Summary

Wedding album in matching slip case featuring 14 black and white photographs documenting the wedding of Joan [nee Howle] and Augustus [Gus] Fogarty at St Agnes Church of England, Mosely, Birmingham in England on 15 July 1944. Joan brought the album with her when she migrated to Australia as a war bride in 1946. The images reveal the absence of men available to attend the wedding as well as the wartime coupon rationing system resulting in no fabric for wedding clothes. The church has plain glass windows, the original stained glass having been destroyed by a bomb blast.

Joan Howle was born in Birmingham England in 1920. She joined the Women's Land Army and during this time met Augustus (Gus) Michael Fogarty, an Australian Flight Lieutenant (Flt.Lt.) flying instructor in the air force. In 1944 the couple married and in 1946 Joan and their daughter Patricia travelled to meet Gus on the war bride ship the Arcadia carrying around 400 British war brides to Australian husbands. They went on to purchase a house in Regent and their son Keith was born in 1949. Gus continued teaching and Joan raised the family and managed the household. She returned to England for a time in the 1970s and then returned to Australia.

Description of Content

1. Guests [four women, one in uniform] arriving at the church 2. Bride [far right] arriving at church, mother-in-law at centre, bridesmaid far left. 3. Couple kneeling at altar during wedding ceremony, St Agnes Church of England, Mosely, Birmingham 4 and 5. Wedding couple Joan and Gus Fogarty 6 and 7. Wedding party [from left]: Australian friend of the groom, bridesmaid, groom [Gus], bride [Joan], bride's mother, best man. 8 and 9. Wedding guests outside the church. 10. Groom [centre] with Australian friends. 11. Bride with cousin and sister. 12. Guests. 13. Bride and guests.

Physical Description

Wedding album in matching slip case featuring 14 black and white photographs adhered to the cream stiffened card album pages. The cover is a textured cream embossed surface with a brown ribbon tied with a bow on the front of the spine, threaded through two punch holes to secure the pages.

Significance

This wedding album and the related coat and shipboard booklet provide a rare opportunity to represent the experience of a post World War II English war bride in the Migration collections.

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