Noreen F. Manouch Book

Noreen Florence Manouch (Book) (Thomas) was born on August 14, 1926 in Canterbury, Kent, England. During the war, she, her mother and her two siblings were briefly evacuated, but they spent the majority of the time in Canterbury, seeking shelter whenever the air raid sirens sounded. During one night of particularly heavy bombing, four members of her extended family were killed. Ms. Thomas left school at the age of fourteen, and worked briefly as a maid before finding employment at Marks and Spencer’s. She met a Canadian soldier (Jack (John) Book) at a dance, and after three months of courting they were married. Her mother and aunt prepared the food for the wedding, and she borrowed a dress from a colleague. Her husband was repatriated in February, 1946 and she followed on the Leticia in April, aged eighteen and pregnant. She was terribly sick on the voyage, and was glad to finally land in Halifax, although she remembers being disappointed that there was not much to see, and surprised to find that it was snowing. She continued by train to Toronto, where she was met by her husband and in-laws. The couple initially lived in an apartment at the top of her in-laws’ house in Mimico, and Ms. Thomas found life in Canada much easier than in war-time England – she particularly enjoyed having a car and a telephone. Her husband was able to return to his pre-war job at Goodyear in New Toronto, and then moved to a company called Eaton. On account of his work, the family moved to Kitchener, then to Kirkland Lake, before returning to Mimico where he worked as a plumber for his older brother in what had been their father’s business. The couple had six children. Ms. Thomas wrote letters to her mother every week, and was very homesick – she hadn’t realized how far Canada was from England, and wasn’t able to return for twenty-eight years, during which time her parents had separated and her father had passed away. Luckily, she did have support in Canada, where she and her neighbour, Betty, set up a war brides club. Ms. Thomas’ 1st husband (Jack Book) died in 1987, after which she became active once more in War Brides Club in the Toronto area. In 1996 she married William (Bill) Thomas, who passed away eight years later. She considers herself to be a Canadian and feels happy and fortunate that she moved to Canada.