DAVE SMALL & JOAN WATTS SMALL

JOAN’S SAGA

Although I was born and raised in London and Hertfordshire, I was living with my parents in Leeds during the war. Being in a reserved occupation, Pediatric Health, I was unable to join any of the armed forces. I was told that, if I could get my release, they would be pleased to have me in any of them! I got involved in several volunteer jobs such as visiting servicemen in hospitals and writing letters home for them.

We had a large house and, at the time of Dunkirk, my Parents and I were at the local cinema when a lorry load of soldiers arrived who had survived Dunkirk. We were asked to take home as many as we could accommodate. My Mother took two and that was the beginning of a constant stream of servicemen who stayed with us for varying lengths of time for the duration of the war.

On "Friday the 13th" of June 1941, a group of RCAF radar mechanics arrived in our area and they were there to attend the Leeds Technical Institute. One was billeted in the home of my girlfriend's fiancée. His Landlady invited my friend and I to tea to meet two of these fellows as "she didn't know what to do with them"  - as if they were visitors from Mars! We arrived, rather reluctantly, at 4:00 p.m. and my first meeting with my future husband was to find him coming down the stairs with his trousers over his arm. Not exactly a romantic beginning!!  We had tea and as Marjorie and I walked home we were discussing the "fellows" and came to the conclusion that we were not terribly impressed! However, during that summer we did get togethe

r. We had three months of dances, bike riding on the Yorkshire Moors and parties.

After the Canadians left, some did return for their leave. One, in particular, we still have as a close friend and who now lives in California. As life was, in those days, people could be here today and gone without a trace tomorrow. Dave, my husband, was supposed to come for his leave and didn't appear. It transpired that he had been shipped off to India and Burma via South Africa. Although he wrote several letters, none got through and I had no address to write to. Finally, after three years, I did receive a letter and I guess that sealed my fate!

Dave eventually arrived back in Leeds at the end of March 1945. We decided to get married in a week as he was on his way back to Canada. My Dear Mother wanted a white wedding for her only child and by some miracle I had it. We could find only two white gowns in the whole of Leeds but, luckily, one fit!  We were able to get a special licence, as it was Easter time. Friends contributed ingredients for the cake. The Leeds newspaper agreed to photograph the wedding and somehow on such short notice my father was able to arrange for a place to hold the reception!

For the next six months, Dave had several jobs and we spent a good deal of time travelling back and forth to Bournmouth for him to arrange to escape repatriation to Canada. He was finally repatriated in November of 1945.

I was pregnant and with the six months ban I planned to have my baby in England. That was not to be and at the last moment I 

received the final travelling papers with the instruction to be ready to leave in a week. I got the notice to be in Liverpool on February 3rd, 1946.  It was a very tough time! My father was ill in bed and, being the only child, I was guilt-ridden for leaving my parents after all they had done for me! My mother came with me and we arrived at the hostel at 4.30 p.m.  The good-byes, the packing and me being pregnant were horrendous but we had to keep a sense of humor to survive! This manifested itself at the hostel when I viewed the bunks and found I was to have the upper one. Trying to get up there and get a sheet over a very large person had three others and me in gales of laughter, or hysterics, I am not sure which!!

Before boarding the ship on March 4^th, we had a chance to walk around the local shops and found apples, oranges and bananas which we hadn't seen for years. We were able to pack some up and send them home. We sailed on March 5th at 12: 20 p.m. A band on the dock was playing "You'd be far better off in a home".  About that time, we wondered if that wasn't true!!

I remember the group from London arriving late. My diary tells me that in the following days the weather and the seas were rough. I was fortunate I had a top bunk by a porthole and spent a lot of time in my bunk or on deck trying to get some air. I was in a

double cabin with 6 adults and 2 children. The children were slung in hammocks. So many were seasick and couldn't get help except from other girls. Fortunately, I had pretty good sea legs so was able to take a child down for meals. Me

rchant Navy types had volunteered as waiters and were so good at feeding the children once we got them to the dining room. We docked at Halifax at 9:25 am on the 10th but all those going west of Toronto had to stay on board until the next day.

                                 We disembarked at 11:00 am on the 11th and our train left for Vancouver at 2:30 p.m. On the 12th we travelled through Quebec and Ontario. On the 13th we were held up at North Bay by a snowstorm. We arrived at Winnipeg 5 hours late on the 14th. At Edmonton on the 15th I was paged in the terminal. Here I met the first of Dave's family. It seems his Aunt had been meeting all the trains that day as she had got word somehow that I was passing through. She greeted me with a box of chocolates and some nylons. I did weep that day!!

We got to Jasper very late where I had a walk around and was amazed by the beauty of the full moonlight on the mountains. A trainload of women and children had started from Halifax and only five of us ended up in Vancouver at 2:00 p.m. on the 16th. My new family met me and took me for a ride around town on the way to Dave's mother and father's home.  I had left my old home well and strong and arrived at my new one in a poor state. My legs and feet were swollen, and I had slept in my shoes for two nights for fear that I wouldn't be able to get them on if I took them off. I was so embarrassed!!

One of our amusements on the long journey was to watch the husbands meeting their wives. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night and often it was the first time the wives had seen their husbands in civvies and wondering "what on earth could she see in him".

Looking back, I realize what a sheltered life I had had up until this time. I really hadn't realized the tremendous adjustments to be made not only by myself but by my husband as well. No more freedom and many more realities!

Our son was born on May 15th and we started to look for a home for ourselves. No one seemed to want children in rental accommodation. So, we made a suite in my in-laws’ basement. There we lived for 3 years.  We were finally able to buy a lot in North Vancouver on the edge of Capilano Highlands where the two of us started to build a house. There was only one road and the bears came down Mosquito Creek in the spring. Neither one of us knew much about building a house. We learned by seeing how contractors went about it building new homes nearby. Every weekend we travelled up from Kerrisdale. We lived in a tent in the bush at first then pitched it on the subfloor when we had that built. The building inspector was very helpful and gave us a good deal of help in explaining how to do things. Eventually, we got the outside structure finished and passed. Our building tools consisted of a hand saw, a hammer, a square, measuring tape and a level.

On the 7th of March 1949 I set off to pay a visit to my folks in England. One of the five  wives that had arrived in Vancouver with me was going home for a visit at the same time. We had kept in contact right from our trip over and she had had her little girl a week before I had our baby. We made the return trip together. We have been friends with

her and family until she died about 10 years ago. The two of us were going back to show off our children. Both children were incredibly good travellers and took everything in their stride.

None of my friends believed me when I told them we were building our own house. They thought I was exaggerating! We moved into our partially finished house in the fall of 1949 when I returned from Britain and we experienced the coldest winter in years. Our Daughter arrived in 1950. In 1953, having just completed the house and sowed the garden, Dave joined the Canadian Immigration and we were moved to Osoyoos.

We had eight happy years there. It was a wonderful place to bring up children. They were safe and everybody knew them. There was also a surprisingly active social life

there. Through Dave's work we had many more moves - all of them in B.C. I had so enjoyed Osoyoos that I vowed I would never put down roots anywhere else and then be uprooted. But I did. We ended up at our present address 24 years ago.

Dave retired in1982. We have spent many winters down south in California and Arizona and made a trip across Canada, all in our motorhome.

I was very fortunate that my parents were able to visit us in 1950 and 1955. In the 70's and early 80's I was able to visit my father every year and he came to visit us several times after my mother died. It is hard to imagine how homesick I was for the first few years. Now, I wouldn't want to go back to live in the UK. Both Dave and I love to visit there. The cities like London seem so alien but the countryside still remains beautiful. I have only a few relatives left but still have  several old college chums, most of whom have visited us in Canada.

It has been an eventful life, but I think the War Brides must have been crazy to have taken on such a challenge at the time! Many of the marriages have been long lasting but I think most of us went into them with no other thought than making them work!! My parents never said a word against my marriage, Bless them. I often have wondered what I would have done and felt had it been my daughter leaving home to go halfway around the world. Bearing in mind it took at least two weeks to make the trip to visit "home" not to mention the cost.