By Diana Smardon

The term “war bride” according to the Royal BC Museum’s latest exhibit of a collection of paintings, photographs, and media installations by Bev Tosh, running from May 9 until Sept 1 refers to women who met and married foreign military personnel serving overseas during or immediately after the WWII. They then traveled to live in their new husband’s country of residence. During the Second World War, 47,783 women from foreign countries married Canadian servicemen. Through Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 43,454 war brides and their 20,997 children arrived in Canada after the world conflict ended. In our country, an estimated 4,000 women emigrated from Canada as war brides of Allied military personnel who had trained here. Most of the women in the exhibit were from Britain while others were from Italy, Belgium, France, Holland, and New Zealand to name a few. They were carried on 60 “bride ships” from these countries to be later reunited with their military spouses. Nuptial ceremonies at this time were very modest because of wartime rationing with some brides even borrowing wedding dresses from friends. One bride, for example, sewed her gown for that special day from dyed bed sheets. Ration cards from friends and family supplied the refreshments for many a reception. For good luck, it was customary for brides to carry silver horseshoes.

Sailing to Canada was physically and emotionally challenging as many new war brides. They were totally unprepared for their life in the hinterland of the colonies, like Manitoba, living on isolated farms away from friends and family. Many had left far better lives and circumstances in their own countries only to be confronted with “primitive” conditions in their new-found adopted land.

There are 13 war brides featured in this exhibit from British Columbia with a painting of one being from Victoria. New Zealand artist Bev Tosh completed a Master of Fine Arts (1987) from the University of Alberta where she subsequently taught from the mid 1980’s to 2002. She began her project, “War Brides: One Way Passage” was begun in January 2001 as a tribute to her mother who was a war bride. Her collection features about 80 paintings, more than 800 photographs, and audio/video clips of her subjects from Canada, New Zealand, England and the United States. The exhibition was most recently shown at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, where it ran for 7 months. Tosh wanted to tell the untold story of her mother’s experiences that were gleaned from the extensive interviews of the few remaining and living war brides in Canada. Her installation is a varied and interesting collection of archival material, paintings, and video combined with Tosh’s personal interest in this subject which adds a special touch to this labour of love which is dedicated to her war bride mother and all the other women that came before and after her. The exhibit chronicles this part of history from the Second World War which has been glossed over but has now been given its rightful place in Canadian history.