World War I
We will add information as time permits.
We cannot promise to put you in touch with any of these people, many of whom have died since this list was originally compiled. You will find more information in the books below and if you would like to email us we will endeavour to answer any questions you have.
If you would like to add a bride to the list please send the details.
* indicates story appears in Love & War
War Brides from Belgium
 Adcock *
Garnett Adcock married his Belgian bride Marguerite van Coillie in Roulers, Belgium in 1918.
They travelled to Australia on the ‘Orsova’ some time in the early 1920s.
War Brides from France
Anderson*
Lulu Bastide met Andrew Anderson in Rouen, France, when he was just 21 and she was probably about the same age. They married on 14 September 1918. Loulou arrived on the 'Niagara' and was quarantined because of the flu epidemic. Andrew had already returned.
The photo, courtesy Ronnie Anderson, shows Lulu practising her violin in the garden of her home in France while Andrew dutifully holds up the music.
Gorman
We do not know the details of Eugene's meeting with Marthe Vallee, who was born in Paris. We do know that they married in 1920 in Melbourne and had one child, Pierre. Gorman enlisted in the AIF in 1915 and served on the Western Front with the 22nd Battalion. He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Bullecourt, France on 3 May, 1917 when he led his company in an attack even though he was wounded.
Gorman was a well-known barrister and racing identity in Melbourne when he offered his services to the Australian Comforts Fund and left for the Middle East in 1940.
He was awarded a CBE in 1960 and a KBE in 1966 - the same year that Marthe died. Gorman died in 1973 at the age of 82.
For more information check out the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
With others Eugene Gorman wrote With the Twenty-second. A history of the Twenty-second Battalion , a history of AIF 22nd Battalion.
War Brides from the UK
Badcock*
William Badcock met Violet Chandler in Wiltshire, where they married. In 1920 after the birth of their first child, also called Bill, Bill and Violet Badcock left England on the ‘Bahia-Castilo’ for Australia.
Baker*
Rosa Siedel married Leo Baker at the end of the war. Rosa came to Australia on the
‘Megantic’ , Leo on the ‘HMS Ypringa’.
Campion*
Eva Rodriguez married Frank Campion and came to Australia in 1920.
Coleman*
I found Oliver Coleman’s letters in La Trobe Li brary, Melbourne. He met Dolly in 1917 – I presume they married and came to Australia
Devine
Tilly Devine was a well known madam in Sydney, Australia from some time in the 1930s until her death in 1970. She came to Australia as a warbride having married Sapper James Devine in August 1917 when she was 16. You can read more about Tilly on the Australian War Memorial website. A book called Razor was written about her in 2001.
Henderson*
Kate Fieldgate lived in Brightlingsea and met and married Gordon Henderson in 1917.
Kindred*
Edith Keppie married Charles Arthur Kindred in Glasgow in 1919. They sailed to Australia on the 'S.S. Mahana' leaving on the 25 September ofthat year. Edith Kindred’s diary from her 1919 voyage to Australia was not found until the family home in Scotland was sold in 1977 when it was sent out to Edith who was still alive - Arthur had died in 1969. A story about Edith and her diary appeared in The Newcastle Herald. Edith died in October, 1981.
Lindquist*
The son of Olive Lindquist (nee Wilkinson) was able to provide the bare details of his parents marriage on 19 October 1918. Olive from Friern Barnet, North London, married Albert Archer Lindquist, an Australian soldier with the 15th Australian Field Ambulance. She sailed to Australia on the ‘Benalla’ and was sadly widowed in August 1921 when Albert died of war wounds. She remarried Oscar Theiley. She died in 1964.
McMullin
Elizabeth Barbara England married Alfred Oswald McMullin on 19 April 1917, while Arthur was convalescing in the UK after being wounded. Arthur joined up in August 1914 and after serving at Gallipoli and being promoted Lieutenant, was serving in France. Arthur was a big man, 6' 1" according to his service records and at 32 would have been toughened by his years as a grazier in Victoria. They must have met and married when Arthur was stationed in the UK between January and September, before being sent back to France and wounded again the following month. Elizabeth continued to live in Camberley, where she married, we presume with her family. Arthur returned to the UK after the war, by which time he had risen to the rank of Major, been awarded the Military Cross and mentioned in despatches by General Haig. The couple did not embark for Australia until April 1919 on the 'Wyreema'. So hopefully they spent a bit of time getting to know each other.
Maybe they were lucky enough to have married quarters on board the 'Wyreema' because it appears that Elizabeth conceived on this voyage to Adelaide . This was not usual as on most ships with returning troops and wives and fiancees they were in separate quarters. They had a daughter in 1920, but Elizabeth was obviously not ready to be a grazier's wife in outback Australia, and apparently returned to England that year - and there the trail goes cold. The daughter, Mary sadly died in 1927 - and Arthur remarried in 1926 - so either they were divorced or Elizabeth died - or ....
 Procter*
Violet Apkins met and married Chris Procter in 1919. They sailed to Australia on the 'S.S. Friedrichsruch' on 22 January 1919. The Procters lived on the edge of the Mallee in Victoria, where they had three children. Chris was a builder and in 1928 they moved to Frankston, Victoria where another daughter was born. Violet’s parents and sisters migrated to Australia in 1926. Violet suffered from a heart condition as a result of rheumatic fever as a child and died in 1940 at the age of 42. Chris Procter married again and died in 1981 at the age of 90. Picture: Violet Apkins and Chris Procter on theri wedding day.
Robinson*
Meg Woollen met Corporal Robbie Robinson in Yeovil, England in 1919 - they married after Meg's mother had written to Robbie's and satisified herself that he was indeed single! Robbie and Meg sailed to Australia in the same year on the 'S.S. Mahana'and began their lives on a farm at Perwillowen west of Nambour in Queensland. They had four children and Meg found ‘preparing meals for her husband and three workmen was a tremendous challenge. Her efforts at making scones were disastrous...” She boiled clothes in a copper in the backyard and made all her own and her childrens’ clothes. Meg’s greatest sadness was the absence of extended family - her own and her husbands. Meg returned home for her first visit in 1949. She died at the age of 96, in 1991. Robbie died in 1967.
Sunderland*
Queenie Sunderland wrote her story down for her family when she turned 100. She was Queenie Soffe when she met Ted Sunderland on a railway station in Salisbury, England in November 1917. They sailed to Australia on the 'S.S. Osterley'“When I came to Australia I hadn’t made a bed, I hadn’t boiled an egg, I hadn’t made a pot of tea – when Ted said to my mother we would like to get married, she said Ted you couldn’t have chosen anyone as a wife more useless than Queenie.” were Queenie’s own words. Queenie and Ted made their home on the family farm in Dubbo, NSW and had two daughters. Ted died in 1976 and Queenie wrote her life story, first simply for the family, in her ‘100th year’. This book has since been published as ‘Bride of Anzac. My Life Story’ (published by Gary Allen, Sydney, 2000). Carol Fallows interviewed Queenie in February 2000 when she was 103 years old. She died in 2003 at the age of 106.
Turner*
Constance Garden lived in Aberdeen in Scotland when she met her husband JJ. They sailed to Australia on the 'Runic'.Turner lived in Melbourne and at the time of writing the book 'Love & War' she was almost 103 years old. JJ died in July 1953.
This is a work in progress. It is only a very small handful of the women who came to Australia as war brides after the Great War. If you have a war bride in your family and would like us to add her story to these please send us about 500 words - and a picture if you have one and we will add her story. Email carol@warbrides.com.au
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