A recently-published book, Canada’s War Grooms and the Girls who Stole their Hearts, contains 45 love stories about war grooms. “Who are the war grooms?” you ask. Well, they are the male counterparts of the war brides who have received much media attention in recent years. Most of the war grooms came to Canada during World War II as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as either aircrew trainees or part of the operational staff at the various training stations. There were well over 100,000 of these airmen from Allied countries in Canada during the war. The inevitable happened, of course, and some of these dashing young men uniform fell in love with Canadian girls. Some married their sweethearts, either during the war before they left for overseas service, or after the war was over. These war grooms fell in love with Canada, as well as their sweethearts. They became proud Canadians, and praised their adoptive country at every opportunity. Their military careers were stellar.
All proceeds from the publication of the book, after all expenses, will be donated to three aviation/military museums in memory of the author’s late my father-in-law who was a war groom from Manchester, England.
The books can be obtained from:
General Store Publishing House
www.gsph.com (under the “What’s New” section)Also, McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg will be getting the books in soon.
Page revised: 14 November 2009
