BY NANCY KELLY

Kings County Register

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War brides living in Kings and Annapolis County will be recognized for their contribution to family and community building at a high tea being held in their honour December 5.

The event is being hosted by Kings West MLA Leo Glavine and fellow Liberal caucus member Stephen McNeil, MLA for Annapolis East at the Aurora Inn in Kingston. Glavine said the idea to host a special occasion for local war brides began to take shape earlier this spring when McNeil urged the province to formally recognize 2006 as the Year of the War Bride.

"After the success of last year's Year of the Veteran celebrations, it was very disappointing that the province didn't follow through like other provinces and automatically designate this year in their honour," explained Glavine. In his role of Seniors critic for the Liberal caucus, McNeil kept after the province about the issue and during the spring session of the legislature, the government did declare the remainder of the year would officially recognize canadian war brides.

The term "war bride" refers to the thousands of young women who met and married Canadian servicemen during the Second World War. These war brides were mostly from Britain, but a few thousand were also from other areas of Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany. During the Second World War, there were an estimated 48,000 war brides and, when the war ended, most of these young women and their children (nearly 22,000) followed their husbands to a new life in Canada.

A large gathering was held at Pier 21 earlier this summer for Nova Scotian war brides, but both Glavine and McNeil felt it would be appropriate to host an event closer to home that would also include descendants of war bride families.

"While some of this generation of women have now passed away, we still felt it was important to recognize the role they played in building Canadian and Nova Scotian families," said Glavine. All war brides attending the tea will be presented with a certificate of recognition and posthumous presentations will be made to family members present at the tea.

Because the majority of war brides hailed from the United Kingdom, they decided to make the British tradition of high tea the theme of the event. Their constituency offices were supplied with war bride contact information from Veterans Affairs Canada and to date 17 war brides living in the two counties have been invited to the tea.

As Glavine wants to ensure that all war brides in the two counties receive recognition at the event, he is asking the public to contact his or McNeil's office with information about local war brides or their descendants. In order to prepare materials for the tea, participants are asked to respond to the invitation no later than November 17. Transportation can be arranged for those who require it.

More information on this event can be obtained by calling the Kings West constituency office at 765-4083 or the Annapolis East office at 825-2093.

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