Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes: Stories from Canada's British War Brides

Sidney Allinson is Canadian news correspondent for Britain’s The Army
Quarterly and Defence. He is the author of The Bantams: The Untold Story
of World War I, Jeremy Kane, and Kruger’s Gold: A Novel of the
Anglo-Boer War.

The brass buttons in this book’s title refer to soldiers’ uniforms,
while silver paper horseshoes were given to British brides for good
luck. After World War II, 48,000 British “war brides” and 22,000
children immigrated to Canada to join their ex-soldier husbands. Brass
Buttons and Silver Horseshoes recounts the typical experiences of 40 of
them, told in their own words. Linda Granfield shows warm understanding
in the way she elicited these highly personal stories of young women who
journeyed so far to settle in an unknown land. Most were in their early
twenties, had never traveled away from home before, and came with only
the vaguest idea of what conditions they would encounter here; at the
same time, all seem to have adapted to enormous changes with cheerful
courage.

Their stories are a mixture of funny, romantic, and sad experiences,
but all have a number of elements in common. They tell of falling in
love with dashing young Canadian soldiers in whirlwind wartime love
affairs, of headlong weddings catered despite scarce food rationing, and
of being fearfully separated from new husbands suddenly sent off into
combat. At war’s end, the Canadian government efficiently organized
the women’s transportation by ship across the Atlantic. Their husbands
in Canada, seen in civilian clothes for the first time, seemed to be
almost strangers, and not all the reunions were successful. But for the
most part, war brides settled into their new homes and made enduring
marriages. The women have stayed in touch over the years; in 2000, they
placed a memorial plaque to commemorate their arrival in Halifax 60
years ago.

Interspersed throughout the accounts are 1940s magazine advertisements,
recruitment posters, ships’ menus, and snapshot photos. In compiling
this book, Granfield has provided a valuable record of the little-known
contribution of British war brides to the building of postwar Canadian
society.