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There were some 44,000 British Girls and 4000 European Girls.who married Canadian Servicemen.

The majority went to live in Canada, at the end of World War Two.Quoted in a Book 'War Brides of World War II' published 1988 it stated that during World War Two, 30,000 'War Brides were Transported to the United States, along with wounded Servicemen and Women.

Between 1944 and 1950, 150.000 to 200,000 Continental European Women married Military Personnel.

I should like to express my grateful thanks to the Master and Fellows of Massey College, Toronto, and the College Librarian, Marie Korey, for allowing the following extracts from 'The Half Million' to be published on this page.
I have included Page Numbers for future Reference. Page 135. The Cartoon.Page 136.

The first marriage between a Canadian Soldier and a British Girl took place on
January 29th 1940. Later 1221 more marriages took place that year.Page 138. The Grand total of marriages to the end of 1946 was 44,886, some were not British Girls but the majority were.

The number of Children born was to those families was 21,358It is interesting to note the periods of the war which most marriages took place.There were 1222 in 1940.As the number of Canadians in the United Kingdom increased, so did the number of weddings: 3011 in 1941, 4160 in 1942, 5897 in 1943.

In 1944 there were 3927 marriages in the first half of the year but only 2273 in the second
half, the reason being many

Canadian Soldiers left to go to Italy.There are no figures for January 1945, but the four months February - May saw 2402 marriages.

The war in Europe ended in May, and the movement of the fighting soldiers back to England
and on to Canada began at once.Pages 138/140. 

During the repatriation process large numbers of them were married in England: in the seven months May - November, 5814, including 1367 in August alone.

The continental country that provided most Canadian war brides was the Netherlands, where
large numbers of Canadians soldiers spent the summer of 1945.

By the end of 1946 there had been 1886 Canadian marriages to Dutch women.

There were 649 Belgian brides, 100 French, 6 German, 7 Danish and 26 Italian.


Should you be in possession of further facts and figures we would be pleased to hear from you









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