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Canadian Servicemen In Birmingham

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Many Canadian servicemen passed through Birmingham during WW2. See images below. Did any of your family marry Canadian soldiers ? Or did family members living in Canada come as servicemen to the UK? 32,000 Canadians married British girls and they'd produced 16,500 children by 1945. Viv.
 

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I must ask my Dad as I am sure his cousin (born and raised in Canada) turned up one day on their Aunt's doorstep. Apparently she was stunned as he was so like her brother (his Father) who she hadn't seen for years. I vaguely recall Dad saying the cousin had a gun - fascinating to a small boy.
 
Photo 5, of post 1, shows Canadian firemen who came to assist the NFS during WW2. The rest of the photos do seem to be military people. Given the dates of the photos I suspect many of them went on to fight in North Africa,
 
Thanks Alan shall post the Canadian firemen image onto the Fire Service thread. Viv. Edit. Image now moved.
 
Rex Owen and his family in their home at 45 Coniston Avenue, Sheldon offered hospitality to foreign servicemen during the war and gave them some of the comforts of home for a few hours or a weekend. These men, and possibly women, were of many nationalities and the attached images indicate that there were Americans and, especially, Canadians amongst them.

Rex was a despatch rider in his local Home Guard battalion and the photograph shows him and his GI guest at the front gate of his house, the GI waving to us over 75 years and a bit of Birmingham pavement.

I have quite a bit of information online about the Owen family – if it's of interest, google "Rex Owen Home Guard" to find it.

Chris

BirminghamDRs5web685.jpghome-guard-006web685.jpg
 
Canadians soldiers returned from Italy in 1944. Viv.A57EAF3D-0DFE-4CB2-A11B-57757FDB94C8.jpeg
Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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