War Bride: "a woman of a nationality other than Canadian, who met a Canadian serviceman while he was serving overseas in World War II, and subsequently married him, and who (usually) settled with him in Canada." - Eswyn Lyster

This section is in honour of the War Brides who braved the Atlantic to settle in Canada. It is about their lives. The roles they played in war. The romance they found. Their perceptions of the new land. And, as always, images of their life and times, family and friends. Oh...and the soldiers they married!

War Brides with any connection to the South Saskatchewan Regiment, their husbands, and their families, are invited to submit photos, stories, personal histories for this site. The goal is to honour the War Brides, and provide students and other Canadians with a warm, personal look at this aspect of the history of Canada at war.

Clausen - Mary & Lloyd

June 2006

Dear Tara,

I was at the Warbrides luncheon in May. Here is some of the information you asked for.

I was born in a small village in England called Hossforth in 1924.

I met my husband Lloyd in Knavesborough which at that time was a resort, it was August of 1944, he & his friend were in a row boat. My friend and I were on the shore and they asked us if we wanted a ride. The answer was yes. We dated a few times, and then he was sent overseas to France. We wrote to each other while he was there. In February he came back to England in 1945. We were married on the 4th of March. We celebrated in Scotland. Lloyd was sent back to Canada at the end of March. I was soon to follow. In August of that year I travelled by boat to Canada, then by train to Regina, where I met Lloyd and on to Midale.

My first Winter in Canada we lived on the farm with Lloyds mum.

The following Spring we had purchased 1/2 section of land through the V.L.A. and moved to a farm East of Midale.

Things I remember most are the amount of snow and wide open spaces. Houses were all made of wood, unlike the English homes which were stone & bricks. I looked very forward to coming to Canada to join my husband. The hardest part was leaving my mom, all my brothers were in the service so I left her alone. But thankfully she & my nephew came over in 1949. Our house was so cold when Mom woke up in the morning she felt her nose to see if it had frozen off it was silly but we had a good laugh. Mom & Bobby stayed with Lloyd and I for six months. We had a country school at the end of our driveway that Bobby attended he was 11 years old he enjoyed the other students at the school and soon made lots of friends. Bobby tried to milk one of the cows but it kicked him over, he liked it here and wanted to stay. My English was fine but I had an accent and sometimes it was hard to understand. A lot of times Lloyd would have to repeat to the store owners because they couldn't understand me.

My parents and brothers have all passed away, but keep in touch with my neices & nephews & exchange letters and pictures of their children. I also have kept in touch with a co-worker. I was just 16 or so when we met but have kept in touch all our lives. I have never returned to England, but the wish soon left after my mom passed away.

Lloyd and I had four children a farm and life took over. Lloyd taught me how to drive. I was lucky to be blessed with good neighbours who taught me how to can fruit and vegetables also chicken. In many ways life was simpler but it was also hard work. I thoroughly enjoyed my life on the farm with Lloyd and my family.

Mary Clauson

Dunbar - Jane & Mac

Enroute, 1946. Jane is in the middle, on the stairs, with the broach on her coat lapel.
Brides looking at a map of Canada, finding their destinations. Jane is over the Captain's left shoulder.
In the berth.
Jane in the middle, trying on an outfit!
This facility was used as a hospital during the war. Mac was an orderly here.
Nebo, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Monestary, Church, small seminary of the Redemptorists.
A booklet produced in 2006.

Leniczek - Irene & Jack

A War Bride Story From Irene (Renee) Leniczek

I spent the war years working in a munition factory in my home town, Redcar Yorkshire, on the north eat coast of England. It was hard dirty work operating a lathe making components for artillery shells. It was shift work too, how I hated those night shifts. And when the Battle of Britain was in process we had to work twelve hour shifts. But we seemed to still find time to go to dances and shows. And in spite of all this and the air raids, food and clothes rationing I still look back on it all as one of the happiest times of my life. It was an exciting time, maybe the fact that I was young and life was so uncertain that having a good time was a priority. Then one night, it was the 10 October 1943, I went to meet a blind date in the black out with a girl friend of mine. It was a foursome. She had previously met her date and she persuaded me to go with her to meet his friend. I had no idea what this Canadian soldier looked like until we got into the lighted foyer of the cinema where we had decided to go. And then I saw him for the first time WOW! He was good looking and lovely curly hair. I would not say it was love at first sight but there was certainly a strong attraction and that was my frist date with Jack Leniczek.

Jack and his friend were both attending courses at the Zetland Artillery Camp in the Redcar area. But they were stationed in the south of England with their Regiment. We had a few dates before they had to return to their Regiment. From then we started to write to each other and he came back to Redcar for some leaves. Then his Regiment was sent over to Normandy France soon after D-Day. He took part in lots of heavy fighting from France to Germany and helping to liberate Holland.

We wrote to each other all this time, then in April 1945 he came back to England on leave. The war was just about over by this time and it was while he was in Redcar and we saw each other again that he decided to get married.

We were married on the 28 August 1945 and Jack managed to stay in England until Februrary 1946. When he was sent back to Canada and demobilized and I followed a few months later. I left Liverpool sailing on the Letitia. Leaving home and my parents, as I was and only child was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. It took us nine days to cross the Atlantic. I was very sea sick for the first three days until I managed to get my sea-legs. I still remember the variety of food that was served in the dining room and especially the white bread. I made some good friends too which I still keep in touch with. I landed at Pier 21 in Halifax on the 27 June 1946.

My husband and I went back to Pier 21 in August 2000 for a big reunion of War Brides. I then had a three day train journey to get to Wolseley in Saskatchewan. Where Jack and some of his family met me, that was 1 July 1946.

We lived on the family farm until April 1948. We then moved to Humbolt where Jack started to work with the Saskatchewan Liquor Board. His work took us to different towns to live. Seven years in Humbolt, fifteen years in Yorkton, one year in Regina, four years in Nipawin and finally to Estevan where we have lived for almost thirty years.

We have several trips back to England and other parts of Europe. We have done lots of travelling on this continent by car. But in the past few years our age has caught up with us and for health reasons we find we can not travel too far from home anymore. I think our most memorable trips were back to England while my mother was still living. And reunions with other war veterans for the 40th and 50th anniversaries of VE DAY in Holland a very moving experience.

I have been a member of the Saskatchewan War Brides Association since it was formed in 1975. My husband and I enjoy attending the reunions which are held every year alternating between Regina and Saskatoon. When we war Brides get together the years just seem to roll away and we are young girls again. Singing the war songs that we will never forget and dancing the dances we used to do back home. We always have a real good old Knee Up! If only we could have got together like that when we first came to Canada when we were all so homesick, it would have helped so much.

But the years have been good to most of us and Canada is our home now, it too has been good to us. How quickly the years have passed since my husband and I met on a blind date in the blackout, sometimes it seems it was just yesterday.

We shall celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary in this year of 2005 and 59 years since I came to Canada.

Perry - Jeanne & Frederick

Jeanne Wendy Phillips was born in Ystradgynlais in South Wales On October 12, 1920. On January 1, 1944, she married Lance Corporal Allan Perry of Estevan.

In the year 1942, I had planned to stay in Birmingham for Christmas. My friends and I volunteered to work the night shift. A group of Canadian air force men came in, one being Lance Corporl Allan Perry. Allan asked me for coffee. "Do you take cream or sugar?" I asked. His reply came, "Stir it with your finger and it will be sweet enough!" That was a line.

He asked me to a dance with him, but we didn't date men from the Service Club. After much effort on his part, I agreed to go with him. After that, we started going together. Allan was on a training course near Birmingham and we met frequently.

I had a week's holiday and I told Allan that I was going home to Ystradgynlais. He asked me how it was spelled and then asked me to write it down, as he would never remember that.Upon arrival at home, Mum met me at the garden gate and told me that a boyfriend of mine was in the house. He too had a week's leave! We had lots of fun that week. My sister Mary managed to come with us wherever we went. Allan talked her into taking a swim as we were visiting my favourite bay, so he was able to give me an engagement ring. On January 1, 1944, we were married in Saint Cynog's Church, Ystradgynlais. Our daughter Sheila was born March 12, 1945.

Late one night, Allan woke me by throwing stones at my window. He had brought with him a large, wonderful package from Canada with diapers and baby gowns that Allan's mother had made. There were presents for all and a can of corn nibblets for Allan. None of the family came downstairs, so we went to bed. Each morning Mum brought me a cup of tea. When she came into my room that morning, she said, "And who have you got in bed with you this morning Jeanne?" What a laugh we had. Mum was delighted with the contents of the parcel, especially the can of corn, saying, "How kind of Allan's mother to send me this lovely can of corn for my chickens," and off she went to feed the corn to the chickens. Poor Allan did not get his corn.

The war ended May 8, 1945, and Allan returned shortly afterward to Canada. My Canadian travel certificate arrived July 18, 1945. It was my passport to being a Canadian citizen. I had my photograph taken and placed in the Certificate and preparationa began for leaving Ystradgynlais. The day my notification came for embarkation to Canada, Sheila was one year old, March 12, 1946. We embarked on the SS Letitia on March 25, 1946.

Three of us women became friendly at Liverpool. Aboard ship we found an alcove with three hammocks and decided to stay there. One was a mother with a baby in a bassinet. Each of us had a chamber pot. The largest was thoroughly washed and we used it for washing the babies and the other for its original use. The other lady had no children. She kept saying, "We each of us only knew one man in this country of Canada to which we are going." Well, we had each figured that out on our own!

After ten days on the water, we were at Pier 21 in Halifax. Inside Pier 21, the British war brides as we commenced the last part of our journey to rejoin our Canadian husbands. The officials at Pier 21 told me that I would be travelling on a CN train, which took a northern route. As we traveled across the country, there was nothing much to see, just trees, bushes, and snow, and it looked dismal. We stopped at small towns or hamlets to let war brides out. The train journey through Manitoba and Saskatchewan was no better. I would look out of the window and see miles of flat, empty, country, with here and there a house and some sheds around them. I would play with Sheila or read, and then look out the window again. I would ask myself, "Have we been standing still or is the train moving, for outside it all looks the same?" After five days, we came to Regina and Allan was there to meet us. He put his arms around us both; it felt so good. It was wonderful to be together again. < /P>

I was very homesick the first year. Homesicknes is a terrible thing. But I kept it quite well hidden. Allan knew and helped and we were very happy. We war brides know what it is like to miss your family and friends, to shed tears because you miss them so much, but we also know the joy of going back home. I have grown to love Canada; it has been very good to me. I have always loved Allan and my family. It does not seem as though I have been in Estevan for sixty years. I am a proud Canadian, but I also love that green and pleasent land of Wales.

Schaff - Rose & Michael

I was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Eastbourne is the most South East point of England and was known as the Sun Trap of the South, as it had the most sunshine hours. Eastbourne was a seaside resort, with 8 miles of beach and sand with low and high tides. We had many visitors who would spend their holidays away from the big city of London, which is only 60 miles away.

I was in the services and stationed at Aldershot, a military holding spot for troops coming in from other countries such as France, Poland and Canada to be sent wherever. I met Michael when he first arrived in England in February, 1943. We kept in touch mainly by letters, with the occasional visit during leave, for the next three years and were married in April, 1945 when Michael returned from Italy.

I came to Canada in April, 1946, crossing the ocean by ship, then by train from the east coast to Estevan. The whole train was full of war brides, and would stop all across the country, letting girls off. We often wondered about where they were going as there did not seem to be a "city" within miles. I really did not know how to feel, or what to think about Canada, as Michael had told me very little and not knowing anything other than what was familiar, did not know what to ask. Michael later said that he was afraid that if he told me too much I would not come. He was the only person I knew in Canada, until I got to know his family.

One of the things I had to get used to was living on the farm. I had never lived in the country before, always the city. Here I was with no running water, no power, no gas heat, only heat from a cook stove, light from a coal oil lantern and of course the ‘out house'. Cooking on a cook stove was a learning experience, also gardening and preserving and the animals! In 1956 hydro came through, and life changed. Michael's family were very kind to me and I soon learnt their way of life.

After living in the yard with Michael's folks for a while, we moved to our own farm southeast of Lampman. Michael had been able to buy some land and we moved our small house to the farm and after a few years we built a larger home and bought more land. Michael played for weddings and barn dances in the evenings, so we went all over the country and had some good times.

In 1968 my dad and stepmother came to Canada for a 6 month holiday. Dad planted may trees for us and did a lot of landscaping which is still here today. We did some traveling to the West coast and east to Ontario which they enjoyed very much. They were here for the seeding of the crops in April, haying time in July and harvesting in September. We had quite a few family gatherings at the farm, so they did enjoy their stay and thought Canada was a great place to live.

We went back to England for the first time for a month in 1975. Everything had changed, when I left there were so many buildings destroyed, so even though lots was rebuilt, it was not like it was before the war. I keep in touch with family and friends, mostly by phone as no one is well enough to travel a great distance. I still have a couple of brothers in England and of course nieces and nephews I have never met.

We lived on the farm for 38 years. As the children grew up, they had ponies, then horses and spent many hours riding with friends and on trail rides. We always had cattle, pigs for some years, chickens, turkeys – all of the normal livestock. We always had a large garden and the yard to maintain. Yes, we were busy but it really was a very good life. Our youngest son and his family live on the farm now, and have a lovely home and yard.

We retired to Estevan in 1984, where we live now, first in a home we had built and now in a condo. We have family and good friends close by, so life is good. We spent many happy years on the farm, raising our 4 children and I learnt to love Canada, and have to regrets on coming here to live.

Symons - Dorothy & George

Wright - May & Les

See three documents from May Wright: Oath of Citizenship, What is a War Bride, and a speech.

If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy:

Canadian War Brides - warbrides.com
Canadian War Brides - Eswyn Lyster's web site

War Bride Reunion List - Estevan - 13May2006

Adrianna Gordon
Agnes Meraw
Bess Wheeler
Dora Eagles
Doreen Brandon
Dorothy Symons
Elizabeth Ripley
Evelyn Stovin
Gladys Pukas
Grace Dixon
Irene Leniczek
Ivy Hitchcock
Jane Dunbar
Jeanne Perry
Mary Clauson
May Wright
Mona Posaluko
Olive Erickson
Rose Mary Murphy
Rose Schaff

War Bride Reunion - Estevan - Souris Valley Museum - 28Jun2006

Present in group photo: from left to right, standing:
Jane Dunbar, May Wright.
Sitting: Jeanne Perry, Irene Leniczek, Agnes Meraw, Gladys Pukas, Rose Schaff

South Saskatchewan Regiment "Colours".

GCS/gs 8,28Jun 18,20Aug2006