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War Brides (and HMS Victorious) World Naval Ships Forums Archive

War Brides (and HMS Victorious)

Posts 1 to 6

This is a thread about the important topic of [B]War Brides [/B] in general, but I would like to devote this first post to one of the more remarkable voyages in Royal Navy History. In July 1946, after careful negotiations between the Australian and British governments, the aircraft carrier HMS [I]Victorious[/I] left Garden Island naval docks in Sydney to take 655 Australian war brides of British servicemen to Britain. Adapted troopships and ocean liners carried tens of thousands of such brides, and often their babies, across the world to the US and Canada in the wake of WW11 , [I]Victorious's[/I] 36-day voyage voyage is the only known occasion when a major combat warship was used for this purpose. The youngest bride was 15 years old. Officers were detailed to conduct 'chastity rounds' of the entire ship on all watches. A book, [I]'Swing By Sailor: True Stories from the War Brides of HMS Victorious[/I]' by Australian author Catherine Dyson, has recently been released containing the reminiscences of 17 of the former brides, women now in their eighties. One anecdote is of a poor bride who lost her false teeth shouting 'Goodbye' at Fremantle and spent the the rest of her time at the ship's ports of call desperately trying to replace them. The ship arrived in Britain at a time of food rationing, and the coldest winter in 15 years (as did HMAS [I]Shropshir[/I]e, in the Australian forum's London Victory March thread just posted). Two of the brides wanted to stay on board [I]Victorious[/I] and go back as soon as they saw chilly 'Blighty.' You can read extracts from Catherine Dyson's book here: [url]http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/images/summer_read08/cover/swing-by-sailor-cove.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/programs/reading_victoria/summerread/2008/shortlist/shortlist15.html&usg=__MzjFdHQZ2lfL5mks5-ytlPvg_pc=&h=150&w=98&sz=7&hl=en&start=18&um=1&tbnid=DU0q-2dnMRhwyM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=63&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhms%2Bvictorious%2Bwar%2Bbrides%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1[/url] But there is also a excellent ready-made account on the Plymouth Central Library website, reproduced below in it's entirety. I think its worth it: Several photos are at the bottom of this post, and more to come of the war bride experience elsewhere in posts to follow. The last pic is of US-bound Aussie war brides on arrival in San Francisco on the S.S. Lurline. [I][B]Australian war brides arrive at Plymouth: 7 August 1946 War brides[/B] [I]At 7am on Wednesday 7 August 1946, after spending 36 days at sea, 655 Australian women began to disembark from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, which lay at anchor in Plymouth Sound having steamed in the previous evening. The women walked down the gangplank onto the deck of the Liner Tender Sir Richard Grenville, which in turn carried the women the short distance to Millbay Pier. The women were war brides, and they stepped ashore to be reunited with their husbands, British Royal Naval personnel who had served with the Pacific Fleet. In the aftermath of the Second World War, many thousands of war brides were transported from continent to continent, the vast majority of them from Europe to North America. The 655 Australians, however, were the only brides to have been transported on a military vessel, and this only after intense lobbying of Australian and British authorities. In Australia Following the end of hostilities, Victorious had been converted and used to transport troops and other personnel to and from the UK and the East and Australia. During May 1946, further alterations were made to the hangars and lift shafts to accommodate the war brides, 603 of who joined the ship at Woolloomooloo wharf, Sydney. In the log for 2 July, ship’s Captain Annesley entered “Commenced embarkation of wives of naval personnel for passage to UK.” Passenger number 374 on the ship's manifest was entered as Roberts, Beryl, and passenger number 492 was entered as West, Gweneth. Beryl was 19 years old, Gwen was 24, and both were listed as being British housewives, formerly residents of Australia and future residents of the United Kingdom. Beryl's husband was Chief Petty Officer Harry Roberts, whose family lived at Peverell in Plymouth. Gwen was coming to Plymouth to be reunited with husband Bill. Bill West, born in 1925 in Stockport, joined the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm just before his eighteenth birthday. Bill was injured flying sorties from HMS Indefatigable, and was sent to the British Centre in Sydney to recover. It was there, in mid-1945, that Bill met Gwen Jamieson, a volunteer at the Centre. Bill and Gwen were married at Ashfield Baptist Church on Friday, 2 November 1945. Two months later, Bill returned to the UK. The Passengers The youngest war bride on Victorious was just 15 years old, whilst about a third of the women were teenagers. The two oldest were 41. On Wednesday afternoon, 3 July, they and their fellow passengers were given an emotional send off by a crowd of over 6,000. Gwen West described the scene in her memoirs The Carrier Brideship Sails: “The mighty Victorious drew away from Woolloomooloo wharf; with the brides at many vantage points, and bright streamers trailing from the ship’s side. Our families and friends, apprehensive and tearful, waving goodbye from the wharf, and the Harbour Bridge gradually receding into the distance.” Each of the women was given a pamphlet: HMS Victorious: A Guide to Civilian Passengers. As well as listing dos and don’ts, the pamphlet contained information about facilities the women could use, including laundry, church, hairdressers, cinema, shop and library, which was “situated in the Upper level adjacent to the chapel and the Torpedo Body Room”. Leather craft and felt toy making were also laid on. The Voyage After a brief stop at Fremantle, Western Australia, where a further 52 war brides went aboard (12 of who were married to servicemen in the Royal Netherlands Navy), and where the war brides were serenaded from the shore with Waltzing Matilda, Victorious visited Trincomalee and Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea. To get to Port Said in Egypt and on to Gibraltar in the Mediterranean, the ship passed through the recently re-opened Suez Canal. Beryl Roberts recalls an incident when the women were waving from the flight deck to soldiers dressed in khaki shorts on the shore at Port Said, only to be warned by Captain Annesley that the soldiers were German prisoners of war. Gwen West wrote: “The memory of this giant aircraft carrier steaming through the Suez Canal will remain with me forever”. Throughout the voyage, some of the women worked as typists and clerks. Entertainment that the women devised for themselves included a ‘crossing the line’ ceremony with King Neptune, brides’ painting party, fancy dress ball, prettiest leg and ankle competition and a sports day featuring a ‘rescue the maiden’ race. Officers of the watch conducted ‘Chastity Rounds’, described by Captain Annesley: “Rounds of all weather decks, galleries and gun positions were carried out frequently and at irregular periods after dark. All women had to be in their bunks by 11pm”. In Plymouth At Plymouth the women were met by the Lord Mayor Isaac Foot and presented with a card stating: “As you step ashore I bid you welcome to Britain and to this historic City. Our ties with you and your folk have always been very close, and during the war those ties have been strengthened. For five years squadrons of the RAAF were honoured guests of this City. Many of our girls have found happy homes in your country. May you have great happiness here in the Motherland, and may God’s blessing rest upon you”. The war brides’ arrival was widely covered in local papers. The Western Independent reported that Beryl, who moved in with her in-laws, “likes the shops in Plymouth but thinks shoes are terribly expensive” (11 August). At the time of Beryl's arrival, her husband, Harry was serving on board HMS Black Prince in New Zealand, and it was a further three months before the couple were reunited. The Western Morning News (WMN) reported that the women had lectures on board Victorious preparing them for rationing and other hardships in Britain (7 August). Both the WMN and the Western Evening Herald carried stories of the women passing through customs and being greeted by their husbands and new relatives (7 August). Both papers also mentioned two brides who stayed on board Victorious, hoping for passage back to Australia! Gwen West too returned to Australia. She and Bill emigrated in 1947 and settled in Sydney, where they celebrated their Diamond Wedding anniversary in November 2005.[/I]
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I know something of the war brides going to Australia. I hadn't considered that the other direction was also important. I wonder how many stayed in England? Life on-board Victorious must have been a challenge. The problem, described by O'Brian as the women always needing good drinking water to "wash their smalls". And one was 15? The man would be arrested today in this PC climate. Who was the clown that said that all change is good? A most interesting post K! ;)

Love finds a way, and they went in all directions, across all cultures. From August 1944 to January 1947, the Canadian Department of National Defense brought 61,334 servicemen's wives and children from Britain to Canada. Most on especially re-fitted ocean liners, used in recent years as troopships, including the [I]Queen Mary[/I], [I]Aquatania[/I].[I] Mauretania[/I]. Tens of thousands landed at Halifax's Pier 21, which became famous for these landings and reunions. In New York it was Pier 54 I think. The troop ship USS [I]Westpoint [/I](formerly the liner America) was used to transport war brides, also Liberty ships, until one, the USS [I]Zebulon Vance [/I]became notirious after six of 19 babies aboard died of lead poisoning. In the wake of the war and and the occupatrions that followed, however, the US Army arranged the transport of tens of thousands of infants and dependent children of US servicemen abroad to America. Facing many problems, or processing, cultural adaption - sometimes even ostracism, particularly if the brides were from former enemy nations - they often banded together in mutual support. In Sydney, war brides of US servicemen formed an association, bunked up together, too lessons on their soon-to-be-adopted new land from the US consular services (lectures for the Aussie brides had also been conducted on HMS Victorious). In Australia, and perhaps elsewhere, I think Japanese war brides may have faced particular problems because of the legacy of bitterness left by the Burma Railway death camps. But the first to come - I think she was the first, she lived in my home suburb - Cherry Parker, was such a fine woman that I think her fame and courage eased the way for those who followed. Anyway, some pictures of the war brides, in all their nationalities and loveliness [B]...(Next, a not entirely sentimental Aussie war bride's poem about her sailor) [/B]
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I can well imagine the Japanese war brides would have had a terrible time.

Bridal Train by Waifs A telegram arrived today, Well its time to catch the Monterey 'Cause the man I wed, he waits for me And a daughter that he's yet to see US Navy beamed its message, Will deliver brides on a one way passage It made big news across the nation The bridal train leaves from Perth station All the girls around Australia Married to a Yankee sailor The fare is paid across the sea To the home of the brave and the land of the free From west to east the young girls came All aboard the bridal train It was a farewell crossing of her land She's gone to meet her sailor man No time for sad goodbyes, Well she held her mother as she cried And then waited there in the Freo Rain, To climb aboard the bridal train Well she was holding her future in her hand Yeah the faded photo of her man Catch a sailor if you can The war bride leaves a southern land All the girls around Australia Married to a Yankee Sailor The fare is paid across the sea To the home of the brave and the land of the free From west to east the young girls came All aboard the bridal train It was a farewell crossing of her land She's gone to meet her sailor man Now this is the story of those starry nights Through desert plains and city lights Through burning sun and driving rain They wept aboard the bridal train All the girls around Australia Married to a Yankee sailor The fare is paid across the sea To the home of the brave and the land of the free From west to east the young girls came All aboard the bridal train It was a farewell crossing of her land She's gone to meet her sailor man
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I neglected to mention on the earlier posts that there was was a second book written on HMS Victorious's war bride voyage, a recent novel 'Ship of Brides' by British author Jojo Moyes, based on the experiences of her Australian grandmother, one of the brides. You can see Jojo Moyes speaking about her book here: [url]http://www.meettheauthor.com/bookbites/1076.html[/url] And here is a the reminiscences of a religious Sydney girl who met her flier husband at the British Centre in Sydney and travelled to the U.K. on the [I]Victorious[/I] (Wikipedia says the carrier made three such bride voyages, but I can't confirm that). The story of her first encounter with her North of England in-laws is sweet, as is the word picture of immediate postwar Britain - but they returned to Australia to settle a year later. [url]http://www.islayconsulting.com/Gwen.htm[/url]
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