If you have a Canadian war bride in your family as I do, you may want to follow the Canadian War Brides website.
Over the next few weeks, Melynda Jarratt will post Kay Ruddick’s diary, one page at a time. In 1945, Kay Ruddick (née Douglass) of Hampton, New Brunswick, joined the Moncton detachment of the Canadian Red Cross Corps and sailed on the war bride ships until 1947.
Ms. Jarratt writes: “The Red Cross Corps was a female-only Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) whose job it was to assist the Department of National Defence during and immediately after the war’s end. Corp members did everything from the dreary to the dangerous: from inspecting and packing jam for overseas and circulating library books in military hospitals, to driving trucks and ambulances on the beachheads in France and performing escort duty on board ships during war time.”
About 45,000 women and 21,000 children came to Canada after the Second World War.
My war bride connection? My mother-in-law married my French Canadian father-in-law from Montreal. Several years ago, I threw a party to celebrate her 60th anniversary in Canada.
The cake we served at the party to celebrate my Canadian War Bride mother-in-law’s 60th anniversary in Canada, July 15, 2006. Gail Dever, photographer.
