Although commanding officers were directed to "bear in mind that the general policy is to dissuade members of the Cdn Army from marriage in foreign lands," nearly 48,000 wives and 22,000 children immigrated to Canada as dependents of Canadian servicemen between 1939 and 31 December 1946. The overwhelming majority came from Great Britain after VE (Victory in Europe) Day (8 May 1945).
Its policy of dissuasion a failure, the Department of National Defence shouldered responsibility for the delivery of those wives and children to their new homes. "It was the first time in history that any government had provided home-to-home transportation for the dependents of its servicemen." For most, disembarkation in Halifax was the beginning of an exhausting journey on a special CNR "bride train," which, as it was frequently shunted onto sidings to allow scheduled trains to pass, made its way westward very slowly. The Department of National Defence, with the assistance of the Canadian Red Cross, eased their way through Customs, staffed each train with a doctor and a Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse and wired ahead to husbands and in-laws so the women would be properly met at their destinations.
This massive wave of immigration was to some extent off-set by the emigration from Canada of women who had married servicemen of allied countries. This photo shows a group of three such women, Canadian wives of members of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, aboard the Drottingholm which sailed from New York on 25 August 1945 bound for Norway. Others left Canada to join husbands in Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, and the United States.
Courtesy: Associated Press Photograph, Toronto Telegram Collection, York University Archives
