Artifact #6

"The Bren Gun Girl" Veronica Foster

Veronica Foster Guerrette was born January 2, 1922, in Montreal Quebec, and died May 4, 2000. In this photo, she is assembling the Bren Light machine gun which was used by Canadian and British soldiers in War World II. Veronica specifically worked in a machine gun assembly line for the John Inglis Company in Toronto. This photo was popularized nationwide and was featured in propaganda posters and was a tactic used by Canadian leaders to draw women into serving the Second World War by working in factories and taking on men’s jobs. Veronica Foster Guerette was known as a World War II heroine by representing female workers within the war manufacturing industry. The war resulted in thousands of Canadian men leaving their employment to enlist in the armed forces, and women like Veronica Foster Guerrette and many other women took on the men’s jobs in Canada, while men served overseas, this photo highlights how resourceful women were in World War II, and how their war efforts revolutionized women’s work as a whole.

Bibliography 

Raymond, Katrine. "Veronica Foster." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published March 11, 2020; Last Edited May 01, 2020. 

“Veronica Foster.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, March 11, 2020. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/veronica-foster.

Unknown photographer, Veronica Foster, an employee of John Inglis Co. Ltd. and known as “The Bren Gun Girl” posing with a finished Bren gun in the John Inglis Co. Ltd. Bren gun plant, Toronto (May 10, 1941), contemporary print from vintage negative. National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada e000760453