Saskatchewan War Brides Association

First reunion of the Saskatchewan War Brides Association, Saskatoon, 1976. The woman in the centre of the front row was a World War I bride.

Kay Garside

Established in 1975, the Saskatchewan War Brides Association (SWBA) has provided opportunities for war brides to meet and share their experiences. The first of the war brides associations to emerge in Canada, the SWBA received its charter on July 14, 1975. Any woman who had been married overseas to a Canadian serviceman serving abroad was eligible for membership. The first reunion was held on April 10, 1976, in Saskatoon; subsequent reunions have been held alternatively in Regina and Saskatoon. In 1991, Saskatchewan sponsored an international convention of war brides, which was attended by over 450 war brides. Out of it emerged Ben Wicks’s Promise You’ll Take Care of My Daughter: The Remarkable War Brides of World War II. In the meantime, SWBA membership had grown rapidly, reaching nearly 400 in the mid-1980s. Most war brides were British, and made up the last major influx of immigrants from the British Isles. Frequently of urban background, they often began their new lives in postwar Saskatchewan in relatively primitive conditions on farms or in small communities, faced with challenges unlike what they had known back home. Some went back; but most adjusted and settled into community life.

Kay Garside