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THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1995. PAGE 25.
Festival play stirs memories for local woman
By Bonnie Gropp
This week, Blyth Festival is
premiering a new play, This Year,
Next Year, by Norah Harding. The
story is an autobiographical
account of her memories of the war
and new love.
The term war bride was used to
describe women who married
Canadian servicemen overseas,
then immigrated to Canada
following the war. The vast
majority, like Harding, came from
Great Britain.
For Isabel McClure, of Blyth, a
long time volunteer at the Festival,
going to see This Year, Next Year
might be a bit of a heart wrenching
experience, she admits. For the
Glasgow, Scotland native the story
may be fairly similar.
Isabel's story begins in 1945
when her brother-in-law introduced
her to a young Canadian, Arthur
McClure, who was stationed in
Aldershot, England, but had come
to Glasgow to visit.
Being told that there was
someone he wanted her to meet,
Isabel curiously set out for her
sister's home to find out what was
going on. After spending the day
talking, Arthur walked her home,
then asked if he could write her.
Though she was betrothed to
another, Isabel said she saw no
harm in saying yes. "It was nice for
these young men to get letters from
someone," she said.
After Arthur returned to
Aldershot, Isabel went to London
to meet her fiance's parents. "I was
glad I went. It was Mommy this
and Mommy that. Talk about tied
to the apron strings," she laughs.
During a walk after supper that
evening, Isabel ended their
relationship. He took it well, she
said, telling her to keep the ring.
"He told me he bought
it for me and I should
have it."
Isabel smiles again
when she recalls that
she later gave it to her
brother to give his
girlfriend when he
decided to propose. "I
had no use for it," she
said.
Meanwhile she and
Arthur continued to
get acquainted via
letters, then at
Christmas she sent
him a "nice handmade
wallet. It cost me a
whole week's wages at
that time," she recalls.
Christmas came and
went, however,
without so much as a
card from Arthur,
which rather
disappointed her.
When the door bell
rang on New Year's
however, Arthur was
standing on the other
side. "He told me then that he
hadn't gotten in touch with me at
Christmas because he knew he had
leave coming on New Year's so he
could come see me. He brought a
diamond and asked me to marry
him. Well, I liked him and my
mother thought the world of him;
she said he was the most sensible
one of any I'd met; so I said yes."
The couple married in March,
while Arthur was on a seven day
leave. "You can imagine with such
little time, I couldn't plan a big
wedding. My girlfriend, who was
to be my maid of honour made my
wedding suit and we got married
on the sixth day. The next day
Arthur went back to camp in
England."
His train was late in arriving so
the new groom reported to the
sergeant to explain, she says. "He
told him that he had got his
wedding over, that he had a nice
girl he thought the world of, but
hadn't had much time
with her."
The sergeant granted
him another five days to
be with his bride, but
upon his return he was
given notice that he was
being shipped back to
Canada. "He sent me a
telegram to tell me. I
didn't come over here
until the following
September."
The trip over with
many other brides from
England, Ireland and
Scotland did not get
things off to a good start.
"It was a small ship, the
Lady Rodney, and I was
sicker than a dog the first
three days. I didn't care if
I lived or died."
They docked in
Halifax after 10 days in
the water, then travelled
by train to Toronto
where she was to meet
the man she had married
six months earlier.
"I didn't recognize him. He was
in civilian clothes."
Isabel says the girls were
guarded by a soldier who
accompanied them to an office
where they were to be picked up by
their husbands. "Everyone had
been met but me, but he hadn't
heard the announcement. He was
waiting on the platform. Once they
called him to the office he was
there right away. He came walking
over and I thought 'Who are you?'
Then he smiled and spoke and I
knew."
The couple settled outside Blyth
on a farm where they remained for
17 years. "I just hated it," said the
city born and raised Isabel. "That
first winter if they had given me a
ticket home I'd have taken it. "
Once her children were born,
Isabel said, life changed, however.
The couple had a son, who has
since passed away and five years
after his birth in 1947, twin
daughters. "Once I started my
family it took my mind right off it."
Today her daughters live with their
families in nearby communities.
Isabel has five grandchildren and
two great-grandchildren. Arthur
passed away last year.
Since coming here, Isabel has
managed to return to Scotland four
times, while her sister comes to
visit every other year. This October
she and her sister are meeting up in
Australia where another sibling
resides.
Though life as a war bride had its
share of surprises and perhaps
some disappointments, the
marriage for Isabel was everything
and more. "In those days you stuck
with marriage. I thought enough of
him to have stayed with him. He
was a good husband, a very good
husband., and we had a wonderful
life together."
Arthur and Isabel McClure on their wedding day March 1946