Leading Aircraftmen William Dudley Ferniss of Melbourne lifts his English bride, Betty Sitters, after their wartime wedding in Devon. Wartime marriages between Australian servicemen and British women were not unusual, and fell into a wider pattern—well over a hundred thousand young women around the world fell in love and married servicemen from other countries. Thousands of women from Britain and Europe married Australian and New Zealand servicemen and many Australian women married British servicemen they met in Australia and sailed to the UK. In the early years of the war, marriage rates soared for all age groups, but particularly for younger women, leading to the post-war baby boom. (SLV an000277; Argus newspaper collection)
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