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.

Veronica Foster
"Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl" posing with a finished Bren gun
Born(1922-01-02)2 January 1922
Canada
Died4 May 2000(2000-05-04) (aged 78)
Canada
NationalityCanadian
Other names"Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl"
Known forCanadian cultural icon during World War II
Spouse(s)George Guerrette

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 May 4, 2000.

  • Foster outside the John Inglis Plant
  • Veronica Foster inspects a lathe at the John Inglis & Co. Bren gun plant, May 1941.

See also

References
  1. All Aboard for the Future, Toronto Star, August 14, 2005
  2. Online MIKAN no. 3195801 (1 item), May 1941, archived from the original on 2010-05-22, retrieved Oct 27, 2012
  3. Campbell, Moriah (2017). "The Bren Gun Girl". Canada's History. 97 (4): 14–15. ISSN 1920-9894.
  4. Canadian War Industry during the Second World War Archived 2013-06-29 at the Wayback Machine, Library and Archives Canada
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