WARBRIDES-L Archives

From: "Mel Crich" <>
Subject: My Mother, Scottish War Bride
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:31:15 -0400

Good Morning List
Just read the note from Jessie Sinclair re. arriving in BC Dec./46. I wonder if you arrived at Pier 21 on the Empire Brent?

I am the son of a deceased Scottish War Bride. We sailed on the Empire Brent and arrived at Pier 21, Dec. 13/46.
Kathy Coupal and Olive Minnings have written of that convoy experience on the Pier 21 web site, as they were on the same ship. I thank them for sharing the details.

My mother died in childbirth the year after she arrived in Canada, so I never knew anything about the journey. When Pier 21 opened, the TV news clips focused on display cases filled with memorabilia on the museum walls. My attention homed in on a small cardboard piece of paper with a triangular stamp on it. I thought, I have one of those! Retrieving my identical piece of paper, I read the purple inked stamp. - 2 EMBARKED , 4 DEC 1946, LIVERPOOL - IMMIGRATION OFFICER

Thanks again to Pier 21, I now know what that little piece on paper represents.

My Mother's name was Helen Inglis/Crich. She was a red head from Edinburgh, travelling with a 3 month old baby, me. My father told me, a couple of years before he died, that a woman from B.C. tried for a couple of years to contact my Mother after she had died. Of course, he never answered! Unfortunately, he couldn't remember her name. He thought it was another War Bride my mother had befriended on the voyage to Canada. Does anyone remember Helen??? I would love to learn more from anyone who may remember her.

I subscribe to the War Brides web site and feel a kinship to their stories. They were brave young women with hopes and dreams of a new life in Canada.

Thank you
Mel Crich

This thread:

• My Mother, Scottish War Bride by "Mel Crich" <>

  • Re: [WarBrides] My Mother, Scottish War Bride by "jessie sinclair" <>
    • Re: [WarBrides] My Mother, Scottish War Bride by "Nancy Cleary & Mel Crich" <>