under links.
Was your mother, grandmother, or any other relative one of these courageous war brides who married a Canadian Expeditionary Force soldier during the First World War? What was her life was like after she set foot on Canadian soil? Do you have any documentation about her life such as photos, diaries, letters or stories that you would like to share? If so, please email me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca or avidgenie@hotmail.com . I'd like images and stories that I can use for articles, displays or presentations about these war brides. I plan to write a book about their experiences.
Sources:
Canada. Dept. of Militia and Defence. The Return Of The Troops: A Plain Account Of The Demobilization Of The Canadian Expeditionary Force. Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1920.
Repatriation Committee. The Programme of Repatriation. Ottawa: Allied Press, nd, Issued by Department of Public Information.
"Troops Overseas Marrying Rate Three Hundred a Week." Toronto World, 09 December 1918, 1.
"War to Peace: Bringing Our Soldiers' Dependents to Canada." Toronto World, 23 January 1919, 10.
© 2008- 2022 Annette Fulford
Hugh and Grace on their wedding day, 1919
Grace and Hugh Clark before they sailed to Canada in 1919
RMS Melita in 1919
About Me
- Annette Fulford
- Canadian researcher who specializes in First World War Brides. Please contact me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca or firstworldwarbrides@gmail.com
WAR BRIDES by Melynda Jarratt
Includes a chapter on the War Brides of World War One. Will be available in Canada from Dundern Publishing in May 2009.
CAPTURED HEARTS: New Brunswick's War Brides by Melynda Jarratt
Includes a chapter on the WWI War Brides of New Brunswick.
War bride Gertrude Mack and her husband Charles Bruce. Photo courtesy of her granddaughter, L. Verhulst. Sadly Gertrude died shortly after arriving in Canada.
The letterhead logo for the Canadian Department of Immigration and Colonization in London. Their address was at 11-13 Charing Cross
Front cover of the booklet given to WWI War Brides
Cover of the Returned Soldiers' Handbook
4 comments:
Very interesting topic. I have no war brides (that I know of) but I'm rather obsessed with my great-uncle's story. An American, he died in France in WWI and is buried there. I've transcribed his 60 letters at
http://jeanbduncan.com/Harry_Buzzells_WWI_Letters/Introduction.html
and also summary series on blog at
http://jeanbduncan.blogspot.com/2009/07/harry-buzzells-world-war-i-story-part-6.html
My husband's great-uncle served from Moncton, New Brunswick.
You have no idea how thrilled I was when a friend sent me your site. This is pure gold for me. I am writing a novel set in WW1 featuring a NS lobsterman who goes to war, meets a Scottish girl in Franch, goes home early because he loses a leg and sends for her. I need to find out how she would have come - maybe even a ship name and date, and how much it would have cost to get her there. I can hardly wait to delve deeper into your blog!
A related topic is the knowledge that some men became engaged to English girls, but died during the conflict and prior to their actual marriage. In my case, a great, great uncle - Charles Henry Murduck, became engaged to a girl from England in early 1917, but he died just 30 days before the end of the conflict in 1918. We know her name - Dorothy Foster. He spoke of her in some of his later letters home. We have several photographs of her. And we know from a letter sent home by a friend of Charlie's from home, who met her, that she lived in a small town south-east of London. But that's as far as our knowledge goes. It would be interesting to learn what became of Dorothy, but there were at least 3 girls of this name living in the general area, each of whom was of about the right age to have become engaged in 1917, so we've been unable to push our knowledge farther. It seems unlikely that she would have been contacted by officials to inform her about Charlie's death, and the family back home in Canada had no means to facilitate contact. Charlie's death must have left a vacancy in her life.
Hi Bruce, Do you have any other identifying information about Dorothy? Approximate age, an address? How did they meet? Was it when he was in the hospital?
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