The English Girls of Union County

To The Editor:

After laying to rest today one of “The English Girls” of Union County, I began to reflect on the lives of these wonderful strong brave Christian women who crossed thousands of miles during and after WWII to live in a country they really knew little about.

Some, including my mother Gwendoline Wiltshire Evans came with a young baby and others came with several young children. These wives and mothers were wooed and courted to believe they were moving to a land of milk and honey realizing when they arrived in South Arkansas that was not so.

My mom, first to arrive in El Dorado in 1945 with my oldest brother Henry who was just a bit over one year old, traveled on the Isle de France ship to make their new home in America.

It was a long journey as the ship was recoursed many times to avoid the enemy. I remember her saying that after being here for sometime, she wrote her dad and told him she wanted to go home to England and he wrote back telling her that she had a family now and her place was with them in America. We can only imagine how hard it was to tell your daughter she cannot come home to live. My mom and dad raised five children.

My parents always made a point to visit the new ladies as they arrived in Union County during and years following the war, thus forming The English Girls club that met monthly and on special occasions.

Those that could, held these get togethers in their homes so they could keep “home” alive in their hearts. We daughters of these brave feisty strong women on occasion took part in these activities. As we got older, we paid a lot more attention to their stories learning a lot about our moms and their lives in England.

They became grounded in their new lives by having each other to lean on in the hard times. As far as I can remember, not one of them ever left their new home to return to their old home. I admire those who after coming here raised their children on their own when their husbands were no longer a part of the family unit. Those moms could have packed up and moved back to England with their children but they stayed and persevered and made the very best of often bad situations. I am not sure I would have stayed.

We, the children of our moms, learned a lot about sacrifice and determination. We may not have gotten it in childhood, but we certainly get it in adulthood. Most of us are married with families of our own and still have so much family back in England whom we will never meet personally but have had the honor of meeting some of them by visits to each other’s homelands.

Those of you who have the pleasure of annual family reunions are so blessed. You see, we don’t get that privilege so enjoy your time meeting and greeting one another. Tell your children and grandchildren about their heritage so they will know and be able to pass it to their children. If we don’t keep it alive, it dies with us.

My dad was Canadian and moved to El Dorado when he was a young elementary student. His dad was English and his mom was born in the U.S. but moved to Canada at age 3 where she grew up and met my grandfather, married and had four Canadian born children and three born here in El Dorado. What bravery they all possessed.

Thank You Gwen Evans, Joan Cribb, Elsie Roberts, Margaret Griffith, Joan Kinard, Joan Dumas, Joy Meadows, Jo Sanders, Bea Haynie, Irene Halligan, Gwen Machen, Jackie Fennell, and Thelma Novick, for without you, we your children and grandchildren would not be here to tell your story.

All of these ladies are gone now except for the latter two. If I have left a name unmentioned, it is unintentional and I offer my apology.