Rare treat for war brides

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/07/2010 (5713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Saturday afternoon, 65 years or more since they wed, the brides still looked beautiful.

Call it a reunion, of sorts: The war brides of Britain, married to Canadian soldiers almost seven decades ago, now gathered on the freshly manicured lawn of Government House for a glimpse of the Queen who many remembered as a young girl in pre-war London.

"It’s nice for us to get together again," Phyllis Tennant smiled, as she and about 20 other brides eagerly waited in the swampy heat for the chance to shake hands with the Queen.

For over an hour, they sat facing Government House, umbrellas holding the sun off their pristine pink and yellow and floral-patterned dresses. They had driven together from Winnipeg, Brandon and across Manitoba, attended by their children but sitting, proudly, as one.

Tennant, 86, last saw Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation Day in 1953, when Tennant and her husband staked out a place along the parade route to Westminster Abbey. "She looked beautiful," Tennant recalled.

On Saturday, she smiled at her monarch again.

It was a day full of smiles, in fact. After unveiling a renowned Leo Mol statue of herself, transferred from behind the Centennial Concert Hall to the grounds of Government House, the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, greeted some of the 1,500 fans who gathered to greet them.

They had come as individuals, as families and as groups: Some boy scouts were there to pay respects to the Queen. So were members of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi Society, angling for a glimpse of their breed’s most regal patron. And the United Empire Loyalists, still loyal after 230 years, surreptitiously slipped digital cameras into the sleeves of their intricate 18th-century dresses.

The fans had been waiting for hours, while the Queen lunched on bison carpaccio and steelhead trout with the premier and the mayor and a host of other dignitaries inside the Government House ballroom. Despite tents set up for shade and free cups of pink lemonade, the heat became so intense some fans fainted.

In the end, it was worth it.

After unveiling the statue, the Queen walked straight for one familiar face. In 1970, Roy Bailey hosted the Queen and Prince Philip and their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, at his potato farm outside of Carberry. There, the Royal Family rested and rode horses; 40 years later, the spry 95-year-old stood to greet her again, flanked by his beaming sons.

Shaking Bailey’s hand, the Queen asked after his well-being; someone must have jogged her memory before the reunion, Bailey chuckled. "It was wonderful (to meet her)," he said. "She’s a very charming person."

His sons agreed. "She’s just as beautiful now as she was then," exclaimed Brian Bailey, who was a young married man when his father hosted the Royal Family.

As the Queen and the prince ambled towards the brides, the women’s faces lit up. "Whereabouts are you from?" the prince asked, winking at the ladies. They spoke for a few seconds longer; for Tennant and her friends, those moments were enough.

"It was very nice," she beamed. "We never know if we’ll see her again… she’s in very good shape. She does a wonderful job. I don’t think too many women would like to change places with her."

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca