The Wedding of Joanne Bader and James Lowe

Joanne (Jo) Cornelia Bader and James (Jim) Edward Lowe met in Vancouver, British Columbia, where they had each come as immigrants with their families in the late 1920s. Jo had been born in 1919 in Holland and Jim in England in 1920.

Both their families lived in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood of Vancouver. The Lowes and the Baders attended the same Roman Catholic church, St. Joseph’s, and Jim and Jo met in the neighbourhood. They began dating around 1938 when they would have been about 18 years old.

Jim had served in the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifle regiment from the time he was 15 in 1936 (along with his father and brothers), and he signed up for the Royal Canadian Navy in early 1939 after leaving secondary school. 

On the back of this photo Jo wrote (not sure to whom): "His suit was at the cleaner so he had to wear his Dad’s, kind of big on him. Jimmy’s not really that dark around the eyes. I had a perm just before I left here. Boy is it a messy mop. That’s my genuine rat fur coat."

At the outbreak of World War II, Jim left Vancouver to take up his post as a cook in the Royal Canadian Navy at HMCS Naden in Esquimalt, British Columbia. From 1939 until 1942 he served from Vancouver Island, seeing Jo whenever he returned to Vancouver. 

During that period, Jo worked at her family’s commercial bakery, Bader’s Dutch Bakeries Ltd. on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. She lived with her widowed mother and at least one of her 10 brothers in a home at 1458 E. 20th Street.

Then in early 1942, Jim was told to report to HMCS Avalon, the Royal Canadian Navy base in St. John’s, Newfoundland. For Jo to accompany Jim to Newfoundland, she would need to be his wife, so the couple decided to wed before he left for the maritimes. 

On February 2, Jim and Jo applied for a marriage license. This was less than two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour when war broke out in the Pacific. Since that fateful event on December 7, 1941, they followed the news of the USA entering the war as well as the on-going successes and failures of the Allies in Europe and North Africa.

The marriage license was issued on February 6, and due to the time constraint, the wedding was planned for Wednesday, February 11, 1942. As the war raged to the east and the west, the bride, groom and their families planned a wedding. 

Jo’s father, Adrian Bader, had died in 1937, so the engagement was announced by her mother, Joanna van Leeuwen Bader. The notice was published in The Province newspaper on February 10, the day before the wedding. The following day, another announcement appeared for the wedding itself.

 

The ceremony took place in the morning at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, which was located at 3261 Fleming Street in 1942 (but has since moved). The officiant was the parish priest, Monsignor McKinnon. 

News on February 11 was mixed. On the other side of our country, French-Canadians rioted against conscription plans in Montréal. 

In Europe, British bombers flew raids over northwest Germany the previous night, with Bremen being the main objective. The docks at Brest were also bombed. Fortunately, all the British planes had returned safely to their bases. 

Meanwhile, South of Iceland, German torpedoes sunk a Canadian corvette called the HMCS Spikenard and a Norwegian ship called the MV Heina. Mercifully, all 30 members of the Norwegian’s crew were picked up by the HMCS Dauphin, another Canadian corvette. But 57 Canadian sailors from the Spikenard died that day, with only eight surviving on a raft where they were picked up 19 hours later by British corvette HMS Gentian.

That same day, Germans launched the Channel Dash, codenamed Operation Cerberus, with the goal of running a Kriegsmarine squadron of ships from Brest, France through a British blockade in an attempt to get to their home bases in Germany. 

To the west, British troops counterattacked Japanese invasion forces in Singapore, but a lack of fighter support had many worried that Japanese bombings would go unopposed. Dutch troops attempted to fight off invading forces in the East Indies. And fighting continued in the Bataan peninsula of the Philippines as Japanese reinforcements took their toll on outnumbered American forces. 

Japan itself celebrated Empire Day, which honoured the founding of the island of Japan over 2,600 years earlier. The government hoped to announced the fall of the Philippines and Singapore to the people as an extra bonus, but that did not happen in time.

In Vancouver on February 11, the weather was overcast with temperatures around 49 degrees Fahrenheit (between 9 and 10 degrees Celcius). 

The maid of honour was the bride’s best friend, Barbara (Barb) Bowerman. The best man was one of the groom’s best friends, John (Johnny) Bader, who also happened to be one of Jo’s older brothers.

During World War II, fabric was in short supply as it was needed for the war effort. As a result, most brides were married in a practical knee-length suit that could be worn again and again. 

However, Jo wore a floor-length white satin gown with beaded embroidery on the bodice, puffed sleeves and a full skirt. The dress was topped by a cascading chapel-length veil trimmed in lace.

The dress style appears to be from the 1930s, so the gown was likely second hand having been passed along by a friend or relative. And while the dress was elaborate, her jewellery was simple — a cross on a delicate chain around her neck.

The maid of honour’s dress, also full-length, but of pink georgette, was probably pre-owned as well. 

As was the custom at the time, compounded by war and time restrictions, the wedding was small, attended by close family and friends. 

Jo’s eldest brother, Theodore (Ted) Bader, stood in for his late father and gave the bride away.

Jim wore his navy uniform although that is difficult to see in all the photographs as the insignias are on the left shoulder, which is often hidden.

After the church service, a reception was held at the Bader home in Vancouver. The living room was converted into a banquet hall decorated with paper bells and streamers. A small three-tiered cake was the centrepiece. Dinner rolls with butter pats can be seen on the table in the photograph, which appears to have been taken during a toast.

After the reception the bridal party and spouses celebrated at a nightclub.

Taped to the back of the nightclub photo. The photographer carried these forms and had all the people in one party sign it and then attached it to the photo when it was developed.

Vancouver Sun late edition 11 February 1942.

At some point, possibly the following day, the bride and groom, along with their attendants, had wedding portraits taken at Russell’s photography studio, which was located at 445 Granville Street in downtown Vancouver.

On Friday February 13, two days after the nuptials, Mr. and Mrs. James and Joanne Lowe left Vancouver. The newlyweds travelled east by train and boat to Newfoundland where Jim had been posted with the navy. Until Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, the island was an independent dominion, so in 1942, travelling there involved leaving Canada. During wartime, journeying outside the country required a valid reason. Following a boyfriend or even fiancé may not have been a good enough reason. But accompanying your serviceman husband who had been transferred would be. As the newlyweds sat on the train heading eastward, Jim and Jo would have celebrated the news of the capture of two German battleships in the English Channel. 

They’d also have worried about Jim’s brother Vincent, a private in the British Columbia Regiment. The unit had been transferred to Nova Scotia at the end of 1941 and at the time of the wedding was awaiting orders for transport to England. As Jim was in the navy, he’d have known just how dangerous trans-Atlantic crossings could be. U-boats first reached the USA in mid-January of 1942. By February, German subs had destroyed more than 150,000 tonnes of shipping on the eastern seaboard. Jo would have known that Jim was also being put in danger as he was assigned to convey duty in the North Atlantic. 

The couple rented an apartment in St. John’s, and Jo found a job at a local bakery. They would remain in the Maritimes through 1942 and the first half of 1943, in Newfoundland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. But they would be back in British Columbia in July 1943, and spent the remainder of the war in Victoria and Prince Rupert.

The above is an account of the wedding of Joanne Cornelia Remigia Bader (1919-1976) and James Edward Lowe (1920-1995). The documents and photographs were scanned from originals owned by the family. All the images were black & white (sepia-toned at the time of scanning), but some have been colourized or were hand-coloured in the 1930s. The newspaper clippings are from newspapers.com. The narration has been compiled from family stories, documentation and supposition.

Copyright 2020 by K.M. Lowe
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada