President's Article

by Drew Payne

President, Griffin-Spalding Historical Society

After the War, a Little Bit of Britain Came to Griffin

Did you know that after World War II, a little bit of Britain came to Griffin?

Tens of thousands of British women married American servicemen during World War II. Following passage of the War Brides Act in 1945, approximately 70,000 British war brides came to the United States to begin new lives with their American husbands.

Some came to Griffin.

One was Vickie Crawford of Sunderland, County Durham, England. Griffin’s Ernest Crawford served with the Eighth Air Force in England and met Vickie while she was visiting an aunt near where he was stationed. They married, and in 1947 he brought his British bride home to Griffin.

“British Brides Among Us”

By 1969, British women who had married American servicemen during and after the war had formed the Griffin branch of the Transatlantic Brides and Parents Association.

The Griffin Daily News put their story on its front page on October 9, 1969, under the headline “British Brides Among Us.” It began:

“The British are coming! The British are here!”

The Griffin branch had 16 members living within approximately 25 miles of Griffin.

Christine Brooks, of 530 N. Hill Street, had been in America only four years. She had been a student nurse in Britain when a roommate arranged a blind date with Steve Brooks of Griffin. They married, and Christine told the newspaper that the club helped keep her from being so homesick.

“They Get Together for Tea and Talk”

Mary Statham, the club’s social director, had met her husband Charles while working in a base store office after World War II. She described the meetings simply:

“We just like to get together, have a cup of tea, and reminisce a bit.”

The women initially met in Griffin’s Commercial Bank building but soon moved their meetings into members’ homes. Mary offered a characteristically British explanation:

“We Limies like to be eating or drinking something all of the time.”

The club also had practical purposes. Members held bake sales and white elephant sales to create a fund to help a member travel back to Britain if a parent became seriously ill. President Dee Cagle, originally from Newbury, Berkshire, hoped the organization could also secure reduced group fares for visits home.

The women intended from the beginning to help people in their new community. By 1976, the organization was known locally as the British Wives Club, and members were delivering Easter baskets to nursing-home residents in Molena—one of the club’s many community-service projects.

Who Were Griffin’s British Wives?

• The Griffin Daily News listed all 16 members in 1969:

• Mrs. Dee Cagle — 318 Sims Street, Barnesville — President

• Mrs. Betty Griggers — Route 5 — Vice President (Mother of GSHS member Carol Morrow)

• Mrs. Mary Statham — 1237 Pleasant Avenue — Social Director

• Mrs. June Stevens — 319 North 16th Street — Treasurer

• Mrs. Christine Brooks — 530 N. Hill Street — Secretary

• Mrs. Vera Austin — 650 E. College Street

• Mrs. Pat Bond — Route 1

• Mrs. Doris Cooper — Barnesville

• Mrs. Audrey Charnigo — 202 Hillandale Drive (Mother of Mary Lee Knight)

• Mrs. Vickie Crawford — Route 5

• Mrs. Beryl Harvey — 1610 W. Poplar Street

• Mrs. Anita Hazelwood — 1130 Wright Street

• Mrs. Wanda Hillesheim — 1330 Canal Street

• Mrs. N. Kelly — Barnesville

• Mrs. Margaret Moody — Brooks

• Mrs. Margaret Smith — Barnesville

Some were World War II war brides; others came in the postwar years. They found one another in Griffin over tea and talk—and became part of the community they now called home.

“The British are coming!”

In Griffin, they came—and stayed.

— Drew Payne, President

Griffin-Spalding County Historical Society