Veronica Foster
Veronica Foster, (January 2, 1922 – May 4, 2000), popularly known as "Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl", was a Canadian icon representing nearly one million Canadian women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and matériel during World War II.
![](../I/m/VeronicaFoster-RonnieBrenGunGirl-smoke.jpg)
Foster worked for John Inglis Co. Ltd producing Bren light machine guns on a production line on Strachan Avenue in Toronto, Ontario.[1] She can be seen as the Canadian precursor[2] to the American cultural icon Rosie the Riveter.[3]
She became popular after a series of propaganda posters were produced; most images featured her working for the war effort, but others depicted more casual settings like Foster dancing the jitterbug or attending a dinner party.[4]
After the war, she worked as a singer with Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, where she met trombonist George Guerrette, whom she subsequently married. She died on the 4th of May 2000.
See also
References
- All Aboard for the Future, Toronto Star, August 14, 2005
- Online MIKAN no. 3195801 (1 item), May 1941, archived from the original on 2010-05-22, retrieved Oct 27, 2012
- Campbell, Moriah (2017). "The Bren Gun Girl". Canada's History. 97 (4): 14–15. ISSN 1920-9894.
- Canadian War Industry during the Second World War Archived 2013-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, Library and Archives Canada
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Veronica Foster. |
- Watch the National Film Board of Canada documentary Rosies of the North
- Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl, archived at YouTube
- , "the Bren Gun Girl" - Canada's History article