Gwendoline Rosa Wilkins Garner a "War Bride" departs England for the United States 2 February 1946

Telegram sent from Gwendoline's parents upon her departure to America on the Queen Mary.

Six months had passed since Gwen last saw Bill, when Gwen finally boarded the Queen Mary for the United States. 

 

Christmas passed and Bill missed his  Baby's First Christmas, but finally the day came when the US would transport thousands of British GI War Brides with their children to the United States. In Washington, D.C. the War Brides Act (Public law 271, 79th Congress) was passed and signed into law on December 28, 1945 by President Harry Truman. After passage, alien spouses of citizen members of the armed forces were officially "deemed to be non-quota immigrants" and would not need a visa. Application for admission to the country under this act had to be filed within three years of the date of it's passage. After being "medically examined," these war brides could enter the United States as soon as transportation was available. The application for transportation must have been filed by the husband.

Very soon after Christmas 1945 a conference was held in Washington, D.C. by representatives from the War Department, Public Health Service, Department of State, Justice Department, American Red Cross, Immigration and Naturalization Service, War shipping Administration and several domestic and foreign steamship lines, and a coordinated plan of operation was drawn up. Over time more than 70,000 women and children would be transported by the US Government to their new homes in the United States. The first official GI Bride ship departed on 26 January 1946 amid a blaze of publicity when the Argentina left England with 626 U.S. dependents aboard. It was soon followed by the Queen Mary carrying 2,340 passengers.

Gwen wrote about those days crossing the Atlantic in her memoirs ~ dated 1999

"The next big event in my life took place the day I walked up the gangplank of the liner R.M.S. "Queen Mary", carrying Carol in my arms, destination New York, U.S.A. By now it was February 1946. My dear mother and father journeyed to Southampton to see us depart and I have often wondered just what thoughts were going through their minds and what their feelings were as they watched their only child and grandchild on the deck of that ship and become but a memory as each successive wave from the wake of the "Queen" increased the distance between ship and shore. Thus ended a 22-year era of my life --happy, yet unhappy. happy because I was starting out on a new adventure, but unhappy in the knowledge that I was leaving behind two very dear people who had made my journey through life to that date the most pleasant experience.

And so we journeyed on across the stormy Atlantic, sharing our stateroom with three other British girls, each with one child of their own. And what a challenge that journey was!  Washing diapers and getting them dry in time for their next use; warming up bottles of milk and thin oatmeal; elbowing each other as we maneuvered in that tiny space to get our babies clean and presentable. The trip was rough-- but I have always loved the sea and I made the most of every minute of the time spent on board. 
After 5 1/2 days we docked in New York and I will never forget my first night and morning in America. It was close to midnight when I was told to get ready to  leave the ship to be taken to the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City where I was told my husband would be waiting for me. However, after waiting for several hours and watching the many joyful reunions that took place that night (but no Bill), an elderly couple who had befriended me gave me sufficient American money to enable me to place a phone call to Baltimore to find out what had gone wrong! Well, it turned out that the Red Cross organization had told Bill to stay in Baltimore and to meet me at Camden Station.......and the Red Cross in New York had told me he would be at the Armory in New York! Any rate, after eventually being taken to the American Hotel to try to get a little rest, we were put on board a train the following afternoon for Baltimore, arriving some 2 1/2 hours later --and there was Bill waiting at the station. It was sheer ecstasy to finally be with him to live what I hoped would be, and what has turned out to be to this moment in time, the rest of our lives together.  " 

Gwen and Carol on the right on board the Queen Mary.
Even the AP guys misspelled Bill's name, it's Wilbur!

The Queen Mary was the second transport ship to arrive New York, New York 8 February 1945. On board daily mimeographed newsletters were produced to keep the brides informed of daily goings on, meal times and cartoons. 

This is a reproduction of a drawing found in one of the on board newspapers.
Both the women and their babies were tagged when boarding to keep things straight.

This is another image reproduced from the daily newspapers on board the Queen Mary
while transporting it's precious cargo of War Brides and their babies to America.

Menu from the Queen Mary while transporting the War Brides and their babies.
Seems by the hand written comment, Gwen was very  happy with the menus!
After six years of war time food supplies in England.

Image from one of the daily new sheets produced on the Queen Mary February 1946

Gwendoline was interviewed as she arrived by train in Baltimore by reporters of The Sunpapers.

Arrival in Baltimore...seems the paper got Bill's name wrong again! February 1946

The British Newspapers ran headlines "The Petticoat Pilgrims."
This paper clipping was sent to Gwen in the US, in a letter by Kate Hudman Wilkins, Gwen's mother.
(Notice the TAGS on all the coats of the women and babies)

Many books have been written over the years about the War Bride phenomenon of WWII.

Letter #10 from Wilbur C. Garner 9 March 1944

This is Bill's first "Letter to Mary" after arriving in Europe in late December of 1943.
 
S/Sgt. Wilbur C. Garner, 33377578

Hq XIX Corps, APO 270
c/o Postmaster, N.Y., N.Y.

Mary W. Garner, SK3c
U.S. Naval Air Station
Minneapolis, 6, Minnesota

9 March 1944



Dear Mary,
Well ole kid, what's new? How did you make out with your SK2c rating? If you don't get that, I'll be stepping out ahead of you. Let's go kid.

I suppose you are now wanting to hear some news about me. Well here it is. I am now going around with a WRN (Woman's Royal Navy). Well the Navy isn't so bad anyhow. I met her last Friday night and I have seen her about four times since then. Not bad I'd say. She is a very nice girl and not too bad looking. The name is Gwen (for Gwendolin) R. Wilkins. She has invited me to spend a week-end at her home in Cardiff, if I can get time off. I'm surely going to take her up on that invitation. 
I may be able to get a picture of her to send you.
Last night at a dance in one of the neighboring town, I met a boy from back home. He used to go around with a crowd from Register Avenue. He came over with our home-town unit and since then has been transferred. We had a nice long chat together until our ATS girlfriends decided that it was time to go home. They were not far wrong either because we almost missed our truck.
Will you please send me some chewing gum and some good face soap? There is not much news that the censors will let go through, so I guess I'll sign off for now. 

Lots of luck on your exams and write soon.
Lots of Love
Bill

Gwendoline R Wilkins Roath Park, Cardiff Wales March 1944

Wilbur C Garner Roath Park, Cardiff, Wales March 1944

Straying from just sharing the letter text here, I feel compelled to add a few notes on this blog entry and share text that comes directly from my mother's (Gwendoline's memoir) as well as a verbal recount of their meeting, by Bill.

Notes on the "meeting" ~  

Written by Gwen regarding their first meeting ~ 

Gwen wrote in her memoir on their chance meeting....

"As a Wren, Specialised, Shorthand-Typist, I was designated Administrative Assistant to the First Officer in charge of the W.R.N.S. unit stationed at Royal School, Bath -- which was known in naval records as H.M.S. "Bristol". Just the First Officer and I were responsible for the quartering and victualling of some 60 Wrens who acted as couriers to take the secret plans and orders from the Navy Department responsible for undersea operations to the coastal bases along the southern coast of England.One day toward the end of January 1944, our unit received an invitation from a United States Army unit in nearby Warminster, Wiltshire, to a Red Cross dance on a Saturday night. Now I was never very much interested in dancing -- kinda enjoyed watching other people tread on one another's toes, but when this particular invitation was received and posted on the bulletin board, I decided to put my name on the list of personnel wishing to go. For you see, I had heard of the scrumptious doughnuts and apple pies with cheddar cheese, and other goodies prepared by the U.S. Army for these events --- and I wanted to sample them as a pleasant change from a wartime diet. On the day that the First Officer reviewed the names, she noted that no-one above the rating of Ordinary Wren was listed. (very unusual!) However, since my name was on the list, First Officer put me in charge of the group! And so, that Friday, somewhere along the wartime blackout enshrouded country roads between Warminster and Bath, unbeknown to him, a certain very handsome U.S. Army Staff Sergeant was traveling toward his appointed destiny with fate!For Staff Sergeant Wilbur C. Garner happened to be in charge of the truck convoy that night sent to pick up our group of Wrens."

Bill recounted their fist meeting~
As told to me (Karen Garner Martin Messick) by Bill

"I, as a Sergeant, was charged with the responsibility of transporting the WRN's from their station in Bath to a Red Cross dance on  a Saturday night. I was driving a deuce and a half truck. Gwen was in charge of overseeing the transport of the women. The women, except for Gwen were transported in the back of the truck. Gwen sat up front between me, the driver and another G.I. As Gwen jumped into the front seat, I  raised my arm and rested it on the back of the bench seat to give Gwen more room to sit. Gwen thought I was being a fresh "Yank" until I explained myself."

From Gwen's memoirs ~ she wrote ~

"The following memory goes back to the days when I lived on Habershon Street. One day, when I was probably 12 or 13 years old, my school pal, Edna Hopgood, persuaded me to go to a lady's house on the street where Edna lived as this lady supposedly read your fortune and future from cards which you chose and placed face down in front of her. Well, this was, to me, just a prank as I never placed any faith in fortune telling. However, what she predicted that day, which I never thought about until years later when I had met Bill, certainly seemed to come true. She read from the cards that I would "meet a handsome young man who would come from over the water" but she was a little disturbed because he was "surrounded by white flowers." I dismissed this "reading" from my thoughts, but after 8 years had passed and World War II was in progress, I met an American Soldier, Wilbur C. Garner. One day while sitting on a bench with Bill in Victoria Park, Bath, England with snowflakes falling lightly on us and glistening in the light of the park lamps, my thoughts suddenly flashed back and I recalled the words of that fortune teller! For my American soldier had "come from over the water" and the "white flowers" to me represented Bill's first wife who had died suddenly---which he told me about while we were sitting on that park bench."