What do you think?
Rate this book
The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War
The long-awaited narrative history of the women who volunteered in Nova Scotia during the Second World War by award-winning journalist and author of No Place to Go.
“I was home cooking carrots because my mother was off winning the war.”
–Patricia Timbrell, whose mother, Amy Jones, along with her friend Una Smith, established and ran the Central Magazine Exchange, which distributed four million used magazines and 30,000 packs of cards by June 1942 alone for troop and merchant ships in Halifax Harbour.
Halifax women won the Second World War—but not in the ways you might have been told. We all know the stories of Canadian women during the war who trained as machinists, welders, and streetcar drivers to fill the shoes of men who answered the call. We know how women kept the home fires lit while their husbands, brothers, and fathers fought.
This is not that story.
The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War is the untold story of Halifax women who geared up in a flash to focus on the comfort, community connections, and mental health of Halifax’s exploding population of sailors, soldiers, airmen, and merchant mariners. They did a job no government could have organized or afforded. They did it without being asked. And they did it with no respite from their daily duties.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly told, and with a dozen archival images, The Volunteers examines the untold stories of the hardworking women whose unpaid and unac- knowledged labour won the Second World War.
“I was home cooking carrots because my mother was off winning the war.”
–Patricia Timbrell, whose mother, Amy Jones, along with her friend Una Smith, established and ran the Central Magazine Exchange, which distributed four million used magazines and 30,000 packs of cards by June 1942 alone for troop and merchant ships in Halifax Harbour.
Halifax women won the Second World War—but not in the ways you might have been told. We all know the stories of Canadian women during the war who trained as machinists, welders, and streetcar drivers to fill the shoes of men who answered the call. We know how women kept the home fires lit while their husbands, brothers, and fathers fought.
This is not that story.
The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War is the untold story of Halifax women who geared up in a flash to focus on the comfort, community connections, and mental health of Halifax’s exploding population of sailors, soldiers, airmen, and merchant mariners. They did a job no government could have organized or afforded. They did it without being asked. And they did it with no respite from their daily duties.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly told, and with a dozen archival images, The Volunteers examines the untold stories of the hardworking women whose unpaid and unac- knowledged labour won the Second World War.
248 pages, Paperback
Published March 8, 2022
9 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 9, 2022
I was born and raised in Nova Scotia, though I hadn't spent a lot of time in Halifax, and I enjoy reading books about history and "back home".
This book is about the women in Halifax who volunteered during World War II, doing things the government barely did but should have. Halifax was a naval city during the war and was ill-equipped to handle all the servicemen and their families who descended upon Halifax at that time. There weren't enough accommodations and many were formed to bunk up in homes or even sleep on the streets. Plus rations were in place so food wasn't plentiful. But women banded together to ensure the visiting men had places they could read and write letters back home, have their clothes mended, have a few drinks (keep in mind the liquor laws during this time were very strict) and have someone to talk with.
The book not only focused on some of the women who were involved in the volunteer movement (because they were women, some names have been lost) but also what was going on at that time so you can get a sense of what these women were up against and managed to achieved. Scattered throughout the book are pictures.
I liked the writing style. It was obvious the author did a great amount of research. Sometimes I found myself stopping and Googling something or someone she had talked about so I'd learn more (like the Ajax Club that Dolly had worked so hard to open and then it was shut down less than two years later ... I also wondered what happened to the house the club it was in). The author managed to provide us with some history of something probably most of us don't know about but also included some personal touches like stories about Marie, her grandmother, who was in Halifax during World War II, and other women she was able to personally interview.
Blog review post: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2022/03...
This book is about the women in Halifax who volunteered during World War II, doing things the government barely did but should have. Halifax was a naval city during the war and was ill-equipped to handle all the servicemen and their families who descended upon Halifax at that time. There weren't enough accommodations and many were formed to bunk up in homes or even sleep on the streets. Plus rations were in place so food wasn't plentiful. But women banded together to ensure the visiting men had places they could read and write letters back home, have their clothes mended, have a few drinks (keep in mind the liquor laws during this time were very strict) and have someone to talk with.
The book not only focused on some of the women who were involved in the volunteer movement (because they were women, some names have been lost) but also what was going on at that time so you can get a sense of what these women were up against and managed to achieved. Scattered throughout the book are pictures.
I liked the writing style. It was obvious the author did a great amount of research. Sometimes I found myself stopping and Googling something or someone she had talked about so I'd learn more (like the Ajax Club that Dolly had worked so hard to open and then it was shut down less than two years later ... I also wondered what happened to the house the club it was in). The author managed to provide us with some history of something probably most of us don't know about but also included some personal touches like stories about Marie, her grandmother, who was in Halifax during World War II, and other women she was able to personally interview.
Blog review post: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2022/03...
April 15, 2024
The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won The Second World War by Lezlie Lowe told the stories of the countless women who came to the aid of the city and in turn their entire country during WWII. Through Lowe’s extensive research she was able to rescue these stories and give credit to many of these heroic women by naming them and giving them their deserved place in history. She pored over archived photos and local newspapers and proudly put names to those who helped make coffee and hundreds of sandwiches, knitted socks, gave inspirational talks to returning injured soldiers, organized charitable events, or otherwise gave their time to keep the war machine running. Since gender roles were so rigid in the 1940’s these volunteers had to do all of their wartime work in addition to their household and parenting duties. I don’t know how they found the time to do it all.
Thankfully Lowe was able to interview some of these women, who were by the time of publication in their late nineties or even centenarians. I am sure she thanked them and told them of the valuable role they played in their own fight for our freedom, yet when these women were acknowledged for their contributions, Lowe was often met with self-effacement. This book was published in 2022, 77 years after the end of WWII, and our Haligonian heroines were happy to tell the author that they were only trying to do their part and didn’t expect anything from it. It may have been nearly eight decades since the end of the war but their work was not forgotten and Lowe has ensured their names are part of the historical record.
Although this was a story that needed to be told, Lowe sullied the presentation of her research by using a teenage vernacular which, as an oral discourse, did not transfer to the printed page. I understand that she was trying to emphasize certain points by inserting interjectional phrasing to state the eyeroll-obvious, but there is no place in formal literature for passages such as these:
“Nova Scotia’s distaste for those who are not from here–‘come-from-away’ is the common quasi-pejorative–is difficult to explain to, um, those who aren’t from here.”
“Though a little late to the, um, party, in September 1942, Auxiliary Services Director E. A. Deacon requested that one small concert party be organized in each Canadian military district to supply outposts.”
“She had a habit of paying for things herself, and of calling in financial favours from central Canadians. She knew how to get shit done.”
“How many hours a week did I volunteer? No. Sweet. Clue.”
These are but a sample of teenage oral discourse which belittled the achievements of her heroines. Instead of focussing the reader’s attention on the volunteers, I could only shake my head and wonder what got into the mind of Lowe to write like that. Not to mention her numerous pregnant “Uh, yeah.” asides. Please, edit these lexicalizations out completely on the next printing. You can convey the same meaning and tone by using a more formal language that suits the text.
Lowe acknowledges the men and women who fought and gave their lives on the battlefield. Of course, one cannot write a book about the sacrifices volunteer Haligonian women made during the war without paying tribute to those who died for the cause. Those who paid the ultimate price were known to history, and documentation pays tribute to those who served. However the women who stayed at home may never have even found their names on an official volunteer roster, or if such a list existed, it has long been lost. Lowe brings up a valuable point made by Sharon MacDonald, author of Hidden Costs, Hidden Labours: Women in Nova Scotia During Two World Wars:
“So, how to count? ‘Perhaps the sheer enormity of the relief work,’ MacDonald writes, ‘can only be grasped by quantifying it and yet, endless lists of numbers of bandages and quilts and knitted socks have a difficult time competing with lists of battles and dead soldiers.'”
The Volunteers is a thank-you to the countless women who gave their time to help those in need during WWII. We can do our part by reading their stories and learning of their valuable contributions.
July 26, 2023
Excellent! I also wish I had thought to ask my grandmother what she had done during the war. I'm sure, as a Bedfordian, she was probably at one or more of the organizations Lezlie writes about.
I love this excerpt:
"...tomato soup cake, which includes a can of tomato soup, is a symbol of the pretzels into which Second World War women twisted themselves to make it seem as if everything was totally normal. Tomato soup cake was a ration-era favourite not because of the tomato soup, but because it contained only two tablespoons of butter and no eggs. It was a way to make a cake when there was no reasonable way to make a cake. Even when the expectation on women was that they would, nevertheless, make a cake.
...
These recipes [like tomato soup cake] help convey the general circumstance of women during the war. Women weren't under less strain than men. No one's saying men had it easy. Pressure isn't a pie with only so many slices to go around. (Or, in keeping with the theme here, pressure isn't mock black pudding.) Men were under unbelievable distress during the war. And women were too. They were coping with family members - often the sole source of family income - away at war and at risk, coping with children and aging family members, coping with the fear of invasion, coping with volunteer, and sometimes paid, work. In Halifax, specifically, they were coping with overcrowding and legitimate fears of German attack, coping with taxed resources and mobs of strangers. Coping with a city that transformed overnight. This is wholly different anxiety than that faced by the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade landing on Juno Beach. But as we honour that male strain and sacrifice, we so often categorically fail to recognize that 'endurance test' women were put through during war. Women did everything while men worked at war. On top of it all? They had to make a damn cake!"
I love this excerpt:
"...tomato soup cake, which includes a can of tomato soup, is a symbol of the pretzels into which Second World War women twisted themselves to make it seem as if everything was totally normal. Tomato soup cake was a ration-era favourite not because of the tomato soup, but because it contained only two tablespoons of butter and no eggs. It was a way to make a cake when there was no reasonable way to make a cake. Even when the expectation on women was that they would, nevertheless, make a cake.
...
These recipes [like tomato soup cake] help convey the general circumstance of women during the war. Women weren't under less strain than men. No one's saying men had it easy. Pressure isn't a pie with only so many slices to go around. (Or, in keeping with the theme here, pressure isn't mock black pudding.) Men were under unbelievable distress during the war. And women were too. They were coping with family members - often the sole source of family income - away at war and at risk, coping with children and aging family members, coping with the fear of invasion, coping with volunteer, and sometimes paid, work. In Halifax, specifically, they were coping with overcrowding and legitimate fears of German attack, coping with taxed resources and mobs of strangers. Coping with a city that transformed overnight. This is wholly different anxiety than that faced by the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade landing on Juno Beach. But as we honour that male strain and sacrifice, we so often categorically fail to recognize that 'endurance test' women were put through during war. Women did everything while men worked at war. On top of it all? They had to make a damn cake!"
August 22, 2023
I liked it until I got tired of it. Was repetitive. The information could have been organized several different ways but I just didn’t appreciate the way the author/editor chose. Great images in my head now of a Halifax overcome with people struggling with not enough of everything and too much of everything. I would recommend to readers who like detail. Lots of good short stories in here!
November 1, 2024
Such a great non-fiction read and telling such important stories gone previously untold! Lowe does a beautiful job of morphing research into narrative, which kept the stories compelling and interesting. Despite my own research on women working during the First World War, I learned so many things about the volunteer work of women in Halifax at the time. So eye opening!
July 1, 2022
Absolutely the best history book about Halifax I have read. Lezlie Lowe has a style of writing that sounds exactly like a Nova Scotian. Humour is an earmark of this book. Empathy for the women’s plight back then (and now) is a welcome theme.
January 28, 2023
Eye opening book on how much women volunteered during the Second World War. Also eye opening on the impact that the war had on Halifax. Very informative. Well written.
May 15, 2024
I didn't actually finished it. I really love the idea of the book and it's a story worth telling, but the narrative style just wasn't my type.
March 8, 2023
It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about the women of Halifax during the Second World War. The women gave so much and received so little in acknowledgments once the war was over.
Hearing stories from women who live in Halifax during the war and how they changed their daily lives at the drop of a hat for their city, province, and country. They did so with little complaint, want for acknowledgment, or to be seen by others.
Lezlie did a fantastic job of bringing war time Halifax to life through her words, research, and interviews.
Hearing stories from women who live in Halifax during the war and how they changed their daily lives at the drop of a hat for their city, province, and country. They did so with little complaint, want for acknowledgment, or to be seen by others.
Lezlie did a fantastic job of bringing war time Halifax to life through her words, research, and interviews.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews