Passenger List

The passenger list, or manifest, of those brides that left from Sydney was signed-off on 3 July 1946.

The list of 615 women includes their names and ages. They are all entered as 'Housewife' under "Profession, Occupation or Calling", and their "Race" is classed as 'British'.

The war bride passengers are listed on the following pages by their surnames, with their ages included in brackets.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

In addition to the list of war brides, the manifest includes women who travelled on HMS Victorious with specific welfare jobs. They were:

Barnet, Fanny Louise  (35) : Nursing Sister
Crowdy, Beryl Joan  (40) : Orthopaedic Nurse and Physiotherapist
Fordham, Elsie Morley  (35) : Almoner (a social and welfare officer in a British hospital)
McNeish, Mary Alice Annie  (41) : Clerk-Typist and Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse
Rylah, Dorothy  (29) : Physical Training Instructress

Elsie Morley Fordham, with her son and daughter, left England for Australia in 1940, sailing from Liverpool to Canada and then from Vancouver to Brisbane. Elsie settled in Sydney, working as an Almoner in Crown Street Hospital and was later employed as a Lady Almoner with the Royal Navy. It was whilst working for the navy that Elsie came to be on board HMS Victorious accompanying the 655 Australian war brides.

Following her return to England in 1946, Elsie bought a house near Exeter. She worked for the Home Office, based in Bristol and later Cardiff, as an Inspector of Children’s and Old People’s Homes covering the south west. In 1950 Elsie was appointed as the Almoner at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. When Elsie retired in 1970, she moved to Berkshire to be with her children and did voluntary work until she died in 1993.