Legion open house shines spotlight on women who held the line at home

CASANDRA TURNBULL

Managing Editor

As the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 29 celebrates a century in Paris, an upcoming open house will turn the spotlight on a different side of wartime service: the women who held families and communities together on the home front.

    The Paris Legion Branch 29 100th Anniversary Committee, working with the Paris Museum and Historical Society, has carefully assembled an exhibit exploring the lives, work and sacrifices of women in Paris and Brant County during the Second World War.

    Entitled Stitches, Strength and Steel: Holding the Line at Home — Women and WWII, the exhibit will feature artifacts, photographs, archival material and local stories highlighting everything from domestic life and fundraising to factory work and the countless ways women supported those serving overseas.

     The public is encouraged to drop into the Legion during the open house to explore the displays and help Branch 29 celebrate its 100th anniversary.

     For Cheryl Humphrey, a member of the Legion's 100th anniversary committee, the inspiration for the exhibit grew partly from her own interest in traditional home crafts and a realization of how essential those skills once were.

    “I have been involved with home-crafts for decades and have personally realized that they are not just ‘women’s crafts’ but survival crafts,” Humphrey said. “Without the stitching, cooking, and other domestic skills, home life would have been unmanageable and chaotic.”

    She noted women were often managing households under vastly different circumstances than those experienced today, while also coping with husbands, sons and fathers serving overseas.

    “Big battles had to be faced and overcome right here at home,” Humphrey said.

    Women also stepped into jobs traditionally held by men, including at manufacturing sites in Paris, Brantford and the County of Brant that were devoted to wartime production. At the same time, women were left to operate households, shops and home industries, while fundraising and producing comfort items for troops overseas.

    Some of the stories uncovered for the exhibit provide a remarkably personal connection to that period.

    Paris Museum and Historical Society curator Tina Lyon drew on artifacts and archives collected and catalogued by museum volunteers over decades while researching material for the exhibit.

    The exhibit has also drawn on support from several other organizations and historians. The Canadian Military Heritage Museum has loaned several displays to the Legion, while the Princeton Museum assisted with research into the wartime Milkweed Collecting Campaign. The Brantford Public Library and County of Brant Public Library’s Paris branch provided access to local historical archives, while historian Bonnie Sitter, who specializes in the Farmerettes, shared articles and research related to their wartime contributions.

Among the items Lyon selected are letters connected to Annie Broughton, who sent care packages to soldiers through the Overseas League (Canada) Tobacco and Hamper Fund.

     Soldiers receiving the packages were required to send Broughton a thank-you note, but for many, the correspondence did not end there.

     “She continued to correspond with many of these soldiers throughout the war. We have 750 letters sent from ‘her’ soldiers,” Lyon said.

     A museum volunteer has been transcribing the collection, offering a window into the experiences and thoughts of soldiers communicating with someone back home.

     Another display explores signature quilts and how needlework became a means of raising money for the war effort. Residents would pay to have their names included on squares, which local women embroidered and assembled into a quilt before it was raffled, with proceeds supporting the war effort.

     Visitors may also discover the surprising wartime importance of something commonly found along roadsides and in fields today — milkweed.

     Humphrey explained that children and community organizations were among those mobilized to help during the war. Milkweed became particularly valuable because its lightweight, buoyant and waterproof floss could replace kapok in life preservers for sailors.

     “Come see the whole story at the open house,” Humphrey said.

     The exhibit will also have an educational role. Ten local school classes, ranging from Grades 4 to 8, are confirmed to attend, giving students an opportunity to see how the global conflict affected everyday life in their own community.

     For Lyon, preserving those stories is important because wartime history extends beyond soldiers and battlefields.

     “The stories of those who silently aided at home need to be preserved and revealed to the public so people can understand the hardships and strength that ‘people at the Homefront’ exhibited,” she said.

     The open house is free to attend and community members are encouraged to drop in, explore the exhibits and take part in Branch 29's centennial celebration. 

     The open house runs Monday, Sept. 28 to Thursday, Oct. 1 from 10 am to 7 pm each day and on Friday, Oct. 2 from 10 am to 6 pm.

     While there is no admission charge, donations will be gratefully accepted. Funds will go back to the Paris Legion, helping members maintain the aging building and supporting the branch's continued work in the community.