Southern Cross Group: Other War Bride Info and Contacts

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Australian Citizenship Act 2007 in Force since 1 July 2007!

Since 1 July 2007 we have helped hundreds of people outside Australia apply for Australian citizenship. We are here to help you too. For links to the new citizenship application forms and other tips and tricks, go to the SCG's Home Page.

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Other War Bride Info & Contacts

Tell us Your Story, and Help us Keep you Informed!

If you are a war bride of Australian origin, the child of a war bride, or someone else who lost their Australian citizenship or who has not had access to Australian citizenship although you had an Australian parent, please tell us your story. We can be reached at info@southern-cross-group.org, or you can talk or write to our SCG USA volunteer Robyn Stephenson:

Robyn Stephenson
SCG USA Coordinator
530 William Street
Zeeland, Michigan, 49464
USA

Tel: +1 (616) 748 7993
E-mail: robyn@southern-cross-group.org

If you have e-mail, then sign up to the SCG's free e-mail bulletin list so that you can receive updates on the new Australian Citizenship Act 2007, including information as to how to prepare your citizenship application and other information of interest to those in the Australian diaspora.

If you don't have e-mail, then please write to us or phone us with your full contact details so that we can add you to our snail mail list and keep you updated by post. Your contact details will be kept fully confidential in line with our privacy statement.

Useful Links Concerning Australian War Brides

The Australian Government Citizenship Website
For all the latest updates in Australian citizenship policy and legislative amendments as they affect overseas Australians and former Australians and their families.

Listen to an ABC Radio National Life Matters segment on the citizenship changes with SCG Co-founder Anne MacGregor in Brussels and war bride son Doug Norris in Alaska, aired on 4 July 2007 >>>

Listen to an ABC Radio National Life Matters segment with the son of an Australian war bride, Lawrie McElynn, in South Carolina, aired on 26 April 2007 >>>

Listen to an ABC Radio National Life Matters segment on war brides in Washington DC for ANZAC Day 2007, with SCG Co-founder Anne MacGregor, aired on 25 April 2007 >>>

The Memoir of an Australian War Bride - Jean Null
A wonderful story online of an adventurous life that many will identify with.

Summary of the Molly Wilson Papers
The University of Michigan Library holds 21 original letters from Molly Johnson, an Australian woman who married Robert L. Wilson, written to her husband prior to her departure for the US in early 1946.

October 2002 Article on Research into Australian War Brides at Macquarie University
Sydney part-time masters student Robyn Arrowsmith has been documenting the stories of Australian war brides in the US for several years as part of ongoing research work.

World War II War Brides Association
US-based, for brides from all countries and their spouses, children and grandchildren, annual reunions, bi-monthly newsletter, membership USD 10 per annum.

The American War Bride Experience
For all GI Brides of World War II, including Australian brides

Seniornet.org War Brides Discussion Forum
For war brides from all countries, US-based site.

Rootsweb War Brides E-mail Group List
Also for war brides from all countries, US-based site.

War Brides pages of Weddings Past and Present Website
UK-based, most stories are about war brides from the UK who went to Canada and the US.

Australian War Memorial Website

Books About Australian War Brides

If you decide to order any of these books through Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, please enter those sites through the links in this sentence or the banners on the left of this page so that the SCG can earn a small commission on your purchase!

Lois Battle, War Brides, Penguin Books, 1998
A novel of historical fiction which brings to life the Australian war bride experience in the United States by tracing the lives of three fictional Australian women who all followed quite different paths. Author Lois Battle was born in Australia but moved to America at the age of six in 1946 after her father was killed in the war and her mother subsequently married a US submariner in 1944. This book is highly recommended and thoroughly enjoyable.

Annette Potts and Lucinda Strauss, For the Love of a Soldier: Australian War Brides and Their GIs, ABC Enterprises for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, 1987, ISBN 0 642 53057 2
A non-fiction book which profiles the individual stories of eighteen Australian war brides, and details some of the legal and administrative hurdles that were faced. Author Lucinda Strauss is the US-born daughter of an Australian war bride.

John Hammond Moore, Americans in Australia 1941 - 1945: Over-Sexed, Over-Paid and Over Here, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1981
A 300-page book chronicling Australia's war time history with an emphasis on the presence of US troops and their impact. Approximately 1 million US servicemen passed through Australian during WWII, when Australia's population was only approximately 7 million. The focus is not especially on war brides but the book is excellent for gaining an insight into the "American occupation of Australia", i.e. the period in which almost 15,000 Australian women met, became engaged to, and in many cases married their American partners.

Annette Potts and Eli Daniel Potts, Yanks Down Under 1941 - 1945: The American Impact on Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985.
A very detailed non-fiction work of 455 pages which puts the Australian war bride story fully in context. The book contains many illustrations, a useful chronology and an excellent index. The authors used material from hundreds of war bride contributors and their families, plus extensive archive material.

Carol Fallows, Love & War: Stories of War Brides from the Great War to Vietnam, Bantam Books, 2002.
Stories about women from all over the world who followed their Australian-servicemen husbands to Australia. Interesting for those who want to read about brides going the "other way".

Books About War Brides in General and War Brides from Other Countries (Fiction & Non-Fiction)

Elfrieda Berthiaume Shukert and Barbara Smith Scibetta, War Brides of World War II, Penguin USA, 1989.
Although now a few years old, this is by far the best history book we have found on the WWII bride experience. It covers brides from all countries who married US servicemen. The experiences of several Australian war brides are related. Essential reading for anyone dabbling in the subject.

David Barber, War Bride: The Letters Of Mary Price Barber, Xlibris Corporation, 2004

Dorothy McCormack Graw, A Heart Divided: A War Bride at Home in Two Worlds, Authorhouse, 2004.

Monique D. Downs, Abandoned War Bride, Xlibris Corporation, 2003.

Linda Granfield, Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes : Stories from Canada's British War Brides, McClelland & Stewart, 2002.

Jenel Virden, Good-Bye, Piccadilly: British War Brides in America, University of Illinois Press, 1996.

Barbara Ladouceur and Phyllis Spence, Blackouts to Bright Lights: Canadian War Bride Stories, Ronsdale Press, 1995.

Ben Wicks, Promise you'll take care of my daughter: The remarkable war brides of World War II, Stoddart, 1993.

Joyce Hibbert, The War Brides, PMA Books, 1978.

Books About Australian Citizenship

Kim Rubenstein, Australian Citizenship Law in Context, Lawbook Co, Sydney, 2002.
The only current comprehensive overview of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 and its origins, although it does not cover the reforms announced on 7 July 2004 which have become law in the Australian Citizenship Act 2007.

Michael Pryles, Australian Citizenship Law, Lawbook Co, Sydney, 1981.
Now rather out of date, but useful from an historical point of view.

Have We Missed Something?

Do you know of a relevant organisation, book, link or article that should be listed on this page and isn't? Please e-mail us. If you have old newspaper or magazine articles or clippings about the Australian war bride experience, we would be very glad to receive copies of them for our archives so that we can share them with others.

Further useful information on this site:

DIAC Form 132: Application to resume Australian Citizenship

DIAC Form 118: Application for Australian Citizenship by Descent

DIAC Form 1290: Application for Australian Citizenship by Conferral (for those born outside Australia whose parent had lost Australian citizenship by the date of their birth)

SCG Information Sheet for US-based applicants on how to apply for US Police Clearances to put with applications for Australian Citizenship, 10 August 2008 >>>

SCG Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) for Australian Citizenship Applicants in the United States, 10 August 2008 >>>

SCG Guidance Document on Obtaining Australian Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates for Australian Citizenship Applications, 22 April 2007 >>>

SCG Guidance Document for All Australian Citizenship Applicants on how to prepare Certified Copies/Endorsed Photographs, in US Letter size format >>> or A4 size paper format >>>

Make a Donation to the SCG! (For those in the US who would like to donate by sending a cheque drawn on a US bank) >>>

Make a Donation to the SCG! (For those anywhere in the world who would like to donate online using the Amazon Honor System and a credit card) >>>

SCG Media Release of 1 July 2007
"100,000 Eligible for Australian Citizenship Overseas" >>>

SCG Media Release of 26 June 2007
"Vietnam War Bride to Resume Australian Citizenship" >>>

SCG Letter to the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship re Police Clearances for Resumption and Descent Applicants, 22 June 2007 >>>

Proclamation by the Governor-General of Australia dated 7 June 2007 concerning the commencement on 1 July 2007 of the operative provisions of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 >>>

SCG Letter to the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship re War Brides who Naturalized in the United States before 26 January 1949, 11 June 2007 >>>
(The six annexes to this letter can be downloaded from the Dual Citizenship folder of our website archives, 2007 subfolder)
E-mail Response from DIAC dated 10 July 2007 confirming the Legal Interpretation by the SCG in the 11 June 2007 Letter >>>

SCG Letter to the Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship re Citizenship Status of Australian-born Children of War Brides and their Children, 14 May 2007 >>>