The Soo Line Historical Museum is seeking stories of war brides who came to the Weyburn-area during the Second World War. The stories will be compiled into a book written by the museum's membership.
"We want to honour the war brides who came to this area. Also, it has never been done before for this area. There have been other war bride projects, but they were more national than this," said Tory Metheral, museum board member.
The term "war bride" refers to the 48,000 women who came to Canada as the brides of Canadian soldiers stationed in Europe during the Second World War. These women primarily came from Britain, however others came from countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. They brought with them 22,000 children, and had a major role in populating Canada.
According to Metheral, the "government helped to pay for these women to come over. They went through a screening process to see if they were 'good enough' to come to Canada. If they were, they got an one-way ticket on a boat to Canada."
The women who were deemed 'good enough' to come to their husband's homeland were sent on large cruise-line ships. While on board, they slept on bunch beds, and were kept in close quarters. Even though this seems less than idle, the women on board got to enjoy "lavish" foods such as fruits and white bread.
"One of the foods they loved the most was white bread. For years all they had was this very hard, crusty bread, so to have the white stuff was great for them," said Dorothy Duthie, museum board member.
The museum's membership wants to put the stories of the area's war brides into a book to help mark the Soo Line's centennial. So far, the group has identified 24 war brides who came to the Weyburn-area, but they hope to find more.
Since many of the war brides have died in recent years, the museum is also seeking the women's children and grandchildren. Anyone with information can phone the Soo Line Museum, email them at slhm@sasktel.net, or mail them at 411 Industry Lane, P.O Box 1016, S4S 2L8.
The museum will send a questionnaire about the war bride and will get permission to use their name in the book. Anyone with any information will have until December to contact the SooLine Museum, but the members stress "the sooner you can get information to us the better."
Duthie said there an objective to participating and completing the project, "it will be history lost if we don't tell the story."
