Maple Ridge’s Annette Fulford has been researching the stories of Canadian First World War brides for many years. Her own grandmother crossed the Atlantic after the war with her new husband, a Canadian soldier. Annette has kindly shared some of her research and images about war brides with connections to Langley. She’d also like to hear from you if you have further information about these women who contributed so much to life in Canada.
Thousands of young women came to Canada after the First World War as war brides. Yet we rarely hear stories about these pioneering war brides.
Many young women signed up with one of the newly formed organizations to support the war effort or worked in jobs that were traditionally held by men in Britain. They met Canadian soldiers who were sightseeing, at dances, visiting with their family or when the soldiers were recovering in hospital from wounds. By war’s end, Canadian soldiers were marrying at a rate of 1,000 marriages per month.
The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada took seven to ten days on average. Most ships left from Liverpool. War brides and their children were given berths in the overcrowded steerage section of the ship which was below deck lacked proper amenities for women travelling with small children.
It was difficult year to travel to Canada in 1919. The year was fraught with complications including a shortage of ships, dockyard strikes, unrest at demobilization camps in England, a coal shortage, and a worldwide flu pandemic which caused delays in travel.
Once they arrived in Canada at an eastern port, many war brides had up to an additional five-day journey to travel across our vast country to their destination. They travelled by colonist train cars which were considered basic transportation used by the railways.
The railway cars were devoid of luxury and contained hard wooden benches that could be folded down to make a lower berth for sleeping on at night. A utilitarian upper berth folded down from the roof. At one end of the car was a stove used for cooking meals and provided heating during the winter.
For new immigrants travelling across Canada bedding was not provided; they had to supply for their own needs. For the soldiers’ dependents, however, the immigration authorities provided them with free mattresses, blankets, and pillows from the military stores.
Doris Ellis (also known as Dorice) was 18 years old when she joined the war effort in 1915. She was posted to Rouen, France as a secretary for almost two years. In July 1917, she joined the newly formed Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp and served with them until April 1918.
Dorris Ellis ©1914. Photo provided by Kathleen Honey
After the war she worked the Demobilization center in London, England where she most likely met Thomas Naylor, an RAF pilot whose family moved to Langley during the war. She travelled to Canada in June and was married at the Naylor family home in October 1920. Tragically, her husband Thomas died of tuberculosis eight months later. She remarried in 1923, to Ernest Dann of Cloverdale.
Ada Gregson came to Canada on the Empress of France, landing at St. John, New Brunswick on January 16, 1920. Her immigration record shows that she was travelling to Canada to be married to Frank Bethell. They married in Vancouver at the Presbyterian church on Pendrell Street on January 22, 1920, six days after her arrival. The couple farmed at West Langley. Ada was president of the West Langley Red Cross unit in 1940.
Susannah Wynne married George Ovid Allard in Wales in 1919. She came to Canada on the Melita in August 1919. Her husband George was living in Fort Langley, working as a logger, when he was conscripted in Vancouver on August 29, 1918 with the 1st Depot Battalion.
George went overseas to England in October 1919 and was sent to Seaford camp in southern England. He was transferred to Kinmel camp near Rhyl in Wales in March 1919. At that time Kinmel was a demobilization camp for Canadian soldiers waiting to return home. He most likely met his wife while on leave. They married in the mid-1919 and by 1921 they were living in Langley, BC.
Henry Selby Hele was living in Glenwood, BC when he enlisted with the 102nd Battalion in January 1916 at Vancouver. He served with the 29th Battalion and was wounded during the war, a gunshot wound to the elbow. He earned a Military Medal for bravery in the field. He met Jessie Wood, a nurse from Yorkshire.
Jessie came to Canada on the ship Minnedosa in October 1919, to be married to Henry Selby Hele of Langley Prairie. They married at Central Park in Burnaby on November 7, 1919 and were living in Langley in the 1921 Canadian Census.
Albert Thomas Walker Goodyear was born England. He came to Canada in 1907 and was living in Ontario. He returned to England to enlist at Hythe, Kent in 1916 with the 30th Canadian Reserve Battalion. He fought in France with the 16th Battalion and was wounded in battle, a gunshot wound to his left hand.
He married Matilda Stride in April 1916 at the Holy Trinity Church in Eltham, London. She worked as a domestic servant at the time of her marriage. They came to Canada on the Megantic in January 1919 and lived in Milner.
Photo: Hugh and Grace Clark ©1919. Photo: Annette Fulford
My grandmother Grace Gibson was living in Sheffield, England when her sister brought home some Canadian soldiers for a meal. Within three months she married Hugh McKenzie Clark, a Toronto-born soldier who was conscripted in May 1918 at Regina and went over to England in August 1918. He survived the flu pandemic at Bramshott camp in southern England in October and was transferred to Ripon camp in Yorkshire at the end of January 1919.
Photo: Hugh and Grace Clark in Sheffield, UK. Photo: Annette Fulford
Hugh and Grace were married in April 1919 and came to Canada in September 1919 on the Melita. They lived in the farming communities of Storthoaks in southern Saskatchewan and Chelan in northern Saskatchewan before coming to Langley in 1942. They lived on Wilson Townline Road (now 96th Ave).
Photo: Grace Clark with two Hughs ©1919 Photo: Annette Fulford
These are just a few of the many war brides who came to Langley after the First World War. These women worked hard at home and in their communities to make a better life for their families.
If you have information about a First World War Bride, I would love to hear from you. Please contact Annette Fulford at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca