Leddy Library’s archivist, Sarah Glassford, has joined a nine-part webinar series to raise awareness and foster interest in Canada’s military history in Europe.

The Maple Leaf Route webinar series hosted by the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Student at WilfrId Laurier University in partnership with the Canadian Battlefields Foundation, the Juno Beach Centre Association, and the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society explores various aspects of Canadian involvement in the Allied invasion of Europe during the Second World War.

Glassford will present her research, A Woman’s Touch: Supporting Canadian Servicemen’s Resilience in Europe, 1943–47, via Zoom on Wednesday, June 16. In this talk, she will discuss the emotional dimensions of the Canadian presence in Europe during the later years of the Second World War.

Her lecture is drawn largely from her chapter in Making the Best of It: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the Second World War, a recently published book she co-edited.

Glassford will tell the stories — gathered from letters, diaries, and oral histories — of the 641 women of the Canadian Red Cross Corps Overseas Detachment who provided support services for sick and wounded Canadian military personnel, and explore how friendship, kinship, and romance helped both servicemen and Red Cross women cope with the physical and emotional traumas of wartime.

The webinar is free and will take place Wednesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. Advance registration is required and can be done online: Webinar Registration - Zoom.

The Maple Leaf Route webinar series will follow in the footsteps of Canadians as they landed at Juno Beach and pushed inland against the German Third Reich.